A highly illustrated guide to the main battleships of the 20th
century.
For centuries, battleships provided overwhelming firepower at sea. They
were not only a major instrument of warfare, but also a visible emblem
of a nation's power, wealth, and pride. The rise of the aircraft carrier
following the Japanese aerial strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941 highlighted
the vulnerabilities of the battleship, bringing about its demise as a
dominant class of warship. This book offers a detailed guide to the
major types of battleships to fight in the two world wars. Explore HMS
Dreadnought, the first of a class of fast, big-gun battleships to be
developed at the beginning of the 20th century; see the great capital
ships that exchanged salvos at the battle of Jutland, including the
German battlecruiser Derfflinger, which sank the British battleship
Queen Mary; find out about the destruction of HMS Hood, which
exploded after exchanging fire with the Bismarck, which itself was
sunk after a trans-Atlantic chase by a combination of battery fire and
aircraft-launched torpedoes; and be amazed at the "super-battleship"
Yamato, which despite its size and firepower, made a minimal
contribution to Japan's war effort and was sunk by air attack during the
defense of Okinawa.
