World War Two at Sea
The Last Battleships
by Philip Kaplan
Imprint: Pen & Sword History
Found in: World War Two Books
Maritime History Books,
Naval
Series: Images of War Books
Paperback
192 pages
ISBN: 9781783036387
Published: 19 February 2014
The big-gun battleship served as a symbol of the ultimate power of the
world's greatest navies beginning late in the nineteenth century and
continuing into the Second World War. So historically important was this
vessel that the arms race between Britain and Germany to build navies
with larger, more powerful battleships was among the key sources of
tension between those nations in the lead up to the First World War.
In this book, veteran battleship crew members describe their
unforgettable experiences, including those of a young officer in a
British battleship at Jutland; tales of the loss of the German warship
Scharnhorst in the arctic off the North Cape; the combat experience
inside a sixteen-inch gun turret aboard an Iowa-class battleship
bombarding Iraq during the Gulf War, and the adventures of HMS Warspite
in World War One, in the Mediterranean and on her way to the breaker's
yard in 1947.
Included too is the story of the great German battleship Bismarck, which
sank the pride of the British fleet, the story of HMS Hood, and that of
the USS Missouri on whose deck the final surrender document of the
Second World War was signed.
The text is combined with a compelling selection of historic images
representing the era of the great battleships from the early years
through the First and Second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War,
and the preservation of a handful of these vessels as museum pieces
today.
