Post by edrotondaro on Dec 27, 2022 17:58:48 GMT -6
Hi:
To all members of the NWS forums I present you a book review of one of the latest Osprey New Vanguard titles:
I present to you a review of Osprey Publishing’s newest title “Super-Battleships of World War II” (Osprey New Vanguard #314 by Mark Stille, 2022, $19). The title covers the last generation of battleship designs from the USN, Great Britain, Germany, Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union. So-called “Super-Battleships” because they were designed without any constraints of the various naval limitation treaties, that were in effect during the inter-war period. The classes covered are the Montana, the Lion, the H-class, the A-150 and the Sovetsky Soyuz class.
As most of the naval enthusiasts on the NWS forum know, none of these designs were ever built, indeed, only two of the Lion class and the first two of the H-class were ever laid down in a dock for the start of construction.
One of the strong points of this book is that Commander Stille (ret.) has managed to give the reader all the essentials in the limited format of the Osprey New Vanguard series which is 48 pages including index. Of the nine books that make up the bibliography, most are currently out of print, very expensive if you can find them and quite thick! So, the book is a godsend for battleship enthusiasts. Also, since in many instances, there is very little detail on the proposed ships, Stille is able to present the reader with pretty much the bulk of what was known about these last generation leviathans.
There is nothing quite like gargantuan weapons systems based on artillery to fire up the imagination of the military historian and more likely the wargamer! For the US and Britain, their final battleships reflected the strong, practical knowledge of tried-and-true systems. For the Russians who had the least amount of naval construction experience, their design was a culmination of foreign inspired ideas coupled with a need to impress the world with the Soviet state. When examines the German Japanese designs, one departs reality and enters the world of pure fantasy.
I won’t detail the full book, but there are useful tables on the shell weights for each proposed big gun as well as the basic statistics for each class of ship including displacement, speed, armor and armament. Each class is discussed based on the philosophies that drove the designs. For Britain and the US, it was a desire to reinforce their already substantial battlelines. For Germany and Japan, it was the need to substitute quality for quantity because they knew they would always be outbuilt. For Stalin and the USSR, it was prestige more than anything else.
The discussion of Germany’s H-class ships and Japan’s A-150 class will probably be the most interesting to naval buffs. The sheer size envisioned to provide that vital mix of speed, firepower and protection meant these ships would have been enormous. Neither Germany or Japan had a dock that could accommodate the proposed giants. Nobody had ever constructed a naval gun larger than 18.1 inches, so the proposed 20-inch guns were just a fever dream. One innovative idea was the development of super large marine diesels for the German ships to give them a design speed of 30 knots while allowing for an endurance of 16,000 nautical miles at 19 knots. The drawback being that such a power plant took up more space than conventional steam boilers and limited the number of secondary guns due to lack of magazine space.
The proposed successor to the Yamato class, the A-150 design has very little remaining information due to the fact that Japan destroyed numerous documents before being occupied by the Allies. It is assumed to be a scaled-up Yamato with increased armor and additional secondary batteries. The proposed main battery was six 20.1 inch/45 guns in three twin turrets. Considered how few Japanese ships were built during the war, there was no way this ship could even begin construction and like the Montana class it was abandoned in favor of carrier construction.
Most of the artwork shows either the proposed ship from above or in profile with the Montana and A-150 ships shown in full steaming at sea with guns raised for battle. Stille offers his conclusions on these ships and even gives us wargamers a hypothetical battle between the Montana and the A-150. I highly recommend this book to any battleship historian or naval buff.
To all members of the NWS forums I present you a book review of one of the latest Osprey New Vanguard titles:
I present to you a review of Osprey Publishing’s newest title “Super-Battleships of World War II” (Osprey New Vanguard #314 by Mark Stille, 2022, $19). The title covers the last generation of battleship designs from the USN, Great Britain, Germany, Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union. So-called “Super-Battleships” because they were designed without any constraints of the various naval limitation treaties, that were in effect during the inter-war period. The classes covered are the Montana, the Lion, the H-class, the A-150 and the Sovetsky Soyuz class.
As most of the naval enthusiasts on the NWS forum know, none of these designs were ever built, indeed, only two of the Lion class and the first two of the H-class were ever laid down in a dock for the start of construction.
One of the strong points of this book is that Commander Stille (ret.) has managed to give the reader all the essentials in the limited format of the Osprey New Vanguard series which is 48 pages including index. Of the nine books that make up the bibliography, most are currently out of print, very expensive if you can find them and quite thick! So, the book is a godsend for battleship enthusiasts. Also, since in many instances, there is very little detail on the proposed ships, Stille is able to present the reader with pretty much the bulk of what was known about these last generation leviathans.
There is nothing quite like gargantuan weapons systems based on artillery to fire up the imagination of the military historian and more likely the wargamer! For the US and Britain, their final battleships reflected the strong, practical knowledge of tried-and-true systems. For the Russians who had the least amount of naval construction experience, their design was a culmination of foreign inspired ideas coupled with a need to impress the world with the Soviet state. When examines the German Japanese designs, one departs reality and enters the world of pure fantasy.
I won’t detail the full book, but there are useful tables on the shell weights for each proposed big gun as well as the basic statistics for each class of ship including displacement, speed, armor and armament. Each class is discussed based on the philosophies that drove the designs. For Britain and the US, it was a desire to reinforce their already substantial battlelines. For Germany and Japan, it was the need to substitute quality for quantity because they knew they would always be outbuilt. For Stalin and the USSR, it was prestige more than anything else.
The discussion of Germany’s H-class ships and Japan’s A-150 class will probably be the most interesting to naval buffs. The sheer size envisioned to provide that vital mix of speed, firepower and protection meant these ships would have been enormous. Neither Germany or Japan had a dock that could accommodate the proposed giants. Nobody had ever constructed a naval gun larger than 18.1 inches, so the proposed 20-inch guns were just a fever dream. One innovative idea was the development of super large marine diesels for the German ships to give them a design speed of 30 knots while allowing for an endurance of 16,000 nautical miles at 19 knots. The drawback being that such a power plant took up more space than conventional steam boilers and limited the number of secondary guns due to lack of magazine space.
The proposed successor to the Yamato class, the A-150 design has very little remaining information due to the fact that Japan destroyed numerous documents before being occupied by the Allies. It is assumed to be a scaled-up Yamato with increased armor and additional secondary batteries. The proposed main battery was six 20.1 inch/45 guns in three twin turrets. Considered how few Japanese ships were built during the war, there was no way this ship could even begin construction and like the Montana class it was abandoned in favor of carrier construction.
Most of the artwork shows either the proposed ship from above or in profile with the Montana and A-150 ships shown in full steaming at sea with guns raised for battle. Stille offers his conclusions on these ships and even gives us wargamers a hypothetical battle between the Montana and the A-150. I highly recommend this book to any battleship historian or naval buff.
