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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Naval forces & warfare
In 1859 the French navy was at a high point, having fought
alongside the British in the Crimean War and developed a formidable
fleet of fast wooden-hulled steam ships of the line. But in that
very year the world's navies had to start over again when French
naval architect Dupuy de Lome introduced the ironclad battleship.
The French navy then went through three tumultuous phases. In the
1860s and 1870s it focused on building a new
traditionally-structured fleet in which wooden-hulled battleships
gave way to iron and steel ships with massive guns and armour. In
the 1880s and 1890s this effort was disrupted by a vigorous contest
between battleship sailors and advocates of fast steel cruisers and
small torpedo craft, leaving France by the end of the 1890s with
few new battleships (none as large as the best foreign ships) but
some two hundred torpedo boats. The Fashoda crisis in 1898 revealed
the weakness of the French navy and between 1900 and 1914 the
French focused on building a strong battle fleet. In 1914 this
fleet remained well behind those of Britain and Germany in numbers,
but taken individually French warships remained among the best in
the world. This book is the first comprehensive listing in English
of the over 1400 warships that were added to the official French
navy fleet list between 1 January 1859 and World War I. It includes
everything from the largest battleships to a small armoured gunboat
that looked like a floating egg. The ships are listed in three
separate parts to keep contemporary ships together and then by ship
type and class. For each class the book provides a design history
explaining why the ships were built, substantial technical
characteristics for the ships as completed and after major
reconstructions, and selected career milestones including the
ultimate fate of each ship. Like its predecessors written jointly
with Rif Winfield, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626-1786 and
French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861, with which it forms
the third in a trilogy, it provides a complete picture of the
overall development of French warships over a period of almost
three centuries.
The American battleship USS "California" has almost thirty years of
extraordinary history. Built in 1921, it was one of the most
powerful battleships of the US Navy in the interwar period. It was
characterised by an interesting and harmonious silhouette, which
changed significantly several times. During the war, despite its
age, the ship was still modern and heavily armed. The USS
"California", known among naval enthusiasts and often chosen by
modellers, became the subject of another study by Witold Koszela,
who in a series of precise drawings recreated the silhouette of
this battleship from the Second World War. On 24 A4 pages and 2
folded sheets we can find a historical description, technical data
and professional drawings showing the ship in the years 1944-1945,
as well as drawings of superstructures, armaments and details,
together with sectional views and color charts.
The year 1588 marked a turning point in our national story. Victory over the Spanish Armada transformed us into a seafaring nation and it sparked a myth that one day would become a reality - that the nation's new destiny, the source of her future wealth and power lay out on the oceans. This book tells the story of how the navy expanded from a tiny force to become the most complex industrial enterprise on earth; how the need to organise it laid the foundations of our civil service and our economy; and how it transformed our culture, our sense of national identity and our democracy.
Brian Lavery's narrative explores the navy's rise over four centuries; a key factor in propelling Britain to its status as the most powerful nation on earth, and assesses the turning point of Jutland and the First World War. He creates a compelling read that is every bit as engaging as the TV series itself.
" Arms control remains a major international issue as the
twentieth century closes, but it is hardly a new concern. The
effort to limit military power has enjoyed recurring support since
shortly after World War I, when the United States, Britain, and
Japan sought naval arms control as a means to insure stability in
the Far East, contain naval expenditure, and prevent another world
cataclysm. Richard Fanning examines the efforts of American,
British, and Japanese leaders -- political, military, and social --
to reach agreement on naval limitation between 1922 and the
mid-1930s, with focus on the years 1927-30, when political leaders,
statesmen, naval officers, and various civilian pressure groups
were especially active in considering naval limits. The civilian
and even some military actors believed the Great War had been an
aberration and that international stability would reign in the near
future. But the coming of the Great Depression brought a dramatic
drop in concern for disarmament. This study, based on a wide
variety of unpublished sources, compares the cultural underpinnings
of the disarmament movement in the three countries, especially the
effects of public opinion, through examination of the many peace
groups that played an important role in the disarmament process.
The decision to strive for arms control, he finds, usually resulted
from peace group pressure and political expediency. For anyone
interested in naval history, this book illuminates the beginnings
of the arms limitation effort and the growth of the peace
movement.
This book examines the dynamics of coalition naval operations.
