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Thursday, 15 December 2011

U.S. Battleships

I have written blog entries on previous occasions about my interest in warship design, and that quite a substantial part of my bookshelves are devoted to the storage of books on this subject. I recently had the opportunity to acquire a copy of Norman Friedman's 'U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History' ... and so I bought it!


As I already have copies of some of his other books about United States warship designs ('U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History', 'U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History', and 'U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History'), this new acquisition goes some way to completing my collection of his works.

13 comments:

  1. Bob,

    This unfortunately has nothing to do with your posting, but I did not know where else to put it.

    I just saw a special charity showing of the new movie War Horse, due to be released (at least in the U.S.) on Christmas Day. All I can say is wow...just, wow. This is by far the best WWI movie I have ever seen, better even that All Quiet on the Western Front. It looks at both sides, showing that the men, regardless of which army they served in, were ordinary human beings (for good as well as bad). The basic story line is excellent, too, but the attention to detail in uniforms, weapons, life in the trenches, etc., is simply unsurpassable. By all means see it. I know I will again, and I'll be getting a copy on DVD when it comes out.

    Best regards, and have a joyous holiday,

    Chris

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  2. Chris,

    I have heard great things about this film, as I did about the original stage show.

    I hope to see it myself when time permits ... and it is one war film that might wife might also want to see.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. I really enjoyed The First Destroyers by David Lyon. Lots of detail on some very interesting little vessels.

    Also looking forward to War Horse

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  4. Pat G,

    David Lyon's books are always worth their purchase price, and I have several of them on my bookshelves.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  5. Bob,

    I think your wife will like it. Mine was uncertain. Was it the scenes of mayhem and violence? No. The insanity of war? No. The death of characters you care about? No. Then what? A landlord in the early part of the movie is a little nasty about a tenant not paying the rent!

    Women! (shaking my head)

    Best regards,

    Chris

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  6. Chris,

    Many thanks for the recommendation. My wife is 'interested' ... which is better than I would have hoped for!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  7. Second the Lyons book. Couple of other nice modern books are 'War at Sea in the Ironclad Age' by Richard Hill and 'Birth of the Battleship - British Capital Ship Design 1870-1881' by John Beeler. However, if you really want a good book and manage to track one down - 'The Warships and Navies of the World' J.W.King. Trouble is, it was published in 1880......but there has been nothing like it published since!

    Rob

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  8. Xaltotun of Python,

    I have all three of these books on my shelves ... although the one by J.W.King is a reprint.

    I also have a copy of Oscar Parkes' book about British Battleships. This is a massive book in several senses of the term.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  9. Quite a nice paperback one I've got is American Battleships - A Pictorial History of BB-1 to BB-71 with prototypes Main& Texas - lists basically a fact file with pictures. I built up quite a Naval books collection a few years back - still adding to it - and in fact I'm starting to get back into it. Mainly making scratch built balsa pre-dreadnughts, but keep getting sidetracked on scale. Practically started to mass produce them in 10-12" (roughly 1/300th) scale, plus a couple around 18", nominal "28mm" types, though they are now more likely to be considered as 20mm.

    Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

    Rob

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  10. Xaltotun of Python (Rob),

    That is one book that I have not heard about!

    I have toyed building with warships that will fit in with my 15mm Colonial figures ... and some of them turned out quite well! (See here and here for some examples made from plasticard and FIMO(!).

    I am thinking of building some ships for my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War campaign, but they will be very 'cartoon' in style ... like this design.

    Have a good Christmas and a Happy New Year.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  11. Geordie an Exiled FoG,

    There are some excellent books about naval history and warship design mentioned in these comments.

    I would recommend all of them to anyone with an interest in these topics.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  12. If you want to look for it through the library loan system, ISBN 1-57510-004-5, first printed 1995, publisher Pictorial Histories Publishing Co, Missoula, Montana.

    http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/American_Battleships.html?id=J6mMOEyREsEC&redir_esc=y

    Rob

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