Annapolis, 1995, Naval Institute press, first US edition, hard bound w/dj, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2, 192 pages, VG/VG condition, illus, maps, bibliog, index.
---------------- Since a simple cannon was first mounted on sailing ships and the warship was thus born, it has had but one principal resolve: to engage and destroy the enemy in action. In the early examples of sea warfare the guns were fixed and hence only by maneuvering the ship itself could they be aimed, and so after much aligning of fleets alongside each other the power and weight of the all important first broadside was truly decisive. Despite the huge advances in gun design, mounting, loading and aiming that accompanied the evolution of the warship, this single factor in naval warfare remained relevant throughout. Even in the final warship against warship encounters in late World War two after the gun had been eclipsed by naval air power, the commander who first fired the heaviest and most accurate salvo immediately influenced the odds in his favour.
----------------This then is the theme of this new study the hard-fought ship-to-ship battles where the gun was all-important, and where salvo after salvo were fired by the protagonists at all ranges from maximum elevation and distance to virtual open sights point-blank actions. Writing with years of experience of sea life, Bernard Edwards vividly recounts a varied selection of truly classic warships gun actions, emphasising the often sudden change from routine sailing to devastating and potentially lethal combat with an almost unseen enemy.
Specific actions include:• One of the earliest naval gun battles between ironclads at the Yalu River in 1894•
Celebrated battle honour epics such as the Falkland Islands in 1914 and Cape Matapan in 1941•
Night encounters in the Pacific or the busy English Channel•
Confused and fickle battles such as Dogger Bank and Heligoland Bight in 1914•
Lone duels to the death on the high seas such as Carmania and Cap Trafalgar in 1914 and Stephen Hopkins and Stier in 1942
Bernard Edwards skilfully sets the scene for each action, explaining the background to the naval war at the time as well as that of the individual ships involved before retelling the stirring and dramatic story of each actual clash. Throughout all accounts too there is the recognition that the warship against warship gun battle, while now part of naval history, was a unique experience that often epitomised the most splendid traditions of Naval History
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