Destroyers: An Illustrated History by Anthony Preston

Hardcover 22x30 cm, 224 pages. Old Navymen still say "you have to serve on a destroyer if you want to find out what the Navy's all about." Like frigates of earlier times, the destyoyer is the classic modern warship. In both world wars destroyers were called upon to carry out some of the most daring and important missions in Naval history - from the heroic attack on the High Seas Fleet at Jutland to the incredible dual with the Japanese super battleships at Leyte Gulf. Destroyers were the cavalry of the Navy, highly trained men in fast well-armed ships designed to attack the enemy fleet with torpedoes. But unlike the cavalry, destroyers were more than an elite; they became all-purpoose fighting ships, anti-aircraft escorts and submarine killers. No commander in World war 2 ever had enough destroyers, for his battleships and carriers dared not put to sea without them, and even 25 year old veterans of World War 1 played their part as convoy escorts. The destroyer-tradition bred first-class fighting men, and most of the well-known admirals made their name in destroyers - Cunningham, Mountbattemn, Arleigh Burke and Tanaka. The destroyer battles of World War 2 are among the most famous of all time: Narvik, the sinking of the Bismark and Scharnborst, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. For the British destroyers, Dunkirk was probably their finest hour, when they evacuated more soldiers than any other type of ship, in some cases 1500 men at a time. For the Americans it was Okinawa, when the radar picket line stood alone against the Kamikazes, or Leyte when dstroyer escorts fought the Yamato. The conditions aboard the destryers varied from spartan to awful. They 'rolled on wet grass', their slender hulls plunged through the waves rather than over them, and in battle everyone knew they were expendable. Yet all destroyer-men loved their 'boats', as the British called them, or 'cans' to the US Navy. This book recaptures the highlights and personal flavour of destroyers and the men who made them so famous. In this lavishly illustrated volume noted historian Antony Preston relates the exciting saga of the great destroyers of all the maritime powers. Rare photos, maps and cut-away drawings embelish a text that is as rich in technical detail as it is in anecdote and fast-paced narrative. Destroyers is a unique and necessary addition to the personal library of anyone interested in ships and the sea. 9781902616018 Parkgate books