In the run up to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, there were two international naval arms races taking place: the one between Britain and Imperial Germany and a second that saw Argentina, Brazil, andChile competing with each other for naval supremacy on the South American continent. SOUTH AMERICAN BATTLESHIPS 1908–59: BRAZIL, ARGENTINA, AND CHILE'S GREAT DREADNOUGHT RACE tells that story in a quick and easy to read way.
The book is split into the following sections:
- Introduction
- Design and Development
- Enter the dreadnought
- Brazil starts an arms race
- Argentina and Chile join the race
- The race unravels
- Operational History
- World War I
- Between the Wars
- World War II and afterwards
- The ships
- Minas Geraes class
- Rio de Janeiro (later the Turkish Sultan Osman I and then HMS Agincourt)
- Riachuelo
- Rivadavia class
- Almirante Latorre
- Almirante Cochrane/Eagle
- Bibliography
- Index
This naval arms race provides lots of opportunity for those naval wargamers who like to fight 'What if ...?' battles, especially if one includes the battleships that were projected but which never saw service with a South American navy (e.g. the Riachuelo and the Almirante Cochrane).
SOUTH AMERICAN BATTLESHIPS 1908–59: BRAZIL, ARGENTINA, AND CHILE'S GREAT DREADNOUGHT RACE was written by Mark Lardas, illustrated by JB Illustrations (Julian Baker) and Johnny Shumate, and published in 2024 by Osprey Publications (ISBN 978 1 4728 2510 0).
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A very interesting looking book, nice to see something that is not euro based and plenty of "what ifs" which is always interesting.
ReplyDeleteBob -
ReplyDeleteAnother great resource, by the sound of it. Excellent and handy find. I had a quick look at my rather battered 2nd hand copy of David Miller's 'Warships' (short title), and, to my delight (and, I hope, to your delectation) read this:
'Rivadavia ...
[C]ompleted ... in response to ... battleships then being built in Britain for the Brazilian navy. The design included a variety of influences, resulting from the way in which the orders were placed. An Argentine office was set up in London in 1908 which issued a set of rather broad requirements to a number of interested shipbuilders, fifteen of whom responded. The Argentine design office then selected the best features of each design and issued issued revised requirements, which caused considerable umbrage among the companies concerned, many of whom felt that commercial confidence had been breached. The discontent was increased when the contract was awarded to a US company ... '
One simply has to respect a navy with that kind of history going for it!
That South American navies did build - or had built for them - major capital units I didn't know. My 'Mighty Armadas' might yet find a place in my Orotinian wars...
Cheers,
Ion