Books about Warship from Amazon.com

The first official history of the legendary aircraft carrier that fought in World War II and Vietnam and continues to serve as a major air and space museum in New York City

The USS Intrepid is a warship unlike any other. Since her launching in 1943, the 27,000-ton, Essex-class aircraft carrier has sailed into harm’s way around the globe. During World War II, she fought her way across the Pacific—Kwajalein, Truk, Peleliu, Formosa, the Philippines, Okinawa—surviving kamikaze and torpedo attacks and covering herself with glory. The famous ship endured to become a Cold War attack carrier, recovery ship for America’s first astronauts, and a three-tour combatant in Vietnam.
 In a riveting narrative based on archival research and interviews with surviving crewmen, authors Bill White and Robert Gandt take us inside the war in the Pacific. We join Intrepid’s airmen at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in October 1944, as they gaze in awe at the apparitions beneath them: five Japanese battleships, including the dreadnoughts Yamato and Musashi, plus a fleet of heavily armored cruisers and destroyers. The sky fills with multihued bursts of anti-aircraft fire. The flak, a Helldiver pilot would write in his action report, “was so thick you could get out and walk on it.” Half a dozen Intrepid aircraft are blown from the sky, but they sink the Musashi. A few months later, off Okinawa, theyagain meet her sister ship, the mighty Yamato. In a two-hour tableau of hellfire and towering explosions, Intrepid’s warplanes help send the super-battleship and 3,000 Japanese crewmen to the bottom of the sea.

We’re next to nineteen-year-old Alonzo Swann in Gun Tub 10 aboard Intrepid as he peers over the breech of a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun. He’s heard of kamikazes, but until today he’s never seen one. Swann and his fellow gunners are among the few African Americans assigned to combat duty in the U.S. Navy of 1944. Blazing away at the diving Japanese Zero, Swann realizes with a dreadful certainty where it will strike: directly into Gun Tub 10.

The authors follow Intrepid’sjourney to Vietnam. “MiG-21 high!” crackles the voice of Lt. Tony Nargi in his F-8 Crusader. It is 1968, and Intrepid is again at war. Launching from Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, Nargi and his wingman have intercepted a flight of Russian-built supersonic fighters. Minutes later, after a swirling dogfight over North Vietnam, Nargi—and Intrepid—have added another downed enemy airplane to their credit.

 Intrepid: The Epic Story of America’s Most Legendary Warship brings a renowned ship to life in a stirring tribute complete with the personal recollections of those who served aboard her, dramatic photographs, time lines, maps, and vivid descriptions of Intrepid’s deadly conflicts. More than a numbers-and-dates narrative, Intrepid is the story of people—those who sailed in her, fought to keep her alive, perished in her defense—and powerfully captures the human element in this saga of American heroism.

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Price: $13.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This volume is a complete, technical reference which covers all USN Battleship types, of the World War II and Early Cold War eras of 1941-1963. The book is illustrated with 52 full color original paintings, 86 new line drawings, and 252 photographs,. Featured are a Chronology of WWII, illustrated sections on Radar and Fire Control, Aviation, and Camouflage. This book includes sections on Arkansas BB33 thru Louisiana BB71. It has fully illustrated sections on Gunnery Ships, Utah AG16, Wyoming AG17, and Mississippi AG128. A section on the 'as designed and ordered' 14" armed North Carolina class. Sections on the cancelled South Dakota BB49 and Lexington CC1 class ships. Coverage extends to the Battlecruisers of the Alaska CB1 class. The information contained within this volume has hereto, only been available across a wide spectrum of reference sources. It is now available for the first time, under one set of bookcovers..
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Known throughout the fleet as "Big Ben," the USS Franklin was christened for the legacy of the four prior U.S. Navy ships named after Benjamin Franklin. The Franklin was a creation of World War II, one of twenty-four Essex-class fast carriers built during the conflict, forming the backbone of the U.S. Navy's war against Japan. By the time the war had moved to Okinawa in the spring of 1945, "Big Ben" had already seen substantial combat, having participated in the island campaigns of the central and western Pacific and the Battle for Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, where she sustained heavy damage from the new and deadly Japanese kamikaze.

On March 19, 1945, the Franklin was launching her aircraft against Honshu, the Japanese mainland, including the shipping industry in Kobe Harbor. Suddenly, a single enemy aircraft pierced the cloud cover and made a low level run on the ship, striking it with a 250kg bomb which pierced the deck and set off a chain reaction of exploding ordnance and aviation fuel. The aircraft carrier, now on fire, listing heavily to starboard, and with over 1,000 casualties, appeared to be mortally wounded. Inferno tells the heroic tale of the efforts that saved "Big Ben." It is a tremendous story of endurance and seamanship, told in harrowing detail in the survivors' own words. Inferno makes for gripping reading..
Price: $15.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

As the Confederacy felt itself slipping beneath the Union juggernaut in late 1864, the South launched a desperate counteroffensive to shatter the U.S. economy and force a standoff. Its secret weapon? A state-of-the-art raiding ship whose mission was to prowl the world’s oceans and sink the U.S. merchant fleet. The raider’s name was Shenandoah, and her executive officer was Conway Whittle, a twenty-four-year-old warrior who might have stepped from the pages of Arthurian legend. Whittle would share command with a dark and brooding veteran of the seas, Capt. James Waddell, and together with a crew of strays, misfits, and strangers, they would spend nearly a year sailing two-thirds of the way around the globe, destroying dozens of Union ships and taking more than a thousand prisoners, all while continually dodging the enemy.

Then, in August of 1865, a British ship revealed the shocking truth to the men of Shenandoah: The war had been over for months, and they were now being hunted as pirates.

What ensued was an incredible 15,000-mile journey to the one place the crew hoped to find sanctuary, only to discover that their fate would depend on how they answered a single question. Wondrously evocative and filled with drama and poignancy, Last Flag Down is a riveting story of courage, nobility, and rare comradeship forged in the quest to achieve the impossible.


From the Hardcover edition..
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In his second volume on the Tudor Navy, naval expert Angus Konstam covers the extraordinary transformation of the Tudor fleet during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This period witnessed the birth of a whole new breed of warships designed to dominate the seas and expand the corners of the Empire. Detailing warfare during the age of Sea Dogs, such as Sir Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh, and the landmark event of the Spanish Armada, he explains the technological innovations that allowed this small but efficient navy to defeat the larger Spanish fleet.

Packed with new research, in-depth analysis, photographs, full-color reconstructions and detailed cutaway artwork, this book is a must for any lover of maritime history and for anyone who wants to understand how Britain came to rule the waves, creating and retaining her supremacy across the seas throughout the age of fighting sail.

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Price: $9.31 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Here's a stunningly illustrated guide to the ships, weapons, uniforms, and equipment described in Patrick O'Brian's sequence of 20 popular novels about the 19th century British Royal Navy officer Jack Aubrey and his surgeon colleague Stephen Maturin. Called "the best historical novels every written" by The New York Times, the books have sold more than 3 million copies and inspired a highly anticipated fox film adaptation starring Russell Crowe, set to premiere later this year. A must for O'Brian's enthusiasts, this volume boasts striking full color photographs illustrating a vast array of equipment, medals, weapons, and other objects, and is unique in that many of the featured items are actual battle relics, such as the coat Admiral Nelson wore at the Battle of Trafalgar-complete with bullet hole..
Price: $7.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The essential guide to the world's warships

• Full-color photographs
• Completely up-to-date and comprehensive coverage on all types of warships
• Technical data
• Key recognition features
• Detailed line drawings

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Price: $14.47 [Notify me when price goes down.]