The Battleship Holiday: The Naval Treaties and Capital Ship Design

by Robert C. Stern

Even as the First World War was ending, the victorious great powers were already embarked on a potentially ruinous new naval arms race, competing to incorporate the wartime lessons and technology into ever-larger and costlier capital ships – still seen as the ultimate arbiters of sea power. This competition was curtailed by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which effectively banned the construction of such ships for years to come, and mandated the scrapping of those under construction. This "holiday" was to have profound effects on design when battleship building was renewed in the 1930s, as later international agreements continued to restrict size and firepower.

This book investigates the implications of these treaties on technical developments, contrasting the post-war generation of ships that were never completed – or never even ordered – with the new designs of the 1930s, revealing just how much progress had been made in areas like fire control and armor despite the hiatus. An analysis of how well these modern ships stood the test of war concludes this intriguing and original contribution to the literature – a book that is certain to fascinate anyone interested in the final era of the big gun at sea.

272 pages, Hardcover

Published December 1, 2017

Reviews

[Michael Romo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book about the capital ships that came after World War I. Stern goes into detail about how the battles and ships of the war influenced the design of those that would come later. Another major influence were the naval treaties (think of them as arms control agreements) that would begin in the early 1920's and their technical influences on battleship design. the book is loaded with technical tables, diagrams and pictures of capital ships and is a must for naval enthusiasts. Stern also relates the fortunes of these ships in World War II.

[Raymond Hackney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Arthur J Marder's 5 volumes of "From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow" the year before last, and Stephen W Roskill's 2 volumes of "Naval Policy Between the Wars", last year, I thought it might be a good thing to read what a modern American histotian had to say on this subject.
I found several aspects of this book quite illuminating, especially about the problem of fire control of a battleship's main armament. I tried reading Friedman's book on this, but gave up. Also, the armour protection schemes of Battleships and Battlecruisers was very interesting. The specialised problem of torpedo protection, especially those designs in USN and Italian Battleships was also very interesting. How countries tried to design Capital Ships within the treaty conditions, (or not), was also absorbing reading. One small criticism - Why was the Alaska class omitted when the German "Panzerschiffs" were included? Perhaps this American author did not want to tell the story of this "dead-end ship design policy" that the USN persued towards the end of WW2.
I have read several other books by this author, and have always enjoyed them.
I am a great fan of Seaforth Publishing books - the standards are very high - both content and production values. All the books mentioned above are Seaforth publications.