Entering service between 1937 and 1939, the ten British “Town” class cruisers were the most modern vessels of their type in the Royal Navy when World War II began. Built in response to large 6-inch gunned cruisers in the U.S. and Japanese navies and primarily designed for the defense of trade, they saw arduous service in a wide range of ...
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British Town Class Cruisers
"Southampton and Belfast Classes: Design, Development and Performance"
Available Formats: Hardcover
Cruiser Birmingham
Detailed in the Original Builders' Plans
The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the “as fitted” general arrangements, these drawings documented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service.
Today these plans form part of the incomparable collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Atlantic Escorts
"Ships, Weapons and Tactics in World War II"
Winston Churchill famously claimed that the submarine war in the Atlantic was the only campaign of the World War II that really frightened him. If the lifeline to North America had been cut, Britain would never have survived; there could have been no build-up of U.S. and Commonwealth forces, no D-Day landings, and no victory in western Europe. Furthermore, the battle raged from the first day of the ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Burning of Washington
The British Invasion of 1814
With all the immediacy of an eyewitness account, Anthony Pitch tells the dramatic story of the British invasion of Washington in the summer of 1814, an episode many call a defining moment in the coming-of-age of the United States. The British torched the Capitol, the White House, and many other public buildings, setting off an inferno that illuminated the countryside ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Life in Mr. Lincoln's Navy
Every aspect of the common sailor's life in the Union navy—from recruiting, clothing, training, shipboard routine, entertainment, and wages to diet, health, and combat experience—is addressed in this study, the first to examine the subject in rich detail. The wealth of new facts it provides allows the reader to take a fresh look at nineteenth-century social history, including issues like ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Burning of Washington
The British Invasion of 1814
With all the immediacy of an eyewitness account, Anthony Pitch tells the dramatic story of the British invasion of Washington in the summer of 1814, an episode many call a defining moment in the coming-of-age of the United States. The British torched the Capitol, the White House, and many other public buildings, setting off an inferno that illuminated the countryside ...
Available Formats: Softcover
British Fiji Class Cruisers and their Derivatives
The Fiji-class, often called the “Colony” class, cruisers were a class of eleven light cruisers of the Royal Navy that saw extensive service throughout World War II. They were an attempt to incorporate the characteristics of the preceding “Town” class within the reduced 8,000-ton limit agreed under the 1936 London Treaty. In general layout, Colony class resembled the earlier ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
The U.S. Naval Institute on Naval Strategy
In the U.S. Navy, “Wheel Books” were once found in the uniform pockets of every junior and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Eleven Months to Freedom
A German POW's Unlikely Escape from Siberia in 1915
Eleven Months to Freedom recounts the daring World War I escape of German midshipman Erich Killinger. Falsely accused of bombing a railway station after crashing his plane at sea, he was sentenced to life in the Sakhalin coal mines.
Shipped by rail with several other POWs across Russia, Killinger was determined to return home. In order to do this, though ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
The Battle of Leyte Gulf at 75
A Retrospective
Often appropriately described as the “greatest naval battle in history,” the battle of Leyte Gulf (23–26 October 1944) was actually a series of battles in which both sides exhibited courage and resourcefulness yet suffered from confusion born of poorly conceived command relationships and ineffective communications. Marked by awe-inspiring heroism, failed intelligence, brilliant deception, flawed strategy, effective tactical planning, great controversies ...
Available Formats: Softcover