HMS Thunderer was the third Orion class battleship, one of the Super Dreadnoughts built to counter German naval expansion, and was laid down one hundred years ago in April 1910. At 22,200 tons she was the largest ship ever built on the Thames but she was to be responsible for the bankruptcy of her builders, the Thames Iron Works. The author’s 1/96 scale museum-quality model of this ship reflects the massive engineering of the prototype and brings to life the power and potency of the Super Dreadnoughts. Every aspect of the building is covered, from the hull to wireless equipment, and all the different techniques required to bring a complex model battleship to completion are clearly explained, including casting in metal and GRP, silver brazing, soft soldering, metal fabrication in steel, brass, copper, aluminium and pewter, and lathe turning and milling operations for the production of guns and propellers. The author also covers the contemporary American battleship, USS Texas, the only remaining ship of that type and era, and an inspiration for any modeller setting out to tackle this subject. Not just a superb ‘how to’ manual, the book is also an eloquent testimony to the skills of the designers and the original builders as well as a wonderful evocation of the great ships that fought at the battle of Jutland. WILLIAM MOWLL has been building large-scale ship models for more than twenty-five years. His interest is focussed on the iron ships of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and he has completed superb models of SS Great Britain and HMS Warrior, both on display at the sites where the prototypes were built.

The launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 ushered in one of the most rapid periods of warship development in history; and only ten years after this all-big-gun, turbine-powered battleship was completed, two entire fleets of Dreadnoughts would meet at Jutland and put the work of the prewar designers to the ultimate test. The renowned warship author, D K Brown, examines the development of these vessels and looks at how wartime experience affected warship design. As well as battleships and battlecruisers, for the first time the developmental history of smaller vessels such as minesweepers, monitors and escort vessels, built in direct response to wartime needs, is described, as is that of the submarine and aircraft carrier. A detailed study is made of battle damage, including the role played by ammunition explosions in the loss of three British battlecruisers at Jutland. Also described are the postwar capital ship designs, killed off by the Washington Treaty, which are among the most fascinating might-have-beens of naval history. A classic work again available for historians and enthusiasts, detailing the development of all those ships that enabled the Royal Navy to rule the waves supreme and defend country and empire.

The World War I flying ace again fails to bring down the Red Baron.