Vanguard British Battlecruisers 1939-45 Osprey Books

Although the concept of the battlecruiser was largely discredited during World War I, the Royal Navy still retained her battlecruiser fleet for much of the inter-war period, although two of these were converted into aircraft carriers. When war broke out in 1939, only three true battlecruisers remained. They included HMS Hood, the world's largest and fasted capital ship for much of her life. This beautiful warship would be destroyed in action against the German battleship Bismarck. The remaining two battlecruisers (Repulse and Renown) were refitted immediately before the war, and during it, making them useful units of the fleet. Japanese aircraft off Singapore sank the Repulse, but her sister ship served with distinction until the end of the war. The book traces the pre-war development of these spectacular warships, then describes their wartime exploits, using this to demonstrate their operational and mechanical performance. It examines what life was like on these wartime battlecruisers, and presents accounts of what conditions were like on board them when they sailed into action.