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

British Battlecruiser vs German Battlecruiser
British Battlecruiser vs German Battlecruiser

Author: Mark Stille

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2013-11-20

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 1780960980

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The rival battlecruisers first clashed in January 1915 at Dogger Bank in the North Sea and although the battle was a British tactical victory with neither side losing any of its battlecruisers, the differences in the designs of the British and German ships were already apparent. The two sides responded very differently to this first clash; while the Germans improved their ammunition-handling procedures to lessen the risk of disabling explosions, the British drew the opposite lesson and stockpiled ammunition in an effort to improve their rate of fire, rendering their battlecruisers more vulnerable. These differences were highlighted more starkly during the battle of Jutland in May 1916. Of the nine British battlecruisers committed, three were destroyed, all by their German counterparts. Five German battlecruisers were present, and of these, only one was sunk and the remainder damaged. Fully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, this is the gripping story of the clash between the rival battlecruisers of the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine at the height of World War I.

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

Battleships of the World
Battleships of the World

Author: John Fidler

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2016-09-30

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1473871484

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The battleships of the worlds navies in the 1820s were descended directly in line from the Revenge of 1577: they were wooden-built, sail-powered and mounted guns on the broadside, firing solid shot.In the next half century, steel, steam and shells had wrought a transformation and by 1906, Dreadnought had ushered in a revolution in naval architecture. The naval race between Britain and Germany that followed, led to the clash of the navies at Jutland in 1916. Though this was indecisive, the German navy never again challenged the Grand Fleet of Britain during the war, and eventually the crews refused to put to sea again.Disarmament on a massive scale followed, but the battleship was still regarded as the arbiter of sea-power in the years between the wars. However, the advocates of air power were looking to the future, and when in 1940 biplane Swordfish torpedo bombers of the Fleet Air Arm sank three Italian battleships at their moorings in Taranto, the Japanese sensed their opportunity. Their attack on the American Pacific fleet base at Pearl Harbor sank eight battleships but the American carriers were at sea, and escaped destruction. Given the distances involved, the Pacific war was necessarily a carrier war, and in the major actions of the Coral Sea, Midway, Leyte Gulf and the Philippine Sea, all the fighting was done by aircraft, with battleships reduced to a supporting role.Soon after the war ended, most were sent for scrap, and a naval tradition had come to an end.