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Author: Conrad Waters
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1526718871
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 617
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Book Description
This scholarly study of the Royal Navy’s WWII light cruisers presents extensive design, performance, and engagement analysis of each ship. When the Second World War began, the ten British ‘Town’ class cruisers were the most modern vessels of their type in the Royal Navy. Primarily designed for the defense of trade, they played decisive roles in victories such as the Battle of the Barents Sea and the destruction of the German Scharnhorst at the North Cape. They also paid a heavy price: four of the ships were lost and the other six sustained serious damage. In this major study, Conrad Waters provides a technical evaluation of the ‘Town’ class design and its subsequent performance. He outlines the class’s origins in the context of inter-war cruiser policy, explains the design and construction process, and describes the characteristics of the resulting ships and how these were adapted in the light of wartime developments. An overview of service focuses on major engagements and presents detailed assessments of action damage. Concluding chapters explore the the modernization program that kept the remaining ships fit for service during the Cold War era. Heavily illustrated with contemporary photographs and expert drawings, British Town Class Cruisers provides a definitive reference to one of the Royal Navy’s most important warship designs.
Author: Conrad Waters
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1526718871
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 617
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Book Description
This scholarly study of the Royal Navy’s WWII light cruisers presents extensive design, performance, and engagement analysis of each ship. When the Second World War began, the ten British ‘Town’ class cruisers were the most modern vessels of their type in the Royal Navy. Primarily designed for the defense of trade, they played decisive roles in victories such as the Battle of the Barents Sea and the destruction of the German Scharnhorst at the North Cape. They also paid a heavy price: four of the ships were lost and the other six sustained serious damage. In this major study, Conrad Waters provides a technical evaluation of the ‘Town’ class design and its subsequent performance. He outlines the class’s origins in the context of inter-war cruiser policy, explains the design and construction process, and describes the characteristics of the resulting ships and how these were adapted in the light of wartime developments. An overview of service focuses on major engagements and presents detailed assessments of action damage. Concluding chapters explore the the modernization program that kept the remaining ships fit for service during the Cold War era. Heavily illustrated with contemporary photographs and expert drawings, British Town Class Cruisers provides a definitive reference to one of the Royal Navy’s most important warship designs.
Author: Norman Friedman
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 1783469188
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 680
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Book Description
“An extraordinarily detailed account of the development of Royal Navy cruisers . . . a towering work” from the author of Fighting the Great War at Sea (Warship 2012). For most of the twentieth century, Britain possessed both the world’s largest merchant fleet and its most extensive overseas territories. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Royal Navy always showed a particular interest in the cruiser—a multipurpose warship needed in large numbers to defend trade routes and police the empire. Above all other types, the cruiser’s competing demands of quality and quantity placed a heavy burden on designers, and for most of the interwar period, Britain sought to square this circle through international treaties restricting both size and numbers. In the process, she virtually invented the heavy cruiser and inspired the large 6in-armed cruiser, neither of which, ironically, served her best interests. This book seeks to comprehend, for the first time, the full policy background—from which a different and entirely original picture of British cruiser development emerges. After the war, the cruiser’s role was reconsidered, and the final chapters of the book cover modernizations, the plans for missile-armed ships, and the convoluted process that turned the “through-deck cruiser” into the Invincible class light carriers. With detailed appendices of ship data, and illustrated in depth with photos and A.D. Baker’s specially commissioned plans, British Cruisers truly matches the lofty standards set by Friedman’s previous books on British destroyers. “Wow! . . . Lavishly illustrated with a photograph or line plan on almost every page. The text is packed with technical information, detail, and description of design, construction and application of these important ships.” —Clash of Steel
Author: Mark Stille
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472811429
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 121
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Book Description
During World War II, the United States built 72 light cruisers of various classes. In response to the severe air threat that surface ships faced, new cruisers were designed with increasingly heavy antiaircraft weaponry as well as the traditional 6in guns. With the speed and range to keep up with aircraft carriers, and their considerable antiaircraft capability, they were a mainstay of the carrier escorts. This book examines every US light cruiser produced, including those of the Fargo and Worcester classes, which were actually complete after World War II had ended, tracing their design, development and evolution throughout the war and beyond.
Author: Mark Lardas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147284310X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 81
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Book Description
This superbly illustrated study explores the epic clashes of British and German heavy cruisers at the beginning of World War II. The opposing heavy cruisers of the German Kriegsmarine and the Royal Navy engaged in a global game of cat and mouse during the opening years of World War II. This was a period in which the heavy cruiser still reigned supreme in open waters, with the opposing sides reluctant to risk their battleships, and aircraft yet to dominate the seas. These swift vessels fought each other in the South Atlantic, North Atlantic, the frigid waters of the Denmark Strait and the Arctic approaches to Russia, capturing the public imagination in the process. This fascinating and beautifully illustrated book examines the design, development and technical performance of these opposing warships, and explores the clashes between them at the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939, the Christmas Day Battle 1940 and the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941. The ships examined include the Deutschland-class Panzerschiffe and Admiral Hipper-class cruisers, and the Royal Navy County- and York-class heavy cruisers.
