Synopsis:
From authors' Preface: "Readers of this, our companion volume to British Battleships of World War II, may suppose that the form of this work, and the degree of reasearch it has required, will have followed the same lines, and while this is true to a certain extent, it should be borne in mind that, in its general scope, the history of the cruiser is considerably more complicated than that of the battleship. With cruisers there is a greater degree of overlapping of classes, and a wide variety of influences determined their numbers and characteristics, particularly during the 1930s. It has proven virtually impossible to treat all of the Second World War within the confines of a single chapter, because the events thereof do not lend themselves to a neat and logical exposition. In fact, even with three chapters devoted to the period from 1939 to 1945, an irreducible amount of duplication has proved unavoidable. A further problem has been lack of space. It must be remembered that in this book are described a total of 121 cruisers actually built, as against the mere 21 battleships of the previous work. From a strictly historical viewpoint, the story should start in the Victorian era, but because the most popular and - as yet - most familiar period of naval history is that from 1939 to 1945, it was decided to cover ships from the Arethusa class of 1912 up to the last of the conventional, all-gun cruisers, the Tiger Class of the late 1950s....We have made every effort to ensure that the text be complemented by the visual material and, to this end, have striven to find unusual and hitherto unpublished photographs. All the plans have been drawn using the official 'as fitted' drawings, or design and sketch plans as a foundation. In many cases, the plans depict configurations for which there are no directly dated official sets, and we hope that this will enhance the value of the book." Hardcover, 9.75x10 inches, 444 pages, illustrated throughout with B&W drawings, photos.
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