Since the end of the Second World War, few nations possess the
capacity for large scale, sustained and independent naval
operations; and even those that do, such as the USA, often find it
economically, militarily and politically expedient to act
multilaterally. As such, coalition naval operations increasingly
became the norm throughout the twentieth-century, and there is
little sign of this abating in the twenty-first. Multinational
operations provide a number of benefits, but they also present a
number of challenges. Examining the dynamics of coalition
operations involving the Royal Navy (RN), Royal Australian Navy
(RAN) and the United States Navy (USN) during the Korean War,
Vietnam War and the Iraq War, this book provides a broad overview
of naval interoperability between the three navies. Using the naval
gunfire support (NGS) capability as a lens through which to analyse
operations, the study explores a diverse range of issues,
including: command and control, communications, equipment
standardisation, intelligence, logistics, planning, rules of
engagement, tactics, techniques and procedures and training.
Approaching the subject through both historical and contemporary
perspectives not only provides a unique assessment of the variation
in the effectiveness of interoperability over time, but also offers
a platform for better understanding and enhancing the performance
of future coalition naval operations. Based on extensive archival
research in Australia, the UK and the US, as well as wide-ranging
interviews, this book sheds new light on the dynamics of conducting
coalition operations. This book will be of great interest to
students of naval history, strategic studies, sea power, maritime
security, military studies, and IR in general.
Lieutenant Commander Takashige Egusa was one of the Imperial
Japanese Navy's most skillful and influential dive-bomber pilots.
He led an attack force against Pearl Harbor, calmly circling his
special flame-red Aichi dive bomber before selecting his target.
Assaults on the deadly gun batteries of Wake Island followed, as
well as air support for the invasion of Ambon. Badly burned at
Midway, Egusa return to duty, only to be killed on his final
mission. As one Japanese officer said, He was the 'God of
Dive-Bombing. Fully placed in historical context and backed by a
wealth of detail from archives, family records, photographs, and
memories of contemporaries, this full story of Egusa's bravery,
leadership qualities and illustrious career come to life.
A familiar sight on the Thames at London Bridge, HMS Belfast is a
Royal Navy light cruiser, launched in March 1938. Belfast was part
of the British naval blockade against Germany and from November
1942 escorted Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union and assisted in
the destruction of the German warship Scharnhorst. In June 1944
Belfast supported the Normandy landings and in 1945 was redeployed
to the British Pacific Fleet. After the war she saw action in the
Korean War and a number of other overseas actions. She has been
part of the Imperial War Museum since 1978, with 250,000 visitors
annually.
This fascinating book comprises a series of documents
that give information on the building of the ship, her wartime
service history and life on board.
Decorated US navy SEAL lieutenant Jason Redman was critically
wounded in 2007 while leading a mission against a key al-Qaida
commander, when his mobility and assault forces team was ambushed
and he was struck by machine-gun fire at point-blank range. During
the intense recovery that followed, Redman gained national
attention after posting a sign on his hospital door that went on to
become a symbol for wounded warriors everywhere. In this inspiring
account he speaks candidly of his SEAL career and the extraordinary
devotion of his wife and family, without whom he would not have
survived. Vivid and emotionally resonant, The Trident traces the
evolution of a modern warrior, husband, and father-a man who has
come to embody the never-say-die spirit that defines America's
elite fighting force.
The failed naval offensive to force a passage through the Straits
of the Dardanelles in 1915 drove Winston Churchill from office in
disgrace and nearly destroyed his political career. For over a
century, the Dardanelles campaign has been mired in myth and
controversy. For some, it was a brilliant concept that might have
dramatically shortened the First World War and saved millions of
lives. For others, it was fundamentally misconceived and doomed to
fail. Churchill is either the hero of the story, or the villain.
Drawing on a wide range of original documents, Christopher M. Bell
shows that both perspectives are flawed. Bell provides a detailed
and authoritative account of the campaigns origins and execution,
explaining why the naval attack was launched, why it failed, and
how it was transformed into an even more disastrous campaign on the
Gallipoli peninsula. He untangles Churchills complicated
relationship with Britains admirals, politicians, and senior civil
servants, and uncovers the machinations behind the bitter press
campaign in 1915 to drive him from power. The book goes on to
explore the origins of the myths surrounding the ill-fated
campaign. It provides the first full account of Churchills tireless
efforts in the decades after 1915 to refute his legion of critics
and convince the public that the Dardanelles campaign had nearly
succeeded. Largely by his own exertions, Churchill ensured that the
legacy of the Dardanelles would not stop him becoming Prime
Minister in 1940.
