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
Rules of Game
Jutland and British Naval Command
Foreword by Admiral Sir John Woodward. When published in hardcover in 1997, this book was praised for providing an engrossing education not only in naval strategy and tactics but in Victorian social attitudes and the influence of character on history. In juxtaposing an operational with a cultural theme, the author comes closer than any historian yet to explaining what was ...
Available Formats: Softcover
Battleship Missouri
An Illustrated History
Now available in paperback, this book traces the complete story of the Missouri from her keel-laying in 1941, her participation in the Japanese surrender in 1945, and her contribution to the Persian Gulf War. Through extensive interviews and research with records from the Naval Heritage and History Command, National Archives, Harry S. Truman Library, and other repositories, author Paul Stillwell ...
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
"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
Battleship Commander
The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr.
This is the first-ever biography of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr., who served a key role during World War II in the Pacific. Recognizing the achievements and legacy of one of the war’s top combat admirals has been long overdue until now.
Battleship Commander explores Lee’s life from boyhood in Kentucky through his eventual service as commander of the ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
No One Avoided Danger
NAS Kaneohe Bay and the Japanese Attack of 7 December 1941
“No One Avoided Danger” is a detailed combat narrative of the 7 December 1941 Japanese attacks on NAS Kaneohe Bay, one of two naval air stations on the island of O‘ahu. Partly because of Kaneohe’s location—15 air miles over a mountain range from the main site of that day’s infamous attack on Pearl Harbor—military historians have largely ignored the station’s ...
Available Formats: Hardcover
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