The Battleships

Enriched with eye-witness accounts and contributions from naval experts around the globe, The Battleships explores the rapid evolution of firepower and battleship design from canvas to steam, timber to steel, muzzle-loading cannon to 18-inch guns, and beyond, to rocket launchers and missiles. As the spearhead of colonial expansion and in defence of the great empires the battleship reigned supreme, and in the wake of World War 1 Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the US competed in an arms race which focused on building maritime muscle ...