Spellmount Military Handbooks – Serie

This highly illustrated and informative book is a collection of the most important surface and undersea vessels that served between 1939 and 1945 and each vessel is illustrated by a black and white photograph, accompanying text and specification tables. Surface ships and submarines played a key and vital part in World War II. In the Atlantic the German Navy used its major surface ships, such as the Bismarck, Tirpitz and Graf Spee, as raiders, while under the waves the U-boats sank a total of 222 British merchant ships between September 1939 and March 1940 alone. In the Pacific, combat between groups of American and Japanese carriers decided command of the ocean and the outcome of the naval war in this theatre whilst US submarines sank almost the entire Japanese merchant fleet. The aircraft carrier overtook the battleship as the capital ship and so this book includes the most significant carriers that saw service in the conflict, including the British Ark Royal, American Yorktown and Japanese Kaga. The main battleships of the war are also present: Yamato, Vittorio Veneto, Richelieu and King George V.

A compendium of the world's most important and technologically advanced military surface and under-sea vessels including details on cruisers, destroyers and frigates plus information on the massive nuclear-powered aircraft carriers currently afloat around the world. Surface combatants include cruisers, destroyers and frigate - ships that are tasked with combat operations against hostile submarines, surface ships, aircraft, missiles and targets ashore. Also included is the massive nuclear-powered aircraft carriers currently in service such as the French carrier Charles de Gaulle, the British HMS Illustrious and the giant carriers of the US Nimitz class, such as the USS George Washington. Submarines include the massively powerful Ohio class ballistic submarines and the Seawolf class attack submarines.The text entries discuss the capabilities of modern naval vessels, such as the ability of ballistic missile submarines to target and destroy every capital city in the northern hemisphere using independently targetable nuclear warheads plus the attributes of the weapons equipping today's naval vessels including the Sea Sparrow surface missile system and the Phalanx close-in weapon system. Colour photographs and specification tables for each vessel include type, crew, length, beam, draught, displacement, range, speed, operating depth, powerplant, missiles, guns and much more.