| ||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £11.85
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnought Era: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £11.85, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The new Hanoverian dynasty that came to power with the accession of George I in 1714 inherited the largest navy in the world. In the course of the century, this force would see a vast amount of action against nearly every major navy, reaching a pinnacle of success in the Seven Years War only to taste defeat in the American Revolutionary struggle, when it faced the combined navies of France, Spain, the Netherlands, and the rebellious colonies themselves. Considering the contribution to history of these ships, there is surprisingly little readily available on their careers. Now this gap is comprehensively filled by this superb reference book, outlining the service history of every ship, built, purchased or captured, that fought for the Royal Navy in the great wars of the eighteenth century - well over 2000 vessels.The book is organised by Rate, classification and class, with outline technical and building data, but followed by a concise summary of the careers of each ship in every class. This includes commissioning dates, refit periods, changes of captain, the stations where they served (and when), as well as details of any noteworthy actions in which they took part. It will enable anyone to follow up a casual reference to any warship, and will provide the researcher with a solid core of information on which to base further study. With nothing remotely like it in print, this is a work of the utmost importance to every naval historian and general reader interested in the navy of the sailing era.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a highly technical description of the development of fire control systems for main armament of the major navies of the twentieth century; as such it takes some concentrated reading; It is not for the faint-hearted. It is, however, an essential text for naval historians and anyone wishing to understand naval battles in the dreadnought era, since Friedman succeeds in establishing the intimate connection, first posited by Jon Sumida, between fire control, strategy and tactics. The research is prodigious, the mathematics frightening, the conclusions very exciting. It was Jon Sumida who first suggested that the Royal Navy before the first world war conceived a tactic designed to lure the German High Seas Fleet into its own preferred medium-to-short range, there to annihilate it; Friedman's work virtually confirms this ground-breaking thesis - and offers similar insights into other navies. It is deductive history at its very best.
Peter Padfield, author 'Guns at Sea', 'Maritime Dominion', Woodbridge 2009
Peter Padfield, author 'Guns at Sea', 'Maritime Dominion', Woodbridge 2009
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Some time ago I was standing in the fire control centre of the USS Missouri now berthed at Pearl Harbor looking at the technology and listening to the tour guide explain how it worked. When I saw this book on Amazon I wanted it but had to wait for it to be published. The wait was worth it. It has given me an insight into the workings big gun that is amazing. This book has opened me up to a deeper understanding of how these ships worked, the tactics they used and some interesting people who developed these tactics. This is the second Friedman book that I have on the subject of battleships and they are both outstanding. This is a must for anyone who wants to delve deeper into the technology that makes these ships tick. It certainly helped me get a better understanding of what went on at Jutland.
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a pretty technical history book. It's a study of the development of naval gunnery from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the big-gun era. The subject is vital for a proper understanding of the navies of the time, because the capabilities and limitations of fire-control systems shaped the doctrine of navies, and the expression of those doctrines in war shaped the history of the 20th century. The field started with Jon T Sumida, whose works are sadly out of print and has been touched on by many writers since. The previous gold standard in the field was John Brooks' "Dreadnaught Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland".
Friedman has excelled him by far.
There has been a fair amount of new research on this subject in the past few years. Much of it has been published in the journal "Warship International", where I've read it. It has been exquisitely detailed in its description of the mechanical computers that told gunnery officers where to point their guns, but lacking in appreciation of the effects that these systems had: the tactics shaped by them, and the ideas they prompted.
That gap has now been filled, and all of that research integrated into a narrative.
Naval Firepower is unusual in the way that it integrates analysis of the machinery, its development, and the politics that surrounded it, with the tactical ideas that it was designed to serve, and which were changed by the features of the systems. It has become, instantly, the primary text that everyone interested in the period needs to read, learn and digest. Friedman has produced definitive accounts of several strands of naval history. This book is that far rarer thing, a definitive analysis.
Friedman has excelled him by far.
There has been a fair amount of new research on this subject in the past few years. Much of it has been published in the journal "Warship International", where I've read it. It has been exquisitely detailed in its description of the mechanical computers that told gunnery officers where to point their guns, but lacking in appreciation of the effects that these systems had: the tactics shaped by them, and the ideas they prompted.
That gap has now been filled, and all of that research integrated into a narrative.
Naval Firepower is unusual in the way that it integrates analysis of the machinery, its development, and the politics that surrounded it, with the tactical ideas that it was designed to serve, and which were changed by the features of the systems. It has become, instantly, the primary text that everyone interested in the period needs to read, learn and digest. Friedman has produced definitive accounts of several strands of naval history. This book is that far rarer thing, a definitive analysis.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland
- Books > History > Maritime History > Battleships
- Books > History > Military History > Armed Forces > Naval Forces
- Books > History > Military History > Strategy, Tactics & Military Science
- Books > History > Military History > Weapons & Warfare > Conventional
- Books > Reference > Transport > Ships
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Warfare & Defence > Weapons & Equipment
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
