River Gunboats (Hardback)
An Illustrated Encyclopaedia
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The first recorded engagement by a steam-powered warship took place on a river, when in 1824 the Honourable East India Company’s gunboat Diana went into action on the Irrawaddy in Burma. In the 150 years that followed river gunboats played a significant part in over forty campaigns and individual actions, down to the Portuguese and American ‘Brown Water’ fighting in Africa and Vietnam respectively at the end of the twentieth century. They proved to be the decisive factor in operations against the Maoris, with Gordon’s Ever Victorious Army in China, during the river campaigns of the American Civil War, in the French conquest of Indochina, during Kitchener’s advance on Khartoum, and on the Rufiji and Tigris during the Great War. River gunboats fought for the Paris Commune, on the rivers of South America, against the Bolsheviks, and during the Second World War in the open waters of the Mediterranean, while armoured Soviet gunboats fought German Panzers, and a pair of ‘Girls’ attacked the Japanese on the banks of the Irrawaddy.
This lavishly illustrated encyclopaedia describes vessels of every nation designed as river gunboats, plus those converted river steamers which took part in combat. Maps of the river systems where they operated are included, together with narratives of the principal actions involving river gunboats. Their story is brought up-to-date with data on current riverine combat vessels in service today.
I can see this book being an excellent jumping off point for further research, the historical elements are excellent, and it presents a truly fascinating collection of obscure craft.
Israel Book Review
Reviewed Mark Klobas Phoenix, Arizona for
The Northern Mariner, Summer 2018
a genuinely fascinating collection of obscure fighting ships and deserves to be on the bookshelf of any warship enthusiast. Recommended.
World Ship Society
As well as the individual vessels, maps of the river systems where they operated are included, together with narratives of the principal actions involved.
Julian Stockwin Blog
Read the full review here
Essential documentation of consultation on the river gunships used by all the nations of the world, as an ideal base from which to leave when investigating the boats more thoroughly and individually.
Miniaturas JM
Read the full Spanish review here
This excellent volume ends with two color appendices concerning literary works and movies in which the gunboats have been protagonists (one above all: “The Sand Pebbles” - starring Steve McQueen) and numerous examples of camouflage, plus a vast bibliography and a complete analytical index.
STORIA militare, January 2019
Iconography, although in black and white, is of high quality and includes photographs (often unpublished), numerous technical drawings, axonometric views and sections of the various ships as well as numerous maps. In the premise, the author recalls that, for mere reasons of space, he could not insert an appendix about models, including many of the beautiful models of river gunboats he has made, but his own website (www.rogerbranfill-cook.com) where these models are described and depicted is indicated.
River Gunboats is thus not “a text" but “the definitive text" on this subject: it’s highly recommendable to all fans of the matter and its price is widely justified by its valid content.
It's an interesting book, with a novel approach.
The Armourer, December 2018
This is a book that would grace both the coffee table and the reference shelf and it is one I will refer to many times in the years coming. Recommended.
THOMO'S HOLE
Read the full review here
This illustrated encyclopedia is a lavish Seaforth volume on the rather specialist subject of River Gunboats. It contains a vast amount of absorbing information and an amazing selection of photos, maps and drawings. Well recommended for historians and researchers as well as the more general reader.
The Magazine of the National Museum of the Royal Navy
It is rare for this reviewer to describe a volume as being a ‘Labour of love’, yet that is what this volume is, the author having put an incredible amount of effort into writing what should deservedly become a Standard Reference Work on its subject.
NZ Crown Mines
About Roger Branfill-Cook
ROGER BRANFILL-COOK is a professional translator from French into English specialising in historical and military works, and a qualified battlefield guide. He has written numerous articles for specialist magazines and is both a novelist and an author of non-fiction books. He has recently helped create an English version of a major encyclopedia on FRENCH ARMOURED VEHICLES.
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