Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design 1923-1945

by D.K. Brown

This third and final volume in the best-selling series on British warship development recounts the Royal Navy's response to the restrictions placed on it by the Washington Naval Treaties in the inter-war years and the construction of the fleet used to fight World War II. Noted naval architect David Brown brings this crucial era into focus as he analyzes the principle pre-war developments, including the first purpose-built aircraft carriers and the growing perception of the threat of air attack to warships. In addition, all the wartime construction programs-such as the massive amphibious warfare fleet used on D-Day are covered, as well as the lessons learned from wartime damage and the top-secret pre- and postwar damage trials. This heavily illustrated sequel to Warrior to Dreadnought and The Grand Fleet completes Chatham's highly praised British Warship Design and Development trilogy. It is an essential reference and provides a wealth of information on British maritime history.

Genres: World War II, Military History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 2000

About the author

David K. Brown (1928–2008) was a noted British naval architect. After joining the Admiralty he became a member of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors, rising through the ranks to become the Deputy Chief Naval Architect before retiring in 1988.

Reviews

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the subtitle says, this is a history of British warship development from after the Washington Naval Treaty to the end of the Second World War. It is based heavily on the internal notes and correspondence of the Constructor's office. Unlike most naval historians, the author was a senior British naval architect, who had served on some of the ships in question, and done design studies on alterations to others of them. It is very much a _technical_ history.

As technical history, it is virtually unmatched. Warships are among the most complex artifacts ever engineered; they are huge, complicated, and expected to keep working as much as possible even with enemies shooting at them. This means that designers need to think both about the normal peacetime environment, the wartime environment, and the situation after battle damage. The author had actually faced those design constraints, and is uniquely able to explain the challenges and the insights brought to bear in solving them.

The book was enormously eye-opening. The things that worried British naval architects weren't the things I thought would.

- First, the inter-war Naval Limitation Treaties were much less of a concern than I had thought -- the bigger challenge was getting the Treasury to allocate enough money to build up to the treaty limit.

- Second, the main design constraint was not aggregate displacement, but topweight; apparently for warships of that era (and perhaps any era), the real problem is that the more guns, radars, and so forth you pile on the ship, the less stable it is.

- Third, the British shipbuilding industry was much less healthy in this era than I had understood. The industry was far smaller in the mid- and late- 1930s than it had been before World War One, and far less up-to-date technically. This meant that it was hard for the Navy to push shipbuilders to adopt innovations like longitudinal framing.

- Fourth, crew well-being was abysmal, particularly on smaller ships. The crews of Atlantic convoy escorts would have been cold, sick, and under-nourished. The way the RN worked, food would be cooked in the galleys and then moved through the ship, above decks, to the crew messes; this process would result in a lot of spilled, cold and delayed food in rough weather.

- Last, in Brown's assessment, US warships were considerably better ton-for-ton, though perhaps not dollar-for-dollar. The US was prepared to pay a great deal of money for smaller and lighter machinery, which meant that American warships could be better armed and armored on the same displacement. Moreover, the US paid far greater attention to crew well-being. The RN was astounded -- and some were appalled -- to discover that the United States installed ice cream machines on every destroyer. Apparently some officers wanted to remove the ice-cream machines from purchased warships, but were overruled, happily for the crews.

The book is very well illustrated with diagrams, tables, and photographs; the main body is supplemented with appendixes on special topics like ship stability, costs, and so forth.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 2000, 'Nelson to Vanguard' looks at the design and development of predominantly British warships from 1923-1945. There is a lot of detail, and the author avoids concentrating overly much on the more well known warship types. This means that you get a lot of information that you may not have come across before, which is good. However, the presentation of the information is often more than a little dry, so it does take a lot of concentration. Just persevere with it, because it is certainly worth it.

[Nishant Pappireddi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the design of British WW2 warships and how they fared during the war.

[Chuckatilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

It is very comprehensive and gives a lot of information on inter war and Second World War decisions and designs. Highly recommended.

[Bobble Hat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end of Brown’s excellent design history. Very readable.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really only skimmed it, as this is very much a reference work.