Battlecruisers, by Ronald Bassett, is a fascinating look back at what is probably the most understood and certainly misused warship in naval history. At first glance, the concept makes perfect sense; with the cost of dreadnaughts escalating at an alarming rate, the idea of a ship with dreadnaught sized weapons and light cruiser armour that would be able to zip in amongst the ungainly battleships and tear them asunder, was an admiral’s dream. Of course, once reality reared its ugly head, it turned out that these ships often found themselves in battles with forces that refused to go along with that plan.

The best/worst example of this has to be what happened to HMS Hood. Pride of the British Royal Navy, and the epitome of the battlecruiser concept, she was easily destroyed, with almost her entire crew, by the German heavy cruiser, Prinz Eugen. