Battleship Books

For nearly a century the battleship was the embodiment of national power and prestige. The dreadnought in her day was a marvel of navel engineering and the most complex weapon of war every built. In the space of little more than a decade the wooden ship of the line, which had dominated the oceans for centuries, was rendered obsolete by the battleship.. .

Battleships: An Illustrated History Of Their Impact, as part of ABC-CLIO's 'Weapons and Warfare' series, could also have been featured in a military history column, but deserves mention in our transportation section as an excellent illustrated history of their construction and impact. Chapters begin with wooden battleships from 2000 BC and move through steam, dreadnought and later eras, covering different approaches to styles and warfare effectiveness and drawing important links between battleship construction and changing military approaches. Both military readers and those interested in boats and naval activities will find Stanley Sandler's Battleships a lively analysis of all the major warships.

Their like will never come again simply because the age of the Battleship has long-since been eclipsed by that of the Aircraft Carrier. But, whilst it lasted, it produced some incredible ships which, in many cases, met equally incredible ends.

In this book by and acclaimed author and historian, we have the complete story of those iron and steel ships which replaced the wooden vessels of the Nelsonian age. Commencing with the ironclad "La Gloire" and ending with the USS New Jersey, we are taken on a thrilling ride of freakish ships, the first arms race, the Dreadnought, the end of European naval domination of the high seas and beyond. From the Japanese victory at Tsushima, the inconclusive Battle of Jutland in WW1 to Midway and Leyte Gulf in WW2, we find the even mightier ships - such as Hood, Bismarck, Tirpitz and Yamato disappearing from the face of the earth one by one. In this book we are able to relive some of the greatest-ever naval encounters.

With excellent illustrations, photographs, maps and charts, this is book which should be read by all those with an interest in the subject. Then leave it a short while - as I did, and read it again. Somehow it seems far more interesting second time around.

NM

If you are interested in the history of the USS California, or just life aboard a US battleship in the 20s, 30s, or 40s then this book should delight you. It covers everything about BB-44, from the pre-building politics that made her the only battleship ever made on the west coast, to her construction and launching at Mare Island, service between the wars, the tragic sinking at Pearl Harbor, her triumphant return to serve with the Pacific Fleet, and her final demise in Philadelphia. This book combines contemporary newspaper accounts regarding the California, journals of day-to-day activities, and interviews with crewmembers to create one of the finest ship histories I have ever read. Heavily illustrated with photos and drawings, this book also contains profuse footnotes and a large bibliography. Produced by the Associates of the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library, this book is not only a great reference source, but also a thoroughly enjoyable read from cover to cover.

This book is a history of the development of air power from just before the first world war to the battle of Okinawa. The author apparently was involved in three of the battles as a gunnery officer and pilot.

The book examines the subject by focusing on 20 battles in which air forces battled with navel elements. Its discussion ranges from the Battle of Midway to the attacks on the Malta conveys.

The book is immensely readable and its author has a detailed knowledge of the scholarship around these battles. The book is interesting as it discusses a number of issues not covered in popular works such as the nature of anti-aircraft fire in the various navies and also the fire control and direction systems. Well worth a read.

Then get this book.

It is about WWII, but it is written by an 18 year old boy (at the time) and it is eye-opening to someone who might think war is to be glorified.

Claud tells his first-hand account of battles like Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They're horrifying because of the great price his generation had to pay to keep us free.

If you knew a WWII veteran and want to know what the war was really like - then you've got to get this book!

If you read the Admiralty chatter behind the evolution of each design you will be amazed. While hindsight is always 20/20, it is clear that the scientific mind played a secondary role in the design philosophies and even in the direction of development. This has always proven to be a fatal flaw in all military organizations of the past. The lessons of the past had been learned well as we now crave technological development almost above all else.
The pre-dreadnought, iron/steel battleship design evolves over the pages of this book. The thinking behind the designs is outlined. Guns that could range out past 10,000 yards had been developed but Admirals kept thinking they would slug it out at less than 2000 yards. Tsushima in 1905 was fought with these types of ships. Policies for engagements were dramatically changed when the Japanese opened fire at 20,000 yards with their big guns and started making telling hits.
It is unfortunate that the drawings all end up being split by the binding and the scale is not stated. Model builders will want this for reference.

Towards the end of the 19th Century, the world's first great arms race was running a full speed. As either Britain or Germany (the two largest navies in the world at that time) built a big battleship - so the other side would simply design one that was even bigger. This attitude towards supremacy in weapons became infectious and, as far as battleships were concerned, continued right up to 1937 with the design and building of the ultimate Battleship of all time - the Yamato with it's 18.1in guns.

Conway Maritime Press are well known for their factual books on ships - especially warships, in which they provide the finest technical documentation. "All the World's Battleships - 1906 to Present" is hard-back measuring 11¼" x 8¾" with 190 pages of detailed and factual information. Commencing with Argentina all the world's battleships are listed by country - under which heading they are then displayed by "class of ship" commencing with the oldest vessels and ending with the latest. For each class there is one or more of those profile line drawings for which Conway's books have become so well known. These are followed by all the usual technical details such as; Displacement, dimensions, machinery, armour, armament and complement followed by the names of each ship within that class and it's builder, date laid down, date completed and fate. Next is a very "readable" potted history from which we learn of any political intrigue, variations between vessels, refits, new equipment, whatever defects or other problems that may have beset either the class or a specific ship and a short résumé of the fate of each vessel.

Finally, the book is well illustrated with an excellent selection of black and white photographs throughout with at least one photograph on almost every page.