In the Royal Navy vernacular, the term 'greenie' describes the
officers and ratings responsible for the electrical engineering
functions of the fleet. Electrical engineering has 'driven' the
Royal Navy for far longer than one might imagine, from solving the
problem of magnetic interference with the compass by the ironclad
early in the 20th century onward. Author Commander Moore traces the
development of technology from 1850 to today's integrated micro
computers that control almost every aspect of navigation, intel,
and strike capacity. At the same time, he describes how the Navy's
structure and manpower changed to accommodate the new technologies,
changes often accelerated in wartime, particularly in World War II.
Without the full cooperation of naval establishments and
organisations and various public and private museums and
manufacturers, this work would have been impossible to produce.
Written in an anecdotal, narrative style but with a complete
mastery of the science itself, it will appeal not only to those
interested in the history of the Royal Navy but also those many
thousands, past and present, who can claim the honour of calling
themselves one of the Greenies.
With the publication of their previous book on the battleships of
the _Littorio_ class, the authors set new standards for the
detailed coverage and sophisticated analysis of Italian warship
design. Inspired by its success, both critically and commercially,
the authors were inspired to follow up with a similar study of the
earlier Italian battleships that were built in the First World War
but survived to fight in the Second. Given the level of new
research required, this has taken a decade to achieve but the
result is a similarly comprehensive coverage. Originally comprising
five ships in two related classes, they entered service at the
beginning of the Great War. As designed, they were powerful
examples of the second generation of dreadnoughts, with a
combination of twin and triple turrets producing a unique main
armament of thirteen 12-inch guns. One ship, _Leonardo da Vinci_,
was sunk by an internal explosion at Taranto in 1916, and although
the hull was raised post-war, the plan to rebuild the ship was
abandoned as it was not deemed cost-effective. However, the
remaining four ships were to undergo one of the most radical
reconstructions of any battleship class during the 1930s, emerging
with an entirely new profile, more powerful machinery and all the
characteristics of a modern fast battleship. In this form they
became an important element in the Italian fleet that opposed the
British after 1940\. This book covers all the technical details of
the ships, both as built and as rebuilt, but also provides an
extended history of their active service, including battle plans
and track charts. Thoroughly illustrated with photographs, ship and
armament plans, detail drawings and colour camouflage schemes, the
book is a fitting companion to _The Littorio Class_.
The four battleships of the Iowa class, the crowning achievement of
US battleship construction, had exceptionally long careers and each
in their way left a distinctive mark not only on the US Navy but on
naval history at large. Built as the ultimate American battleship
and designed to engage the major units of the Japanese and German
fleets, the class were commissioned in the closing stages of World
War II, the beginning of half a century of service during which
individual units saw action in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the
Lebanese Civil War and finally the Gulf War. As such these vessels
are symbolic of the primacy of US seapower during the Cold War, and
the preservation of all four of these mighty vessels as museum
ships is testament not only to their enduring fascination, but also
to the immense technical, financial, military and political
resources wielded by the United States during the second half of
the twentieth century. This superb new book includes a general
introduction providing the context and design history of the entire
class; detailed and extensively illustrated information on
specifications, equipment and modifications; and comprehensive
coverage of the construction, career, operations and preservation
of each unit. The author covers all the significant events in the
life of each ship, including Missouri in Tokyo Bay, New Jersey off
Vietnam and Lebanon, Wisconsin's collision with the destroyer
Eaton, the Iowa turret explosion and many others. Lavishly
illustrated with more than 600 photos (many in colour), 35
spectacular CG artworks and six maps, this beautifully produced
work is the ultimate volume on the ultimate battleship class and a
fitting souvenir of these four ships, now all preserved for
posterity. AUTHOR: Philippe Caresse was born into a naval family in
1964 and joined the French Navy in 1982, serving in the destroyer
d'Estrees. He has published an extensive range of ship monographs
on the French, German, US, and Japanese navies from the
late-nineteenth century to the Second World War, and is co-author
with John Jordan of a series of volumes on French warships,
including French Battleships of World War One, all published by
Seaforth. He is the harbormaster of a marina on the Cote d'Azur.
