For the late Horst Feistel, who loved battleships and what he called their zero-speed relatives, land fortifications.
Copyright © Norman Friedman 2015
This edition first published in Great Britain in 2015 by
Seaforth Publishing,
An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street,
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS
Email: [email protected]
Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada by
Naval Institute Press
291 Wood Road
Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5034
This edition is authorized for sale only in the United States of America, its territories and possessions and Canada.
First Naval Institute Press eBook edition published in 2016.
ISBN 978-1-59114-254-6 (eBook)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher.
The right of Norman Friedman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Typeset and designed by Ian Hughes, Mousemat Design Limited
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. TECHNOLOGY
2. THE APPROACH TO THE DREADNOUGHT REVOLUTION
3. ADMIRAL FISHER AND A NEW BATTLESHIP
4. THE FIRST BATTLECRUISERS
5. FOLLOW-ON DREADNOUGHTS
6. ‘WE WANT EIGHT’
7. THE ULTIMATE DREADNOUGHTS
8. THE EXPORT MARKET
9. WAR CONSTRUCTION
10. WAR
11. A NEW GENERATION
12. THE INTER-WAR BATTLE FLEET
COLOUR SECTION: Original Admiralty draughts
13. THE TREATY ERA
14. MODERNISING THE FLEET
15. THE END OF THE TREATIES: LONDON 1936
16. NEW BATTLESHIPS AT LAST
17. THE ‘ESCALATOR’ CLAUSE
18. WAR AGAIN
19. THE END OF THE BATTLESHIP ERA
Notes
Bibliography
Battleship Data
List of Ships
Index
ACNS = Assistant Chief of Naval Staff
ACNS(W) = Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Weapons)
ADO = Air Defence Officer
ADT = Assistant DNO (q.v.) for Torpedoes
AFCT = Admiralty Fire Control Table
AIO = Action Information Organisation
AP = armour-piercing
APC = armour-piercing capped (shell)
ASD = Admiralty Signal Division
BAD = British Admiralty Delegation
BD = between-decks (mounting)
C-in-C = Commander-in-Chief
CRBFD = close-range blind fire director
CCC = Churchill College Cambridge
CID = Committee of Imperial Defence
CNS = Chief of Naval Staff
CO = Commanding Officer
COW = Coventry Ordnance Works
crh = calibre radius head
D of D = Director of Dockyards
D of N = Director of Navigation
D of P = Director of Plans
D of TD = Director of Tactical Division (of Admiralty Staff)
DAS = Director of Anti-Submarine (Warfare)
DCNS = Deputy Chief of Naval Staff
DCT = director control tower
DEE = Department of Electrical Engineering
DFSL = Deputy First Sea Lord
DGD = Director of Gunnery Division
DNA&T = Director, Naval Artillery and Torpedoes
DNAD = Director of Naval Air Division
DNC = Director of Naval Construction
