In the hundreds of books written about battleships, the authors
tend to draw down the curtain on the careers of these great vessels
in September 1945, with the surrender of Japan. Yet, on that day
some ninety-eight battleships or ex-battleships might be spotted
around the world, and eleven of them were in or around Tokyo Bay
for the surrender itself. What happened to all those ships? This
new book takes a fresh look at the slow demise of the battleship.
It examines the decisions made by the major world powers after
1945, and their aspirations to retain battleships in their navies,
despite financial stringency. It places the history and role of
battleships after 1945 in their geo-political context, centred
around the Cold War and the need for the West to face down an
aggressive Soviet Union. It also examines the impact on battleships
of operational analysis of the Second World War and new
technological developments, notably the atom bomb and the guided
missile. The book uses the wealth of information from ship's books,
ship's logs and gun logs to document in considerable detail what
the ships actually did after the Second World War, with a
particular focus on those of the Royal Navy. It covers United
States battleship operations in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, as
well as the deterrent role played by battleships for NATO from the
1950s to the 1990s. Finally, it brings the story up to date by
documenting the preservation as museum ships of the eight
dreadnoughts which still exist today in the United States.
Extensively illustrated with photographs of the huge range of
activities of battleships after 1945, from their use as Fleet
flagships to Royal or Presidential yachts and more poignantly as
target ships, this new book will appeal equally to the historic
ship enthusiast and naval specialist, and provide a novel
perspective through a battleship-shaped lens on late
twentieth-century history for the more general reader.
General
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