Covers the USS Stevens (DD-479), one of the 175 Fletcher-class destroyers, and considered one of the finest world War II warships of that type. číst celé
Waldemar Goralski Boeken
When, in the early 1930s, the Americans began modernizing their navy, they considered the replacement of old destroyers from the Great War as one of the most urgent tasks. However, the new projects, disappointed and dissatisfied the sailors. Some of these vessels were heavily overloaded (e.g. Sims class and early Benson ships), as a result some of the weaponry had to be removed. By proceeding with the design of subsequent series of destroyers, efforts were made to respect the Treaty restrictions (London, 1936). The originally formulated requirements envisaged a destroyer with a displacement of 1,600 tons and armament consisting of not less than 4.5-inch (127 mm) guns and 10 x 533mm torpedo tubes and a speed of 36 knots. There were six variants of vessels slightly different from earlier Benson and Sims classes. It soon became apparent that additional requirements could not be met within the limits of this displacement. This mainly concerned making space for a 28-mm quadruple automatic cannon and more powerful ASuW weapons.
The battleship “Nagato” was the first dreadnought equipped with a main artillery with a caliber exceeding 400 mm. It was armed with eight 406 mm (16 in) guns. The keel of “Nagato” was laid in 1917 in the naval shipyard in Kure. The ship was launched in 1919 and incorporated into service on November 15, 1920. The sister unit was “Mutsu”. Before the war, “Nagato” underwent many modifications and repairs increasing combat value of the ship. With the outbreak of World War II, “Nagato” became the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. The attack on Pearl Harbor was ordered from this battleship’s deck.
Clearly illustrated and effectively described; an excellent guide to the Japanese Battleship Kongo from WWII.
The German heavy cruiser PRINZ EUGEN was an enlarged version of the Admiral Hipper class ships.