The Navy Vol_49_Part1 1987 - Navy League of Australia

BOOKRIfllWS-BATTLESHIP NEW JERSEY: AN ILLUSTRATEDHISTORY"By PAUL STILWELL.Published hi Arms and Armour Press.Australian Distributor Capricorn Link. SydneyPrice $56.85Reviewed by "Gayundah".The visii by the USS MISSOURI lo Australia in late 1986 fot the 75thAnniversary of the RAN. was a huge successdisplay then great interest in the mighly "Dreadnought"almost religiouslyAs this issue ofNot only did the publicbut ihe mediamade her one of the principal stars ol the eventThe Navy" goes lo press, the USN has returned toservice three of its four remaining battleships NEW JERSEY IOWA andMISSOURI while the fourth. WISCONSIN, has just begun hermodernisationThe book. 'Battleship NEW JERSEY An Illustrated History is amassive publication 319 pages long which describes and illustrates thetechnical operational and human history ol the ship The book is the firstlo treat a current day warship in sue'USS MISSOURI will be number two in the series)From the beginningI spectacular style land I hope thatthe drawing board and then keel laying inSeptember 1'Mt). to commissioning in May 1943. then through herservice in the Second World War. post war activities, then reserverecommissioning for Korea and then to reserve againAfter being laid upfor ten years. USS NEW JERSEY was uncommissioned in 1968-6'). andafter another 13 years in reserve, was modernised as a missile and gunplatform to counter the increasing Soviet naval threatApart from this almost too brief description of the ship's career, thepreface describes the rationale behind the hookreproduced herePari of this preface is"To go to sea in the USS NEW JERSEY In the 1980s is lo have thesense ihat she has managed lo transcend the normal limitations of limeThis feeling probably becomes most evident al mghl as she glides throughthe dark sea. ihe water making a swishing sound as it travels from bow lostern and leaves a luminescent wake bvnealh ihe starlil skyWith thecoming of night, the eyes no longer focus on ihe details which commandattention during daytimeInstead, the imagination conjures thousands ofnights past when this majestic giant has also moved beneath these samestarsThe darkness obscures ihe changes which have been wrought, morder to make her again a potent weapon, as she was when she first looklo the sea two generations agoA look back from the NEW JERSEY'S forecastle fills one with acertain knowledge of why battleships have inspired awe for so long In theforeground loom sin gun harries, each longer lhan many warships arewidenight skyBeyond them is her towering superstructure, climbing toward thatAnd one can see. also, the ship's bridge, illuminated by a dimred glow, as il was more than forty years ago. when this was Admiral BullHalsey's flagship al Leyte Gulfwith the fast carriers off the east coast of Koreathirty five years ago. when she steamednearly twenty years ago.when her thunderous salvos of gunfire saved ihe lives of US Marinesashore in Vietnam, and much more recently, when she was protectingMarines in Lebanon Now. more than four decades after doomsayerscalled Pearl Harbour the end of the line for battleshipsshe steams on yetagain, with Ihe same red glow from the bridge, ihe same imposing superstructure, and the same guns, which have for so long been a source ofaweThis ship, designed in 1938, has accommodated to the passage oftime and, in a sense, triumphed over it through the installation of today'stechnology"During the nocturnal walk about the forecastle comes the realisationthai there is much more to ihe ship than steel, guns andHundreds of Navy men breathe life and purpose into herelementsmissilesinanimateIt is they who give her a soul and they who inherit the legacyfrom thousands of NEW JERSEY men who have gone beforeMany ofthem have probably had feelings similar to 'hose expressed by one ofHerman Wouk's characters in The Came Mutiny,with the idea of seeing Admiral Halseybetween ihe NEW JERSEY and the CAINE"" he askshere, the real Navy' "when he came aboardCan't you feel the differenceThis is the NavyThe number and quality of photographs in Ihe book is excellentwell as the traditional s'up views, attention has been given to life onboard.the years in reserve and refitting for the three recommissiomngsThose who prefer the lechnical side of the ship and her systems, arenoi ignored Particulars of the ship in 1943. 1945. 1953. 1968 and 198182. are suppoited by some excellent line drawings These are preceded bya brief design history of NEW JERSEYThe book describes the ship up to mid 1986. as NEW JERSEY wasagain at the forefront of her nation's naval mightAsA book of this typeprovides excellent reading and viewing and is thoroughly recommended"THE WORLDS AIRCRAFT CARRIERS 1914-1945"By ROGER CHESNEAU.Published by Arms and Armour Press.Distributed by Capricorn Link.This 64 page, glossy booklet provides a brief photographic look at theformative years of the aircraft carrier through to the end of the SecondWorld WarAll carrier navies are depicted with emphasis, because of numbers ofships, on the Royal NavyNavyUnited Stales Navy and Imperial JapaneseThe illustrations reflect the crude nature of the early ships, the use lo'Aimii surplus battleships and battlecruisers were put in the 1920s, andeventually, the purpose built earnersescort carriersAlso depicted are the "Jeep", or"BRITISH DESTROYERS IN WORLD WAR ONE"By R. A. BURTPublished by Arms and Armour Press.Distributed by Capricorn Link.Another 64 pager from the Warships Illustrated series, BritishDestroyers in World Wat One" illustrates the development of this type ofwarship from the 1893 vintage boats, through to the famous and longlivedV and W class, four of which later transferred to the RANsuperblyWith few exceptions, most of the photographs havereproducedThe picture of HMS PEYTON, in May 1915. is ihe best of agreat selection; the M class boat is shown in incredibly heavy weather,almost completely awashByGood value and good reading"BATTLECRUISER INVINCIBLE"V. E. TARRANT.Published by Arms and Armour Press.Australian DislnbutorsCapricorn Link.INVINCIBLE - ihe super cruiser, first of her type, was arevolutionary design, almost as far reaching in its significance as DREADNOUGHT herselfLarge fast and powerfully gunned, she could overtakeand destroy any enemy cruiser foolish enough to wander about the Britishtrade roulesThat was the concept As a cruiser, she was a monster al 17.000tons almost twice as big as her nearest German equivalentAt the time,she was the longest warship in the world, faster than any battleship, fastereven than the fastest German liner And she was the second mostpowerful warship in existence, with the ability lo hurl more than four tonsof high explosive at her foe every minuteINVINCIBLELongWell could she bear the namelean, ferociously handsome, she was to be the unchallengedguardian of the trade routes And In her first action, she vindicated herselfin that role With her sister ship INFLEXIBLE, she annihilated theGerman cruiser squadron of Von Spee al Ihe Firsl Battle of the FalklandsBut. as the First World War went on. and as naval strategy evolved.INVINCIBLE and her sister battlecruisers were called upon to perform adifferent role in the context of main fleet actions Now they would be thescouting force, fast moving to locate the enemy battlefleet. then lure itonto the guns of the battleshipsAnd here their speed would not besufficient compensation for the tack ol armour lhat had been necessary toattain those extra knotsAt Jutland, INVINCIBLE perished m dramaticstyle under a hail of shells, blowing up spectacularly and breaking in twoOf her ship's company -— more lhan a thousand men — only six survivedAs first of the battlecruisers. she promised much, but her Achilles,heel — inadequate armour to face battleship guns — was inherited by afamily of beautiful, flawed warshipsAnd. 25 years later, the last of theline. HOOD, was to explode in exactly the same way under fire fromBISMARCKPage Twenty-fourTHEIAVY April-June, 1987