This illustrated naval history presents a comprehensive study of French battleships constructed after the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.The French battleships of the Dunkerque and Richelieu classes were the most radical and influential battleship designs of the interwar period, and were coveted by the British, German and Italian navies following the Armistice of June 1940. Using a wealth of primary-source material, this volume provides a full acc...

A technical analysis and pictorial history of the French navy cruisers built in the early to mid-twentieth century.The French produced some of the most striking and innovatory interwar cruiser designs. A large amount of new information about these ships has become available over the past twenty years in France, but this book is the first to make this accessible to an English-speaking readership.Part I explains the design philosophy behind each of the classes ...

"An important work for anyone interested in warship design, the naval side of World War II in the Mediterranean, or modern Italian history."—New York Military Affairs SymposiumFor its final battleship design Italy ignored all treaty restrictions on tonnage and produced one of Europe's largest and most powerful capital ships, comparable with Germany's Bismarck class, similarly built in defiance of international agreements. The three ships of the Littori...

The most comprehensive English-language study of the German Imperial Navy's WWI battlecruisers, fully illustrated with drawings, diagrams and photographs.In this in-depth study, naval historian and author of Battle on the Seven Seas Gary Staff presents a full analysis of Imperial Germany's battlecruisers. Known as Panzerkreuzer, the eight ships of this class were involved in several early North Sea skirmishes before their historic victory against the Royal...

"An extraordinarily detailed account of the development of Royal Navy cruisers . . . a towering work" from the author of Fighting the Great War at Sea ( Warship 2012).For most of the twentieth century, Britain possessed both the world's largest merchant fleet and its most extensive overseas territories. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Royal Navy always showed a particular interest in the cruiser—a multipurpose warship needed in large num...

The acclaimed naval historian presents an authoritative study of how the 1930 Treaty of London influenced warship design in the years before WW2.After the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 put a cap on the construction of capital ships and aircraft carriers, the major navies of the world began building 'treaty cruisers' and other warships that maximized power while abiding the restrictions. As the French and Japanese excelled in this arena, Britain and the United Stat...

The conception and evolution—through inter-war tensions, global war, and years of Cold War hostility—of the Royal Navy's large fleet destroyers.The Tribal class destroyers are heroes of the Altmark incident, of the battle of Narvik, and countless actions across all theatres of operation. Yet there has been surprisingly little written about these critical ships, still less about their wartime successors, the Battle class, or their postwar incarnations, the Daring cla...

A 1955 military memoir offering a first-hand account of life in the British 7th Armoured Division during World War II.Few accounts of the tank battles in the Western Desert during the Second World War have provided so vivid an evocation as Cyril Joly's classic account Take These Men. In such inhospitable conditions, this was armoured warfare of a particularly difficult and dangerous kind.From 1940 to 1943, battles raged back and forth as one side o...

The work of explorers, surveyors and spies in the race to conquer Southern Asia is vividly recounted in this history of British imperial cartography.In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires were engaged in bitter rivalry for the acquisition of Southern Asian. Although India was the ultimate prize, most of the intrigue and action took place along its northern frontier in Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. Mapping the region and gaining knowledge of the ene...

A detailed history and analysis of the most controversial amphibious operation in the Pacific during WWII: the Battle for Peleliu.On September 15, 1944, the United States invaded the tiny Pacific island of Peleliu, located at the southern end of the Palau Islands. Boasting a large airfield from which the Americans could mount bomber campaigns, Peleliu was a strategically essential part of Gen. MacArthur's long-awaited liberation of the Philippines. With the famed 1...

" This superb book . . . will undoubtedly become the definitive volume on British Aircraft carriers and naval aviation . . . magnificent."—Marine NewsThis book is a meticulously detailed history of British aircraft-carrying ships from the earliest experimental vessels to the Queen Elizabeth class, currently under construction and the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy. Individual chapters cover the design and construction of each ...

A military logistics expert analyzes the detailed coordination employed by the British during the Falklands War in 1982.While many books have been written on the Falklands War, this is the first to focus on the vital aspect of logistics. The challenges were huge: the lack of preparation time, the urgency, the huge distances involved, and the need to requisition ships from trade to name but four.After a brief discussion of events leading to Argentina's invasio...