600 colour and b/w photographs, 35 CG drawings, 6 maps
One of the most eminent historians of our age investigates the
extraordinary success of five small maritime states Andrew Lambert,
author of The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War
of 1812-winner of the prestigious Anderson Medal-turns his
attention to Athens, Carthage, Venice, the Dutch Republic, and
Britain, examining how their identities as "seapowers" informed
their actions and enabled them to achieve success disproportionate
to their size. Lambert demonstrates how creating maritime
identities made these states more dynamic, open, and inclusive than
their lumbering continental rivals. Only when they forgot this
aspect of their identity did these nations begin to decline.
Recognizing that the United States and China are modern naval
powers-rather than seapowers-is essential to understanding current
affairs, as well as the long-term trends in world history. This
volume is a highly original "big think" analysis of five states
whose success-and eventual failure-is a subject of enduring
interest, by a scholar at the top of his game.
The reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725), long regarded as the
turning point in the Europeanization of Russia, witnessed the
establishment of Russia's first modern navy, the Azov Sea fleet.
Its creation evokes a fundamental question about the era: was Peter
a reformer or a revolutionary? This three-part study examines
Russia's maritime experience in the 17th and early 18th centuries
in order to address this central question. The author argues that
Peter's development of the navy was revolutionary in the scale and
level of technology brought to fruition through the reform of
existing political and social structures.
*Shortlisted for the 2019 Mountbatten Award* "We went up on deck
and were looking around when the awful crash came. The ship listed
so much that we all scrambled down the deck and for a moment
everything was in confusion. When I came to myself again I glanced
around but could find no trace of Mr Prichard. He seemed to have
disappeared." - Grace French The sinking of the Lusitania is an
event that has been predominantly discussed from a political or
maritime perspective. For the first time, The Lusitania Sinking
tells the story in the emotive framework of a family looking for
information on their son's death. On 1 May 1915, the 29-year-old
student Preston Prichard embarked as a Second Class passenger on
the Lusitania, bound from New York for Liverpool. By 2pm on the
afternoon of 7 May, the liner was approaching the coast of Ireland
when she was sighted by the German submarine U-20\. A single
torpedo caused a massive explosion in the Lusitania's hold, and the
ship began sank rapidly. Within 20 minutes she disappeared and
1,198 men, women and children, including Preston, died. Uncertain
of Preston's fate, his family leaped into action. His brother
Mostyn, who lived in Ramsgate, travelled to Queenstown to search
morgues but could find nothing. Preston's mother wrote hundreds of
letters to survivors to find out more about what might have
happened in his last moments. The Lusitania Sinking compiles the
responses received. Perhaps sensing his fate, Prichard had put his
papers in order before embarking and told a fellow student where to
find his will if anything happened to him. During the voyage, he
was often seen in the company of Grace French, quoted above. Alice
Middleton, who had a crush on him but was too shy to speak to him
throughout the entire voyage, remembered that he helped her in
reaching the upper decks during the last moments of the sinking:
"[The Lusitania] exploded and down came her funnels, so over I
jumped. I had a terrible time in the water, 41/2 hours bashing
about among the wreckage and dead bodies... It was 10.30 before
they landed me at the hospital in an unconscious condition. In
fact, they piled me with a boat full of dead and it was only when
they were carrying the dead bodies to the Mortuary that they
discovered there was still life in me."
Among all the celebrations of the RAF's centenary, it was largely
forgotten that the establishment of an independent air force came
at a cost - and it was the Royal Navy that paid the price. In 1918
it had been pre-eminent in the technology and tactics of employing
aircraft at sea, but once it lost control of its own air power, it
struggled to make the RAF prioritise naval interests, in the
process losing ground to the rival naval air forces of Japan and
the United States. This book documents that struggle through the
cash-strapped 1920s and '30s, culminating in the Navy regaining
control of its aviation in 1937, but too late to properly prepare
for the impending war. However, despite the lack of resources,
British naval flying had made progress, especially in the
advancement of carrier strike doctrine. These developments are
neatly illustrated by the experiences of Lieutenant William Lucy,
who was to become Britain's first accredited air 'ace' of the war
and to lead the world's first successful dive-bombing of a major
warship. Making extensive use of the family archive, this book also
reproduces many previously unseen photographs from Lucy's album,
showing many aspects of life in the Fleet Air Arm up to the end of
the Norway campaign. Although it is beyond the scope of this book,
in November 1940 the inter-war concentration on carrier strike was
to be spectacularly vindicated by the air attack on the Italian
fleet at Taranto - it inspired the Japanese to a far larger effort
at Pearl Harbor the following year, but the Royal Navy had shown
the way.
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