HMS Duke of York was the third of the King George V class battleships to be built after a lull in battleship design and construction following the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty. The battleship was laid down on May 5, 1937 at John Brown & Company Limited, Shipbuilding & Engineering Works in Clydebank, Scotland. She was commissioned four and a half years later, on November 4, 1941.

This fully illustrated volume details every aspect of the WWII battleship, from plans, building, and modifications to active service and final breaking. Built in 1937, the HMS Duke of York enjoyed a distinguished wartime career that included sinking the German battleship Scharnhorst in 1943 and serving as the flagship of the British Pacific Fleet in 1945. This study of the iconic King George V-class battleship offers comprehensive and detailed documentation in plans, photographs, and text. The core of the book is the reproduction in full color of a complete set of as-fitted plans of the ship, including many details and close-ups. These are complemented by a thorough set drawn after the ship’s major refit in March 1945, showing all the modifications undertaken to prepare the ship for service alongside the US Navy in the Pacific. Photographic coverage begins with the stunning views taken by the builder’s cameraman during every stage of construction, continues with many shots of her active service, and concludes with an illustrated chronology of the breaking up. The accompanying text is as enlightening as the illustrations, resulting in a complete portrait of a great ship in all its complexity.

This book is a compilation in which we will find in one place the stories of all the British King George V Class battleships. Author describes their history in the order in which they entered the service, devoting much attention to their construction, precisely describing the differences among others. Going back to the history of the service, trying not to forget about the many curiosities in this policy and people who have a direct influence on their fate. Many excellent quality photographs primarily from private collections. All the ships are described and illustrated with full technical specifications. Profusely illustrated with scale drawings and colour illustrations.

At the beginning of the 1930s Britain was obliged not to build new battleships due to signed naval treaties. Standard displacement for any new battleship was limited to 35,000 tons with the caliber of main armament not exceeding 406 millimeters.Britain was trying to impose the next treaty decreasing guns caliber even further to 356 mm.Five King George V-class battleships eventually were armed with guns of such caliber.Standard displacement limits compelled placing main guns in three separate turrets with two of them carrying four cannons each. King George V-class entered service in 1940. Out of the five battleships of this class ever built one was sunk (HMS Prince of Wales) while the other four survived the war and were scrapped in the 1950s.This book by Witold Koszela starts with the set of perfectly made detailed line drawings/scale plans of all King George V-class vessels.REVIEWS ...page after page of detailed line drawings...provides a vast amount of detail of great use to model makers.. very clearly and logically organized, making it easy to locate material.Nautical Research Journal

The battleships of the Kongō class were the oldest, smallest, and fastest battleships in the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII. Initially classified as battle cruisers, the lead ship in the class, Kongō, was built in England just prior to WWI. The remaining three ships in the class--Haruna, Kirishima, and Hiei--were all built and completed in Japan by 1915. All four ships were highly reconfigured in the 1920s, and they were reclassified as battleships in the 1930s. The four Kongō-class ships were the most active among the 12 WWII-era Japanese battleships and saw heavy combat throughout the war in such major campaigns as Pearl Harbor, Midway, Guadalcanal, and Leyte. All four ships were sunk by Allied forces by war's end. This book features rare Japanese primary source material, including numerous photos, line schemes, and detailed charts.

This fleet of 28 accurately detailed ships includes the ill-fated PT-109, commanded by a young John F. Kennedy, a German U-boat, and the USS Missouri, the battleship on which the Japanese surrendered.

A highly detailed study of the World War II German battleship that sparred with the British Royal Navy from 1939–43. The Kriegsmarine's Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, described either as a battleship or battlecruiser, and the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. She was launched on 3 October 1936 and completed in January 1939, armed with nine 28cm C/34 guns in three triple turrets. She operated with Gneisenau for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. They took part in Operation Weserübung (April–June 1940), the German invasion of Norway during which they sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent. Scharnhorst also sank HMS Rawalpindi in November 1939. In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined the Tirpitz in Norway to intercept Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. On a sortie from Norway to attack a convoy, the German force was intercepted by British ships and during the Battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943), HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank Scharnhorst and most of her crew was lost. This is the most comprehensive examination of Scharnhorst ever published, drawing on new research and technology to tell the full story of the ship. It includes a complete set of detailed line drawings with fully descriptive keys and full-color artwork, supported by technical details, photographs, and text on the building of the ship, as well as a record of her service history.