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WW2 BRITISH BATTLESHIPS AT WAR 'The Great Ships Pass'
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THE GREAT SHIPS PASS
British Battleships at War 1939-45
by
Peter C. Smith

First published 1977 by
William Kimber & Co. Limited, London

ISBN 0 7183 0175 7

A navy cloth covered book Gilt title to spine. - VERY GOOD condition in unclipped dust wrapper Very Good condition although beginning to tan; in proctective sleeve.

544 pages - book weighs 1kilo+ unwrapped

£34.00 + P & P

Jacket blurb

For centuries the safety and well-being of Britain and the inviolate position of her worldwide empire rested securely in the capable care of the Royal Navy. For most of that period the backbone of the fleet remained the ships-of-the-line, the battleships.

Although their position had been under challenge between the two world wars from more recently developed forms of warfare, the outbreak of World War II saw more than seventy new battleships under construction, larger and more powerful than ever before. Peter Smith in this comprehensive volume presents a fresh and often controversial re-appraisal of the sometimes underrated role played by the British battleship in the closing years of its long history. He covers all the actions in which they took part during this last phase, the hunting down of the Graf Spec, the dramas of the chase after the Bismarck and the sinking of the Scharnhorst; the drubbing administered to the Italian fleet at Spartivento and Matapan. He also describes the disasters — the sinking of the Royal Oak at Scapa Flow and the resulting controversy, the appalling tragedies of the loss of the Hood and the Barham—and the blunders: the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse and the damage to the Queen Elizabeth and Valiant. He relates the final stirring days of the offensive — the surrender of the Italian Fleet, the D-Day bombardments and the war in the Pacific.

This detailed and authoritative study of the battleship at war provides a worthy monument to the last days of Britain's battlefleet.

Contents

    Introduction
Chapter
    
I.
   Mistress of the Seas?
II.
   The New Conflict
III.
   Old Truths, New Lessons
IV.
   Mediterranean Battleground
V.
   The Broad Atlantic
VI.
   The Fleet in Being
VII.
   Broader Horizons
VIII.
   Supporting the Landings
IX.
   The Great Ships Pass
    Appendix 1: Chronology of the main events in the War at Sea
    Appendix 2: The World's Battlefleets in 1919
  Appendix 3: The World's Battlefleets in 1939
  Appendix 4: Battleship and Battle-Cruiser Losses 1939-45
  Index

Illustrations

        1. Royal Oak firing a broadside
        2. Queen Elizabeth in 1941
        3. Barham at Scapa Flow
        4. Repulse 'taking it green'
        5. Nelson as Flagship of the Home Fleet
        6. The armoured bridge structure of the Rodney
        7. Looking forward along Rodney's fo'c'sle
        8. Malaya and Ramillies
        9. Hood returns to Scapa Flow
        10. Admiral Cunnngham's Flagship, Warspite
        11. Renown at the Battle of Spartivento
        12. The unmodernised Malaya
        13. Revenge in the Indian Ocean
        14. The brand-new Prince of Wales
        15. Nelson damaged after Operation Halberd
        16. Hood before her last sortie
        17. Barham with the 1st Battle Squadron
        18. Barham on her beam ends
        19. Barham's magazine explodes
        20. The Valiant
        21. Prince of Wales arriving at Singapore Dockyard
        22. Repulse sails from Singapore
        23. Survivors abandon the Prince of Wales
        24. Warspite, Royal Sovereign and Revenge with Illustrious
        25. Resolution in the Indian Ocean
        26. King George V damaged after ramming and sinking Punjabi
        27. Valiant on patrol with Illustrious
        28. Anson on trials
        29. Royal Sovereign with the Eastern Fleet
        30. Royal Sovereign flying the Soviet Naval Ensign
        31. Howe on patrol in the Arctic
        32. Rodney bombarding enemy shore batteries
        33. Duke of York which took on Scharnhorst
        34. Ramillies in action in 1944
        35. Warspite on D-Day off the Normandy beaches
        36. Queen Elizabeth after refitting
        37. Renown, in her time the fastest Capital ship in the Royal Navy
        38. King George V arrives at Guam, 1945
        39. Anson in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
        40. Vanguard, the last of the line
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