On reading some of the criticisms voiced in earlier reviews, I would not be put off from buying this book just because a few wretched typographical errors may have crept in (I didn't notice them.). Nor would be put off just because one or two of the photographs may not be as sharp as we have come to expect in this day and age. Those photographs which are not pin-sharp are included because they are the only photographs which exist and they come from an age when (a) cameras were not widely available, (b) all photography was in black and white and (c) even photography itself was in it's infancy. As for the comment about drabness - it does not describe the book I have just reviewed.

Furthermore, at £15:00, I consider this to be one of the best deals I have come across in a long time.

NM

The lessons of the Battle of Tsushima during the war between Russia and Japan in 1905, where long-range fire decided the outcome, were not lost on the British Admiralty. The result was the creation of the H.M.S. "Dreadnought," a radical design that heralded the start of an epic naval arms race of battleships between Great Britain and Germany, the United States and Japan over the first four decades of the 20th century. Although she never fired her guns in battle and her only action during World War I was to ram and sink a German U-boat in the North Sea, "Dreadnought" was a pivotal ship in naval history because she was so far advanced that every battleship that came after her embodied her basic concept. Before her, all battleships had a main battery of four guns. The "Dreadnought" had ten, although it could fire only eight in a broadside, and it was bigger and faster than any of her predecessors.

"The Dreadnoughts," a volume in "The Seafarers" series put together by Time-Life, begins with the review of the British fleet at Spithead in 1897 and ends with the aftermath of the Battle of Jutland (known in Germany as the Battle of the Skagerrak). This was the largest naval engagement of World War I and the only one to involve battleships on a large scale. Fought May 31-June 1 1916 in the North Sea, the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, commanded by Admiral John Jellicoe, faced the Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer. Knowing that the Battle of Jutland is the climax of this volume puts the rest of this look at the Dreadnoughts in perspective.

This particular volume consists of five chapters, each with a corresponding photo aspect representing a key aspect. Chapter 1, "A Teutonic challenge to Britannia's rule," looks at the threat of the modern German navy of dreadnoughts that Rear Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was pushing for Kaiser Wilhem's navy was countered by First Sea Lord Jacky Fisher's plan to remove obsolete ships from the British navy. In this world Alfred Thayer Mahan is the American oracle of sea power and Japan's one-sided victory in the Battle of Tsushima the operational counterpart to Mahan's theories. The photo essay is about "Training for a new ear of ships without sails." Chapter 2, "The fabulous fleet that Jacky built," details the building of H.M.S. "Dreadnought," complete with breakaway looks at the ship and its gun turret. In 1911 a naval review marking the coronation of King George V represented a new British fleet. The photo essay looks at recruiting posters of the Royal Navy during WWI.

Chapter 3, "The long wait for Armageddon," covers the early naval engagements of the war, with the accompanying essay consisting of artwork about "Mine warfare: seeds of death planted in the sea." Chapter 4, "A fierce skirmish of scouts at Jutland," looks at the approach of the two fleets on May 31, 1916, including a contrast of the main types of ships on both sides. Chapter 5, "A duel of dreadnoughts: 50 minutes of fury," breaks down the height of the battle as the main fleets met that evening. A series of maps allow you to understand what is going on in general as well as the key moments of the engagement. The essay, "The drama of Jutland through a German's eyes," presents a series of watercolors by Claus Bergen, who was commissioned by the German Admiralty to depict the victory the Germans claimed (the British lost more ships and men, but the German's were denied their objective).

Chapter 6, "Dishonor and suicide for the Kaiser's Navy," is about the aftermath of the battle, the signing of the Armistice, and the surrender of the German Navy to the Royal Navy. The symmetry to the review of the old Royal Fleet at the start of the book is obvious. There are photographs of the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, but the final two-pages of the book are devoted to a photograph of the German dreadnought "Ostfriesland" being used as a bombing target for a demonstration of Billy Mitchell's gospel of the superiority of air power. Of course, this sets the stage for the next important moment of military naval history at the fate of the dreadnoughts of the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor twenty years later.

Author David Howarth served as a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy during World War II and later designed and built boats before turning to writing full time, including "The Men-of-War," an earlier volume in the Seafarers series. This book is illustrated with historic photographs, some of them actually taken during and after the battles being described in the text. By focusing on the ships rather than the war, Howarth puts the Battle of Jutland in a much better perspective. World War I might have been the Great War when it was fault, but it has become secondary to World War II and the Vietnam War in American history, and even when it is considered it is the battle in the trenches that is covered mostly by textbooks (and movies). "The Dreadnoughts" looks at the naval side of the war, but does so in the context of the larger history of military navies.

HIJMS Yamato was - and will now forever be, the largest Battleship ever built. It will also forever remain a supreme curiosity that Japan - the one country which had the foresight to recognise how air power and aircraft carriers were the sea-going naval might of the future, should insist on building 2 Yamato class Battleships when their construction almost bankrupted the nation to the extent that their building even deprived the country's fishermen of their nets.

Nevertheless this magnificent vessel of death, doom and destruction went into service at a time when the Imperial Japanese Navy could do no wrong. Prior to WW2 Japan broke the terms of the peace treaties by preparing for their eventual complete domination of the Pacific region. The building of Truk Lagoon being one example. Then, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbour those plans were put into effect with devastating results. In June 1942, however, they failed to take Midway Atoll and from then on it was all downhill. Three years later, the largest Battleship ever to have been built was sent on a final mission from which she never returned.

In "A Glorious Way to Die" Russell Spurr gives an account of this great ship from beginning to tragic end. It is a complete account - as befits one of the world's greatest ships.

Perhaps the Yamato will prove to be the last great ship to be discovered by the great Bob Ballard.

NM.