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).
A very interesting looking book, nice to see something that is not euro based and plenty of "what ifs" which is always interesting.
ReplyDeleteDonnie McGibbon,
DeleteIt is a very interesting introduction to the little-known South American arms race. As to the 'What ifs ...' ... well, I have a blog post in the drafting stage about the growth of the ABC navies in the latter years of the nineteenth century that will probably lead to even more!
All the best,
Bob
Bob -
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
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteThere were loads of complaints from the various shipbuilders and designers who bid for the Argentinian battleship contract because of the way the Argentinians had used the process to steal ideas from them. Personally, I think that the design they ended up with looks rather odd and unbalanced, and is definitely a bit of a 'camel' (i.e. it looks like it was designed by a committee!).
Something that might be of interest is what happened to the Chilean super-dreadnought Alimrante Latorre in 1941. She was in such good condition that both the Royal and United States Navies expressed an interest in 'borrowing' her. (There is even a story that the USSR attempted to buy her in 1939!)
In the end, this did not happen, but I must admit to having had thoughts about what she might have looked like had she been taken over and modernised. She could certainly have performed the sort of duties done by the UK's R-Class battleships and the USS Texas and USS Arkansas. Her ten 14-inch guns would have made her an excellent bombardment vessel even if her top speed (around 20 knots in 1941) would not have allowed her to act as a carrier escort.
All the best,
Bob