Pen and Sword Books: British Battleships 1919-1945

British Battleships 1919-1945 (7 reviews)
by

Found in: Maritime History Books
Naval: Iron & Steel,
All Seaforth Books,
Royal Navy
Hardback
432 pages
ISBN: 9781848321304
Published: 29 February 2012

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This superb reference book achieved the status of ‘classic’ soon after its first publication in 1993; it was soon out of print and is now one of the most sought-after naval reference books.

And with good reason. Offering an unprecedented range of descriptive and illustrative detail, the author describes the evolution of the battleship classes through all their modifications and refits. As well as dealing with design features, armour, machinery and power plants and weaponry, he also examines the performance of the ships in battle and analyses their successes and failures; and as well as covering all the RN’s battleships and battlecruisers, he also looks in detail at the aircraft carrier conversions of the WWI battlecruisers Furious, Glorious and Courageous.

British Battleships 1919-1939 is a masterpiece of research and the comprehensive text is accompanied by tabular detail and certainly the finest collection of photographs and line drawings ever offered in such a book. For this new edition the author has added some 75 new photographs, many of them having never appeared in print before, and the book has been completely redesigned to fully exploit the superb photo collection.

A delight for the historian, enthusiast and ship modeller, it is a volume that is already regarded as an essential reference work for this most significant era in naval history and ship design.

Burt’s works bring together a powerful combination of extensive photography, detailed large scale drawings, diagrams illustrating differences within classes, changes over time, and camouflage schemes, and lucid text describing development, realization, modifications and upgrades, service... [read full review]

Nautical Research Journal

The original version of this classic work was first published in 1993 and was so well received was soon out of print. This revised version contains no fewer than 70 new photographs - many of... [read full review]The original version of this classic work was first published in 1993 and was so well received was soon out of print. This revised version contains no fewer than 70 new photographs - many of which have not been previously published.

As one who also conducts professional research into historic ships, my first impression of this work was an immediate admiration of the outstanding detail which is included. Having now studied much of the content, I have concluded this is most probably `the' most comprehensive work on the subject of the British battleship ever produced and I really must congratulate both author and publisher on a fine product.

The minor differences between two sister ships are what makes those ships different from each other. In addition, the changes made during a refit are often sufficient to produce an almost different vessel altogether. As an example of such differences, across pages 102-103 are two line drawings of HMS Valiant - from 1924 and 1940 respectively. Of course, 16 years is a long time in the life of any warship and these two images reveal two virtually different battleships altogether. Alongside, the author has also included line drawings of other significant features depicting changes and other minor details such as; 1925 small RF fitted, 1932/33 training catapult and aircraft added, 1943 long upper yard fitted and so forth.

Elsewhere we find line drawings of most, if not all the ships covered by this book, cross sections, anti-torpedo bulges, armour layout, various types of early radar aerial, a potted history of battleship camouflage and much more besides. In short, this book is generously supported by many more line drawings, hundreds of high quality photographs, details of every aspect of these ships - including those which were converted to aircraft carriers, and all the particulars and descriptions required.

This is an excellent work which anyone with an interest in the overall subject will wish to own - including those serious model makers whose only interest is accuracy of detail and, whilst I am not given to predictions, I somehow think this definitive work will also soon become out of print.

Ned Middleton

The new edition is slightly longer than its predecessors and has 25% larger pages, which are of a somewhat better grade of paper. These changes have allowed the addition of 75 new photographs, the majority... [read full review]

The Australian Navy Magazine

Anything you ever wanted to know about Britain’s battleships in the 20th century is likely to be found in this redesigned second edition of a book first published in 1993. Notwithstanding its title, the book... [read full review]

Ships Monthly, January 2013

This is a welcome (and somewhat revised) reprint of a classic. RA Burt began as a collector of naval photographs and then expanded his interest to include what was clearly extensive primary research into the... [read full review]

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute

Here is the book Naval buffs have been waiting to see for years.

Sea Classics Magazine

Product Extracts

This has got to be one of the most accurate and definitive books on the subject. Not only is it laid out in a way that makes it easy to use but combines that with attention to detail which is often sadly missing from other books on the subject. The content is detailed and complete enough for the casual reader as well as those heavily in to the subject. I can not recommend this too highly.

by Paul Biddlecombe, 22nd January 2013

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British Battleships of World War One

by by Ray Burt

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