Book Review: Battleships: The War at Sea

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by Ingo Bauernfeind

Philadelphia: Casemate, 2019. Pp. 160. Illus., chron., diagr., biblio., index. $12.95 paper. ISBN: 1612006175

An Introduction to the History of the Battleship

The author of a number of works on warships and aircraft, Bauenrfeind has produced a very handy, impressively comprehensive overview of the history of the big gun capital ship. He picks up the story with the origins of the battleship in the ironclads of the mid-nineteenth century, caries it through the age of the great battlefleets and then to its decline just a century later, and concludes with a look at the handful of vessels preserved as war memorials.

Bauenrfeind covers every class of battleships, from the earliest ironclads through the Iowas, Bismarcks,, Yamatos, and the other ships of the last generation of battlewagons. Although tightly packed, Bauenrfeind manages to address the main technical aspects of the ships, and gives brief, but accurate summaries of wartime experiences. Naturally much has to be left out, but given the aim of the work, to offer a short introduction to the subject, this is acceptable.

Battleships: The War at Sea, a volume in the “Casemate Short History” series, is an excellent “first book” on the history of the battleship.

 

Note: Battleships: The War at Sea is also available in several e-editions.

 

StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium

 

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Reviewer: A. A. Nofi, Review Editor   


Buy it at Amazon.com

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