American Battleships: A Pictorial History of BB-1 to BB-71 with Prototypes Maine & Texas

IN A NUTSHELL: A BASEBALL CARD LIKE TREATMENT FOR EVERY BATTLESHIP Every American Battleship BB-1 to BB-71, which includes ships that were designed and never built or laid down but never completed, has its page along with a picture or illustration and some important stats, characteristics and highlights. Owing to the concise structure of the book, there is a repeating format making ship to ship comparisons easy and quick, but this is not a reader, and so everything presented is in point form. Think of each page as a baseball card and the picture is the player or in this case, the ship. The stats and everything you would have to know is there for every ship in exactly the same way and there are pictures to. SPECIFICS: THIS IS WHAT YOU WILL FIND FOR EACH SHIP + PHOTO or DIAGRAM * THE FIRST COMMANDING OFFICER * AUTHORIZED DATE * KEEL LAID - LAUNCHED - COMMISSIONED - SPONSORED * DISPLACEMENT STD. TONS - DISPLACEMENT FULL LOAD TONS * DESIGN CREW COMPLEMENT * MAIN GUNS - SECONDARY GUNS * CONSTRUCTION COSTS * ARMOR * LENGTH OVERALL - MAIN DRAUGHT * EXTREME BEAM * TORPEDO TUBES * CATAPULT * BUILDER - ORIGINAL ENGINE MFG. - ORIGINAL BOILER MFG. * ORIGINAL FUEL - DRIVE * SISTERS * DESIGNED SPEED - DESIGNED HORSEPOWER * DESIGN COMMENTS * HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS [this is most expanded comment depending on war record * DATE DECOMMISSIONED * COMMENDATIONS [battle stars] * FINAL DISPOSITION Before the stat-sheets outlined above, there are three interesting chapters titled, "CONSTRUCTION HISTORY", OPERATIONAL HISTORY", and "EPILOGUE". The Epilogue ends with a full page table titled,"UNITED STATES NAVAL ORDNANCE - 1895-1994" About these three chapters, all I'll say is that they are concise and full of usefully organized info, but I wish there was more. BONUS HERE: INCLUDES MANY INTERESTING SHIPS THAT WERE NEVER COMPLETED The South Dakota class of 1917 [BB49-54] which was designed and never built is included here as is the Montana Class [BB67-71]. Other ships and prototypes that were never completed are also included. BOTTOM LINE: PERFECT FOR FAST HANDY REFERENCE I pull this reference out frequently while I am reading other books when I want to know something quick about a ship. What size main guns and how many the ship had. What kind of propulsion system. What battles the ship might have been in, etc.. There is also a picture from the Bikini Atomic test on "Baker day", July 25 1946, just a moment after the detonation. The sight of the Arkansas [BB-33] frozen in a VERTICAL POSITION, perpendicular to the ocean, is a rather sobering sight and quickly tells the story of what happened to the Battleship era. What "American Battleships" does best is to simply keep a huge topic within a manageable scope and in a highly useful format. Most people will find most of what they want in this edition and they'll find it fast and in a format that makes comparison very easy. Best of all, this book is available at a very affordable price for a well ill

This book contains detailed info on every battleship that sailed under the american flag. One good thing about this book is that it includes at least one photo of each ship. Considering that some of these ships were built a long time ago, this is quite an accomplishment. A must have for fans of capital ships.

Max Newhart has created an excellent overview of Amercian Battleships. His work provides the reader with basic technical and historical information on each American Battleship from the Maine to the Montana class. This work enables students of naval warfare to follow the advancements in Battleship construction by simply turning the pages in chronological order. If you are seeking detailed information on individual ships you will need to look elsewhere. However, if you have a general interest in naval ships and you want to improve your knowlege of American Battleships this is a terrific book.

This book was great. I liked it because it included all the battleships built by the U.S. and those that were scheduled to be built, but never were. It gave a a good history on each of them and also a decade by decade insight of the political circumstances surrounding the building of battleships. Again, a very good book.