WORLD OF THE BATTLESHIP

The Design and Careers of Capital Ships of the World's Navies 1880 - 1990. Big and beautifully produced, this is a comprehensive study of 21 capital ships, the most important vessels in a navy's armoury. Each one has a full chapter written by an expert, ranging in time from China's Chen Yuen built in 1882, closely followed by Argentina's Garibaldi (1885), to Italy's 1937 technological showcase Littorio, immortalised in the iconic wartime photo showing her leading her sister ship Vittorio in gunnery exercises. Among the most impressive is the United States' magnificent Missouri ("The Mighty Mo") of 1944, selected by President Truman to be the location of the Japanese surrender after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then ignominiously stranded in 1950 on the Thimble Shoal in Hampton Roads, but finally redeeming her reputation during service in the Korean War. Following a modernisation package in the mid-eighties, Missouri saw action again a few years later in the Persian Gulf, and is now berthed in Pearl Harbor as a naval museum. The British Navy is represented here by the legendary battleship HMS Hood, commissioned in 1920, and representing a 130 per cent increase in displacement compared with the earlier HMS Dreadnought. Cutting edge technology combined with advanced design to make this one of the most beautiful battleships, seen at her best in an aerial shot above Scapa Flow in 1940. Life aboard the Hood is captured in Cdr Rory O'Conor's "Ten Commandments" of 1933, covering punctuality to gambling. During the first months of the war Hood was sweeping for enemy raiders but tragically in May 1941 she was ordered to chase Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, resulting in the loss of the ship and over 1400 men. The Bismarck was sunk a few days later. Other ships in the volume include Russia's Slava (1903), Australia's Australia (1911), Sweden's Sverige (1915) and Germany's Scharnhorst (1936). Each chapter has its own bibliography, as well as a full history of the ship, technological details and specifications. 440pp, archive photos on most pages, individual and general bibliographies.