Great Ships

by Peter C. Smith

Authoritative study of the battleship in World War IIStirring episodes of naval combatCovers the famous chase after the Bismarck, the sinking of the Scharnhorst, the coastal bombardments on D-Day, and other actionsAlthough naval development before World War II focused on aircraft carriers, the British nevertheless had seventy battleships--larger and more powerful than ever before--under construction at the outbreak of the war. Indeed, one of the Allies' first successes came in December 1939 when British ships hunted down and successfully engaged the German Graf Spee off the coast of South America. The war would hasten the battleship's decline, but not before producing dramatic moments at sea.

Genres: History

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1977

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Born Peter Charles Smith in North Elmham, Norfolk, in 1940, eldest son of Ernest & Eileen. Educated at Hamonds School, Swaffham. Married Patricia nee Ireson 1963. Two children, son Paul David and daughter Dawn Tracey.

Editor Balfour Books, Cambridge; Cape Sun, London; World War II Investigator, London.

After living in London, Kent and Cambridge now resides in a north-Bedfordshire village with his wife and Annie the Black Labby.

Reviews

[Daniel Durr, · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Smith challenges conventional wisdom regarding the utility of battleships and battlecruisers in World War II. He effectively dismisses notions that they were obsolete at the war's beginning, and that they were completely vulnerable to aerial attack.

While this did become the case much later in the war, early on it wasn't completely true, particularly in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

He covers the history in depth of the Royal Navies battleships/battlecruisers, and in so doing manages to include much if not all the history of the capital ships of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the US as well.

A must read for battleship enthusiasts, but also for those that are interested in naval strategy in WW2, particularly those that like to go beyond the neatly packaged "common knowledge" that passes for history too often.

[Edward · Rating 1 out of 5]

Peter Smith is a bit of a battleship enthusiast, and there's nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, he often develops what could charitably called wrong ideas regarding their strengths and weaknesses, and his demagogic didacticism will remind you of this at every turn. He ludicriously proposes that the deeply-flawed Lion-class battlecruisers ought to have been retained, post-World War I, over the mediocre but far more useful R-class superdreadnoughts, apparently in total seriousness. He also seems to think that the retention of the entire World War I-era dreadnought fleet, in addition to a building contest with Japan and America, was within the realm of both political and economic possiblity for Great Britain.

If you don't mind slogging through nonsense like that on virtually every other page, there's some great history in here, too. But you do need to dig for it.

[Matthew Dambro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this many years ago. Good research and excellent writing. The heavily armored warship should be a part of the United States Navy.