British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy's Battleships and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946

by Alan Raven, John Roberts

This lavishly-illustrated volume, first published in 1976 and back by popular demand, presents the full story of the design and construction of every British battleship and battlecruiser class that served in World War II--from the Queen Elizabeth class to the Vanguard. Noted authors Alan Raven and John Roberts include a comprehensive review of each ship's initial configuration and refits as well as developments in weapons, gunnery, fire control, radar, protection, and propulsion. There are also sections devoted to combat actions involving British battleships and comparisons with battleships of other navies. Six hundred photographs and illustrations, including sixteen fold-out pages, complement the authoritative history of the vessels. 436 pages. 300 photographs. 300 illustrations. Hardcover. 9 x 11 inches.

436 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1976

About the author

Alan Raven is a British-born naval historian, illustrator, and professional ship-model builder whose work frequently appears in modelling magazines.He was formerly editor of Combat Fleets.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Well-written, and very comprehensive. The book spends most of its time on the development history of British battleships and battlecruisers from the Queen Elizabeth class through to Vanguard, and then has a chapter on their service during the Second World War, and then a chapter on the technical progression of key battleship systems during the war, finishing up with a chapter comparing British battleships with their contemporaries (which puts more recent efforts one might find on the web, even at otherwise respectable sites like combinedfleet.com, to shame, despite being a number of decades earlier!)

The meat of the book is the design history of the ships, and this covers both the initial building and then the smaller and larger reconstructions in the interwar and early WW2 period (as well as the additions during the war). The writers have an excellent understanding of why things were important, and highlight the key factors that played into why a system worked or didn’t.

The main blemish is that while the writing is very well edited, there are some typos in the data presented. In many cases, these are obvious, but in some cases it would not be clear to a reader whether it was a typo or not. It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that the book contains numerous figures, and that the number of issues is very small in context.

There are numerous illustrations, but these suffer a little due to the quality of image reproduction not being as good in the 1970s as it is now. There are also many diagrams and tables of information, and three appendices, on the guns, fire control, and Rodney’s gunnery action during the sinking of Bismarck. There is also a bibliography and index. All-up, it’s an excellent all-round package.

I haven’t read Ray Burt’s or Norman Friedman’s takes on the British Battleship yet, so can’t compare them (but I expect both to be good based on their form), but despite its age, this book stands up very well in comparison to similar, more modern books on other ships I’ve read. Highly recommended for anyone interested in British battleships, or battleships in World War Two more generally.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive book on the subject.