German Capital Ships of the Second World War
German Capital Ships of the Second World War

Author: Siegfried Breyer

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2012-05-02

Total Pages: 686

ISBN-13: 147381460X

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“Outstanding . . . covers the major units starting with the Deutschland Class, through the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, to the Bismarck and Tirpitz.” —WW2 Cruisers The Kriegsmarine’s capital ships—Deutschland, Admiral Scheer, Graf Spee, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Bismarck, and Tirpitz—continue to generate intense interest among warship enthusiasts, despite the fact that no new source of information has been unearthed in decades. What has come to light, however, is a growing number of photographs, many from private albums and some that lay forgotten in obscure archives. These include many close-ups and onboard shots of great value to modelmakers, as well as rare action photos taken during wartime operations. This book is a careful selection of the best of these, but on a grand scale, with around one hundred images devoted to each ship, allowing in-depth coverage of its whole career, from launching and fitting out to whatever fate the war had waiting for it. For sake of completeness, there are even sections reproducing the various design studies that led to each class, while an appendix covers the uncompleted Graf Zeppelin, Germany’s only attempt to build an aircraft carrier, the vessel which clearly displaced the battleship as the capital ship of the world’s navies during the war. Essays on technical backgrounds and design origins by the well-known expert Siegfried Breyer and explanatory captions by Miroslaw Skwiot draw out the full significance of this magnificent collection of photos. “Highly recommended for those who wish to admire seven of the most magnificent warships built anywhere in the twentieth century. We will certainly never see their like again.” —Journal of the Australian Naval Institute

German Battlecruisers of World War One
German Battlecruisers of World War One

Author: Gary Staff

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2014-12-15

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1612519660

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This is the most comprehensive, English-language study of the German Imperial Navy’s battlecruisers that served in the First World War. Known as Panzerkreuzer, literally “armored cruiser,” the eight ships of the class were to be involved in several early North Sea skirmishes before the great pitched battle of Jutland where they inflicted devastating damage on the Royal Navy’s battlecruiser fleet. This book details their design and construction, and traces the full service history of each ship, recounting their actions, drawing largely from first-hand German sources and official documents, many previously unpublished in English.

The Windfall Battleships
The Windfall Battleships

Author: Aidan Dodson

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2023-11-30

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 139906326X

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This new book explores for the first time the full story of how two Turkish and two Chilean battleships became British capital ships after the outbreak of the First World War. Under construction by the shipbuilding giants of Armstrong and Vickers in August 1914, Sultan Osman I, Reșadiye, Almirante Latorre and Almirante Cochrane became HM Ships Agincourt, Erin, Canada and Eagle. The first three served with the Grand Fleet, fighting at Jutland, while the last was transformed into a pioneering aircraft carrier, which would serve with distinction until sunk while escorting a convoy to Malta in 1942. While two of the other ships had short lives – cut short by the Washington Naval Treaty – the final ship, Almirante Latorre, would be returned to Chile after the war, for a continuing active career that would last into the 1950s. When finally towed away for scrap in 1959, she was the penultimate survivor of Jutland. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book begins with an overview of the warships under construction around Europe for foreign customers in August 1914, and how the four ships featured were acquired by the Royal Navy. It then looks at them as manifestations of the international rivalries which directed much of the national budgets of impecunious South American and Balkan states towards armaments. The focus then switches to the British service of the ships actually completed as battleships, and then to the story of the carrier. Although never finished as a battleship, she would play a crucial role in the development of British carrier aviation. Finally, the author traces the stories of the battleships of the Latin-American naval race from the 1920s down to the 1950s. The stories and back-stories of Agincourt, Erin, Canada and Eagle embrace almost the whole of the twentieth-century battleship era, and they take us down the byways of international naval power, ranging from the Pacific to the Black Sea, and from the line of battle to mutiny and revolution. A fascinating and original story.

