Chatham Publishing1997, 121pp, X, £30.00
Built to scout for the fleet and outgun any cruiser while outrunning any battleship Admiral Fisher failed to foresee that foreign navies would build similar vessels. Heavy guns, speed and shallow draught were obtained at the expense of protective armour. While the handsomest and largest of warships their decks were thin and magazines poorly designed so that three exploded at Jutland and H.M.S. Hood in 1941 with but twenty survivors in all. Three were converted to our, first aircraft carriers. Many were scrapped in the 1920s and, aeroplanes having usurped their original purpose, the remainder, Hood, Renown and Repulse, became regarded mistakenly as line of battle ships. The author is concerned with their concept, design and weaknesses and gives little attention to operations except for brief accounts of the Falklands, Dogger Bank and Jutland battles. There are lots of diagrams and many superb photographs. JLC