Encyclopedia of Warships/AJ Press vol.18+19

[marcelo_malara]

Anyone has "Big Gun: Battleship Main Armament, 1860-1945" by Peter Hodges?

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Marcelo and all,


HAPPY 2006

I do have the book.

Ciao Antonio

[marcelo_malara]

Thank you Antonio, same for you!!!

Is the book good? Does the content make justice to the title?

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Marcelo and all,

YES, it is a very good book and fairly complete since it covers all the guns all countries.

It is not so rich in terms of photos and drawings.

Some guns and turrets are better covered than others, usually the USA and British ones.

The descriptions of the guns and turrets is good at least to have a minimum technical knowledge of each of them and the diffferences.

I suggest the purchase if you can.

Ciao Antonio

[marcelo_malara]

Antonio, I am looking for info on the evolution of main armament:

-barbettes arrangements (not turrets but the barbettes system used on old battleships) and its loading systems.
-turrets (including different hoists and loading systems, its evolution and advantages).

Does the book provides info on all this?

Thanks in advance for the data.

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Marcelo and all,

YES, very detailed infos on barbettes content and turrets loading mechanism.

The book do not cover the armour of the turrets, but the inside of them and especially the loading mechanism as the author was an Engineer with those competences serving in Royal Navy.

I am sure you have seen the Narvik battle maps you asked me, .. if not look into the Naval History section.

Ciao Antonio

[marcelo_malara]

Yes I have seen them, wonderfull as usual, thank you for both and for the info on this book. Can you post in the Tirpitz sinking the damage caused for the bombs?

Thank you again.

[Kit-Builder]

G’day all,
Is this a good book for the hobby-modeler or more for researchers, historian. By this I mean would I find things directly useful in building a scale ship or is it more about a total understanding of the weapons?
Regards Steve

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Steve and all,

NO, it is NOT a book useful for modelers, as you can imagine that neither the external part of the turrets is either shown in photos nor in drawings.

It is about the internal turrets loading mechanism of the guns and the guns characteristics as a weapon, so its performances and not its looking.

It is very useful to complete the history data research and comparison on those ship guns not on making models.

@ Marcelo,

the Tirpitz damages are well reported here in, just download and unzip the document at point 2.5.11 :

http://www.kbismarck.com/archives/index.html

Ciao Antonio