Military Model Scene

Title: Super Destroyers
Author: Robert C. Stern
Publisher: Seaforth Publications
ISBN: 978-1-5267-7745-4

From the Torpedo Boat Era to the Dominant Surface Warship of Today, a large new 256-page hard-cover book from Seaforth Publications, part of Pen & Sword.
The eleven chapters start at the beginning of the story, when a torpedo was a charge on the end of a pole, extended from the bow of a small boat, that had to be sailed right up to the target and 'rammed' home. Th book goes on as it takes us through the evolution of the class of vessel we know best as a destroyer, plus the weapons they carried and the torpedo in particular. Those early boats were very small, and the torpedoes primitive. To enable them to be more seaworthy, they grew much larger and we see how much competition there was between the major naval powers to define the role/purpose of a destroyer and to refine the designs and armament of the ideal vessel to fulfil that role. British, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and American vessels are all featured. The combat experience of WW1 fed the growth of the design of destroyers, as it did other warship types, and the growth in costs also led to a drive to control them, beginning with the Washington Conference, and later another in London. While some nations managed to find some agreement, others chose not to join in. Then we get to WW2 and more combat experience and changes in destroyer capabilities. Well known classes include the Tribals of the Royal Navy, the Fletcher and Sumner class of the US Navy along with much more. After the war, as the gun armament became less important, the missile and other systems became more important. It has also seen changes in the navies who field these new ships. The Royal Navy was/is not the power it once was. America and Russia became the new superpowers, and even Russia has fallen by the wayside as the Cold War broke them, and today it is the new world economies that are emerging, such as China and India.
In addition to the very readable text, the details of many important classes are featured, giving the basic statistics of each type, and their good and bad points. Not all designs were successful, and the modern US Littoral Combat Ships, even the angular Zumwalt class have been less that successful. Overall it makes for a really interesting story of evolution pus it is very heavily illustrated throughout, with a lot of great detail which warship enthusiasts and modellers will enjoy I think.
Thanks to Seaforth/Pen & Sword for the review copy.

Robin