Battleships of the United States Navy (Paperback)
Imprint: Pen & Sword Maritime
Series: Images of War
Pages: 192
Illustrations: 250 colour & black and white illustrations
ISBN: 9781783030354
Published: 30th September 2014
Last Released: 29th August 2024
(click here for international delivery rates)
Order within the next 3 hours, 14 minutes to get your order processed the next working day!
Need a currency converter? Check XE.com for live rates
Other formats available | Price |
---|---|
Battleships of the United States… ePub (33.5 MB) Add to Basket | £6.99 |
From 1895 to 1944 the US Navy commissioned some 60 steel-clad battleships; the first being Indiana (BB-1) and the last USS Missouri (BB-63). After an impressive showing in the Spanish-American War and the 'Great White Fleet's' circumnavigation of the world, US battleships played only a minor role in the First World War. They came into their own in WW2 primarily bombarding enemy held coastal regions and supporting Allied operations in Europe and the Pacific. Their firepower was awesome and the later examples had nine 16-inch and up to twenty 5-inch guns plus copious anti-aircraft defences.
On the few occasions these mighty ships took on Japanese counterparts, they performed brilliantly but protection of the increasingly important aircraft couriers was more decisive. Armour plate nearly a foot and a half thick saved many from fatal attack from suicidal kamikaze pilots.
Post WW2 the battleships were relegated to war reserve status but later their value projecting American military power worldwide and their conversion to platforms for cruise missile saw their re-birth. The last US battleship retired in 1992 having served in the Korean and Vietnam War, the Middle East and finally Desert Storm.
This fine book gives the expert and layman a privileged overview of one of the greatest weapon systems in military history.
Maritime fans will appreciate the range of subjects covered, and this is a treasure trove of information for modellers.
Airfix Model World, March 2017
This volume is a visual treasure-trove for
Ships in Scale, Autumn 2017 – reviewed by Roger Marsh
enthusiasts of the battleships of the US Navy.
As featured in.
Neptunus, February 2016
I hear reservations about the Images of War range of books. I think it’s fair to say I am a bit of fan as far as things go. Some books are better than others and you see one occasionally that is an absolute winner from first to last. This book by Michael Green is one of them as far as I am concerned...
War History Online - Mark Barnes
... Michael Green has produced a really fine book. The archive photos are exceptional and the text explaining the beginnings of the US Navy battleship era and the multitude of classes that followed in service from the turn of the 20th Century until recent times flows really well and gives us a great deal to go on...
... From my photo archivist’s perspective the images are really superb and with good quality captions they all make sense. The book hasn’t just been thrown together and forms into a narrative that really gets things right. I am very impressed with this book. It has helped me learn a lot more about the US Navy and I have taken this a little further with time spent reading internet articles and so on and I am always pleased when books leave me with more questions than answers. Great stuff.
This book is full of some very good photographs and extensive narrative to accompany them, covering the history of successive battleship classes.
Marine News
As featured in.
ModellWerft
This is another title in the fine range of Images of War series. The series stands on the careful selection of rare archive images, but each title is more than a photo essay. There is crisp text to support the image selection in telling the story. In this issue, there are some excellent colour images with the mainly monochrome selection. Enthusiasts and model makers are very well served by the image selection, but this is a very affordable book that is very useful to the younger reader, or anyone wishing to develop knowledge in this area of warfare and technology.
Firetrench
Well-written and informative
Military Modelling
About Michael Green
Michael Green is the author of numerous acclaimed books in the Images of War series, including Armored Warfare in the Vietnam War, The Patton Tank: Cold War Warrior, M1 Abrams Tank, Allied Tanks of the Second World War, Allied AFVs of the Second World War, Axis Tanks of the Second World War, Axis AFVs of the Second World War, American Military Helicopters, US Airborne Divisions, USMC in the Vietnam War, US Armored Divisions of the Second World War, US Marine Corps in the Korean War, American Artillery, NATO and Warsaw Pact Tanks of the Cold War and Red Army Weapons of the World War.