Another fine product of collaboration between the publisher and the British National Maritime Museum Greenwich. This book provides access to original builders’ plans that previously were only accessible to museum staff and accredited researchers – Highly Recommended.
NAME: Battlecruiser Repulse, detailed in the original builders' plans FILE: R2965 AUTHOR: John Roberts PUBLISHER: Pen and Sword, Seaforth Publishing BINDING: hard back PRICE: £30.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWI, World War I, World War 1, First World War,The Great War, WWII, World War II, World War 2, Second World War, naval treaties, inter-war years, peace dividend, appeasement, armour, battle cruiser, heavy guns, speed, modification, adaptation, ships plans
ISBN: 978-1-5267-5728-9
IMAGE: B2965.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/y62g2h4a LINKS: DESCRIPTION: Another fine product of collaboration between the publisher and the British National Maritime Museum Greenwich. This book provides access to original builders' plans that previously were only accessible to museum staff and accredited researchers – Highly Recommended. The battle cruiser was in many respects a very disappointing concept. It did manage to carry heavy guns at much higher speeds but its reduced armour, to enable higher speed, proved a very vulnerable Achilles Heel. However, battle cruisers, such as HMS Repulse, served through two World Wars and between the wars were subject to major refits that updated the vessels to improve their survival in the changing world of naval warfare. This book carries two complete sets of general arrangement plans, 1916 and 1938, which show very clearly how the design was updated to meet the new threat of naval air power. The plans have been reproduced with clarity and concise text introduces, comments and provides captions and extended captions to support the images. One interesting update was the addition of a float plane for target spotting and calling back the fall of shot to the gunnery officer. Battleships and battlecruisers in British service were usually fitted with either a Walrus amphibian or a Swordfish fitted with floats. The Repulse plans show a Swordfish. Both types of aircraft have offensive capability, the Walrus being used on occasion as a bomber and the Swordfish as a torpedo bomber. As WWII progressed, radar was widely fitted to British warships and on big gun capital ships it replaced the spotter aircraft. As a result the aircraft were often deleted but that removed the useful secondary roles of communications transport and bombing. The publisher includes an important catalogue of detailed maritime history plan books with the serious enthusiast, naval historian and naval professional was parts of the primary market. However, the books have been very aggressively priced, enabling novices to acquire copies as they develop an understanding of naval architecture and challenges.