Battleships: United States Battleships, 1935-1992 [Hardcover]

William H. Garzke (Author), Robert O. Dulin (Editor), Thomas G. Webb (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1995 | Series: Battleships (Book 1)

Part of a three-volume set on the world's battleships, this book provides a comprehensive history of all U.S. Navy battleships and battlecruisers built, designed, or projected built since the early 1930s. It covers their design and construction, operational careers, and eventual disposition. Complete plans are presented for many classes as well as extensive technical data covering their characteristics and performance, information that is sometimes hard to find and often contradictory. The operational careers of the ships are chronicled in detail. Incidents that challenged a ship's design adequacy, particularly from the standpoint of damage resistance, are discussed. Originally published in 1976 with the subtitle U.S. Battleships in World War II, the book has undergone significant revision. Not only has it been brought up to date with the addition of a new chapter covering the Iowa-class reactivation through 1992, but the book now includes revelations uncovered in newly accessible material. The authors offer a complete description and analysis of the tragic turret explosion aboard the USS Iowa in April 1989, with conclusions that differ from those widely reported by the media and from those officially presented by the Navy. In an appendix, they bring to light for the first time the full extent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's involvement in the shaping of the U.S. fleet and credit him with influencing the design, construction, and deployment of battleships and battlecruisers built during his administration. For example, they cite Roosevelt as the individual responsible for the speed and endurance of the Alaska-class battleships and the design and construction of the Alaska-classbattlecruisers and for controlling the number, general characteristics, gunnery, and anti-aircraft armament of other classes as well. In addition, this massive work now offers information about the secret development of accurate long-range major-caliber gunfire control in the period

Product Details

• Hardcover: 386 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press; Rev Upd Su edition (April 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557501742
• ISBN-13: 978-1557501745
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you don't have this book, you are NOT a Battleship person, May 10, 1997

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Battleships: United States Battleships, 1935-1992 (Hardcover)

Bill Garzke and Bob Dulin have outdone themselves again. When I was the structural project leader to direct the hull and armor redesigns for the reactivation of the Battleship NEW JERSEY at Long Beach Naval Shipyard (the planning yard for the Battleships), we used their earlier edition of this book as our general guide. Two members of my design team brought in their personal copies and kept them handy so I could include excerpts from them for official Navy memos and instructions. The Naval archives were sorely lacking detailed chemical and heat treating records of the Class A and Class B armor of the Battleships. A quick phone call to Bill Garzke gave me an armor expert on the west coast that had all the data our designers and welding engineers needed. Thanks, Bill. I owe you one. The only thing I have found missing from this edition is the fantastic Gibbs & Cox scheme D Battleship that was half Battleship and half Aircraft Carrier and was actually bought by the Soviet Union in WW II, but never built. In this edition, perhaps the most important section is the one devoted to the disasterous incident of turret II on the IOWA where 47 men were killed. The authors go into meticulous detail as to actual facts and almost every conceivable theory as to what caused the deflageration (not an explosion). However, they are properly cautious as not to force their personal opinions on the reader. Yet they give enough detail, including histories of past turret incidents on other Battleships, so the reader can draw his own conclusions. There are a few typos and descrepancies between the text and the illustrations. For example, the text correctly identifies the powder in the propellent bags as D846 where the illustrations identify it as B846. Also, the elevation sketch indicates that the heavily armored turret bustle hatch was blown off when in fact it was the turret bustle hatch ACCESS PLATFORM below the bustle (overhang) that was blown over the side. But these are miniscule descrepancies only an "insider" like me would know (I was tasked to write a repair procedure). All in all, it is unthinkable that any true Battleship historian or lover would be without this book. Actually, both the 1976 and this 1995 edition should be in every Naval Architect's library. Richard A. Landgraff DREADNAUGHT CONSULTING Long Beach, California

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As detailed and exacting as can be, December 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Battleships: United States Battleships, 1935-1992 (Hardcover)

Every major class of battleship is described in meticulous detail. From design to outcome this book has it all.

Be warned, this book also contains extensive technical information, so if you are interested in narrative storytelling look elsewhere. This book is for the true devotee of battleships.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comparison of revised 1995 with 1976 original, April 28, 2005

By 

Alister (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battleships: United States Battleships, 1935-1992 (Hardcover)

The book is excellent and I echo other reviewers' sentiments on that score. I bought this to 'upgrade' on the original, so I think it may be of interest to prospective buyers to know that this isn't simply the 1976 edition on better paper and with extra chapters. Owners of the 1976 printing may wish to hang on to that as well as buying this 1995 edition.

Some half-dozen photos, maybe slightly more, have been substituted for this 1995 edition and, whilst the new pics ARE generally better, it is a change to an old friend. I was certainly disappointed to find the superb graphic profiles of 1976 reduced from a double-page, fold-out spread to a single page: the reprinted line-drawings are, naturally, half the size & it is more difficult to discern details. For this I deduct a half-star.

A minor niggle overall, I accept, and the extra text with accompanying photos has certainly made the purchase worthwhile at this price (especially re the turret deflagration). Alas, I shall not now be selling on my original, as I had planned. My poor bookshelf...