The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers

Fülszöveg

THE COMPLETE ENCYCLOPEDIfl OF
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The armoured battleships of the world are undoubtedly the most awe-inspiring vessels ever to have sailed the seas. Progressively more heavily armoured and more powerfully gunned throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, these giants among warships ruled the oceans for somé 75 years. Only as the new technology of aerial warfare grew to maturity in World War II was their vulnerability to air attack cruelly exposed.
In this superb volume Tony Gibbons has chromcled the history of every one of the 324 classes of battleship and battlecruiser that were designed between the introduction of the first ironclad - the French Gloire - in 1860 and the appearance of the Soviet Union's 25,000-tonne rockét crniser Kirov in 1980. Each entry includes tabular data on launch and completion dates; builder; dimensions; engines and performance; armament; armour; crew; other ships in the class. The main text brings out important... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE COMPLETE ENCYCLOPEDIfl OF
MMMGS
íJya^nMfmíiaiiííHiiBLo'
The armoured battleships of the world are undoubtedly the most awe-inspiring vessels ever to have sailed the seas. Progressively more heavily armoured and more powerfully gunned throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, these giants among warships ruled the oceans for somé 75 years. Only as the new technology of aerial warfare grew to maturity in World War II was their vulnerability to air attack cruelly exposed.
In this superb volume Tony Gibbons has chromcled the history of every one of the 324 classes of battleship and battlecruiser that were designed between the introduction of the first ironclad - the French Gloire - in 1860 and the appearance of the Soviet Union's 25,000-tonne rockét crniser Kirov in 1980. Each entry includes tabular data on launch and completion dates; builder; dimensions; engines and performance; armament; armour; crew; other ships in the class. The main text brings out important aspects of the design and reveals how the ship's performance measured up to its specification. Service career detaüs are alsó given, and major re-refits and conversions are fully explained.
What is more remarkable, howe ver, is that Tony Gibbons has alsó painted arepresentative of every class of battleship in immaculate detail - the majority in full colour - so that for the first time an accurate visual record of these splendid ships is available to the public in a single volume. The amazing diversity of ship design is immediately apparent: from the graceful lines of the ship-rigged Warrior to the menacing profilé of Kirov, bristling with missiles and electronics, the evolution of the battleship unfolds before your eyes. Thirty-nine of the most significant ships are assigned a double-page spread each, and are shown in profilé, plan and front view, while subsidiary drawings throughout the book illustrate armament modifications, camouflage variations, conversions etc. The book is divided into sections decade by decade, and each section is prefaced by an introduction that examines the technological developments of the period, and the factors influencmg naval policy. The introductions include many rare historical photographs from the author's own archive, and line diagrams of turret structure, armour schemes, engine layout and the like.
Ali in all, this is a unique work of reference, and one that all naval enthusiasts will want to own. Vissza