The Littorio Class
The Littorio Class

Author: Ermingo Bagnasco

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2011-07-18

Total Pages: 696

ISBN-13: 1473819474

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“An important work for anyone interested in warship design, the naval side of World War II in the Mediterranean, or modern Italian history.”—New York Military Affairs Symposium For its final battleship design Italy ignored all treaty restrictions on tonnage and produced one of Europe’s largest and most powerful capital ships, comparable with Germany’s Bismarck class, similarly built in defiance of international agreements. The three ships of the Littorio class were typical of Italian design, being fast and elegant, but also boasting a revolutionary protective scheme—which was tested to the limits, as all three were to be heavily damaged in the hard-fought naval war in the Mediterranean; Roma had the unfortunate distinction of being the first capital ship sunk by guided missile. These important ships have never been covered in depth in English-language publications, but the need is now satisfied in this comprehensive and convincing study by two of Italy’s leading naval historians. The book combines a detailed analysis of the design with an operational history, evaluating how the ships stood up to combat. It is illustrated with an amazing collection of photographs, many fine-line plans, and colored artwork of camouflage schemes, adding up to as complete a monograph on a single class ever published. Among warship enthusiasts, battleships enjoy a unique status. As the great success of Seaforth’s recent book on French battleships proves, that interest transcends national boundaries, and this superbly executed study is certain to become another classic in the field. “A very impressive piece of work.”—History of War “An essential book for all naval history enthusiasts.”—Firetrench

Clydebank Battlecruisers
Clydebank Battlecruisers

Author: Ian Johnston

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2011-09-28

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1783469366

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“Outstanding . . . anyone with an interest in the major ships of the grand Fleet or shipbuilding on the Clyde will want to own it.”—Warship 2012 Between 1906 and 1920, the Clydebank shipyard of John Brown & Sons built five battlecruisers, each one bigger than the last, culminating in the mighty Hood, the largest warship of her day. If Tiger is regarded as a modification of the Lion class design, this represents every step in the evolution of these charismatic, and controversial, ships. Like most shipyards of the time, Clydebank employed professional photographers to record the whole process of construction, using large-plate cameras that produced pictures of stunning clarity and detail; but unlike most shipyard photography, Clydebank’s collection has survived, although very few of the images have ever been published. For this book, some two hundred of the most telling of these were carefully selected, and scanned to the highest standards, depicting in unprecedented detail every aspect of the building and fitting out of Inflexible, Australia, Tiger, Repulse and Hood. Probably more has been written about battlecruisers than any other warship type, and as modelmaking subjects they have a devoted following, so any new book has to make a real contribution. This pictorial collection, with its lengthy and informative captions, and an authoritative introduction by Ian Johnston, offers ship modelers and enthusiasts a wealth of visual information simply unobtainable elsewhere. “A superb book combining some useful text on the ships and their construction with an amazing collection of pictures.”—History of War

What Happened to the Battleship
What Happened to the Battleship

Author: Chris Baker

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Published: 2022-07-30

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 1399070118

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In the hundreds of books written about battleships, the authors tend to draw down the curtain on the careers of these great vessels in September 1945, with the surrender of Japan. Yet, on that day some ninety-eight battleships or ex-battleships might be spotted around the world, and eleven of them were in or around Tokyo Bay for the surrender itself. What happened to all those ships? This new book takes a fresh look at the slow demise of the battleship. It examines the decisions made by the major world powers after 1945, and their aspirations to retain battleships in their navies, despite financial stringency. It places the history and role of battleships after 1945 in their geo-political context, centered around the Cold War and the need for the West to face down an aggressive Soviet Union. It also examines the impact on battleships of operational analysis of the Second World War and new technological developments, notably the atom bomb and the guided missile. The book uses the wealth of information from ship’s books, ship’s logs and gun logs to document in considerable detail what the ships actually did after the Second World War, with a particular focus on those of the Royal Navy. It covers United States battleship operations in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, as well as the deterrent role played by battleships for NATO from the 1950s to the 1990s. Finally, it brings the story up to date by documenting the preservation as museum ships of the eight dreadnoughts which still exist today in the United States. Extensively illustrated with photographs of the huge range of activities of battleships after 1945, from their use as Fleet flagships to Royal or Presidential yachts and more poignantly as target ships, this new book will appeal equally to the historic ship enthusiast and naval specialist, and provide a novel perspective through a battleship–shaped lens on late twentieth-century history for the more general reader.