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
German Battleship Helgoland
Detailed in the Original Builders' Plans
This book is the latest in a series based entirely on original draughts which depict famous warships in an unprecedented degree of detail. Using the latest scanning technology to make digital copies of the highest quality, it reproduces complete sets in full color, with many close-ups and enlargements that make every aspect clear and comprehensible. The result is a novel ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Strategic Theories
Admiral Raoul Castex is France’s most important modern naval strategist. Military historian Eugenia Kiesling offers the essence of Castex’s original five volume study, Théories Stratégiques, in a useful one-volume abridgment and a very readable translation. It emphasizes the admiral’s method of strategic analysis while omitting most of the historical narrative. Included are chapters defining strategy and relating it to policy ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Fatal Cruise of the Argus
Two Captains in the War of 1812
This is history, vibrant and on a grand scale and rich in the details of seafaring life with a focus on an American and a British naval officer whose separate paths converge in 1813 during a fierce battle between the Argus and the Pelican.
Available Formats: Hardcover
First Team and Guadalcanal Campaign
Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942
From huddled command conferences to cramped cockpits, John Lundstrom guides readers through the maelstrom of air combat at Guadalcanal in this impressively researched sequel to his earlier study. Picking up the story after Midway, the author presents a scrupulously accurate account of what happened, describing in rich detail the actual planes and pilots pitted in the ferocious battles that helped ...
Available Formats: Softcover
The Royal Navy
An Illustrated History
The Royal Navy's long and glorious tradition of service to Britain is covered in this fascinating, illustrated history—from the age of empire, when it was the most powerful navy in the world, through two world wars, to its present status as a vital part of the NATO alliance.
Available Formats: Hardcover
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
"A Pitiful, Unholy Mess"
"The Histories of Wheeler, Bellows, and Haleiwa Fields and the Japanese Attacks of 7 December 1941"
A Pitiful, Unholy Mess is a detailed combat narrative of the 7 December 1941 Japanese attacks on O‘ahu’s Wheeler, Bellows, and Haleiwa Fields. Since these bases comprised O‘ahu’s fighter defenses, the Japanese needed to neutralize these bases (particularly Wheeler Field) to prevent U.S. aircraft from interfering with attacks on the Pacific Fleet. Although the loss of life at the three fields was less than that sustained by the ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
Knight of the North Atlantic
"Baron Siegfried von Forstner and the War Patrols of U-402, 1941-1943"
Born of an aristocratic military family, with a tradition of U-boat service, Baron Siegfried von Forstner, the U-boat's captain, served without the pretentiousness of title, even after winning the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross). He fought the war like a knight of old, with a defined code of chivalry, as he dueled with escorts, went to the aid of fellow U-boats, and ...
Available Formats: Hardcover