Author: Wayne Patton
Publisher: Squadron/Signal Publications
ISBN: 9780897474979
Category : Cruisers (Warships)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
At the beginning of World War II, the Imperial Japanese Navy operated a light cruiser force of 20 ships, and added another five during the course of the war. These fast ships, carrying seaplanes and heavy torpedo armament, generally were used as flagships for destroyer flotillas and submarine squadrons. Of these, nine were sunk by U.S. or British submarines, 11 were sunk by U.S. aircraft, two were sunk by U.S. torpedo boats or destroyers, and three were still afloat at the end of the war. Includes never before published photos!
Author: Gordon Williamson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780966202
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 98
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Book Description
The German Navy of World War II was small in number, but contained some of the most technologically advanced capital ships in the world. This meant that although the Kriegsmarine never felt capable of encountering the might of the British Navy in a fleet action, her ships were individually more than a match for the outdated vessels of the Royal Navy. Nowhere was this more the case than in Germany's fleet of light cruisers. There were only six vessels in this fleet: the Emden, Leipzig, Köln, Königsberg, Karlsruhe and Nurnberg. This book describes their design, development and varied operational history throughout the course of the Second World War.
Author: Alan Raven
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
ISBN: 9781526747631
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Cruisers were the Navy's maids-of-all-work employed in a greater variety of roles than any other warship type. Smaller faster and far more numerous than battleships they could be risked in situations where capital ships were too vulnerable while still providing heavy gunfire support for smaller ships or anti-aircraft cover for the fleet. As such they were in the frontline of the naval war from the outset - and from its first days the fighting provided unexpected challenges and some very unpleasant surprises not least the efficacy of air power. Cruisers learned to deal with these new realities in the Norway campaign and later in the Mediterranean partly through the introduction of new technology - notably radar - but also by codifying the hard-won experience of those involved. This highly original book analyses the first years of the war when the sharpest lessons were learned initially describing every action and its results and then summarising in individual chapters the conclusions that could be drawn for the many aspects of a cruiser's duties. These include the main roles like surface gunnery shore bombardment anti-aircraft tactics and fighter direction but also encompass technology like radar asdic and shipborne aircraft and even tackle more human issues such as shipboard organization damage control the impact of weather and the morale factor. It also attempts to evaluate the importance of electronic warfare intelligence and code-breaking and concludes with a comparison between the performance of British cruisers and their Italian and German opponents. Thought-provoking and sometimes controversial this is a book that should be read by everyone interested in World War II at se
Author: Norman Friedman
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473812801
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 895
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Book Description
A history of the early days of Royal Navy destroyers, and how they evolved to meet new military threats. In the late nineteenth century the advent of the modern torpedo woke the Royal Navy to a potent threat to its domination, not seriously challenged since Trafalgar. For the first time a relatively cheap weapon had the potential to sink the largest, and costliest, exponents of sea power. Not surprisingly, Britain’s traditional rivals invested heavily in the new technology that promised to overthrow the naval status quo. The Royal Navy was also quick to adopt the new weapon, but the British concentrated on developing counters to the essentially offensive tactics associated with torpedo-carrying small craft. From these efforts came torpedo catchers, torpedo-gunboats and eventually the torpedo-boat destroyer, a type so successful that it eclipsed and then usurped the torpedo-boat itself. With its title shortened to destroyer, the type evolved rapidly and was soon in service in many navies, but in none was the evolution as rapid or as radical as in the Royal Navy. This book is the first detailed study of their early days, combining technical history with an appreciation of the changing role of destroyers and the tactics of their deployment. Like all of Norman Friedman’s books, it reveals the rationale and not just the process of important technological developments.
Author: D K Brown
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1784389846
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
The third volume in D K Brown's bestselling series on warship design and development looks at the Royal Navy's response to the restrictions placed on it by the Washington Naval Treaties in the inter-war years, and analyses the fleet that was constructed to fight the Second World War. He focusses on the principal pre-war developments such as the first purpose-built aircraft carriers and the growing perception of the threat of air attack to warships. All the wartime construction programs are covered, such as the massive expansion in escort ships to counter the U-boat menace, and the development of the amphibious warfare fleet for the D-Day landings in 1944. Full analysis is also provided of the experience of wartime damage, as well as the once top secret pre- and post-war damage trials. Illustrated throughout with a superb collection of contemporary photographs and numerous line drawings, this now classic work is required reading for naval historians and enthusiasts. "Yet another tour de force. Highly recommended." - Warship World "This is a truly magnificent effort, both in content and presentation." - Warship
Author: Mark Stille
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472825365
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 106
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Book Description
The Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) operated one of largest cruiser forces of World War II. As a signatory to the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, the Regia Marina immediately attempted to reinforce its treaty-limited battleship force by building seven large 10,000-ton heavy cruisers. Italian light cruisers also possessed an interesting design history and were involved in every major fleet engagement in the Mediterranean, as well as several smaller encounters with units of the British Royal Navy. Fully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, this fascinating volume examines the history of the Regia Marina's cruisers during World War II where they came up against the might of the British Royal Navy.
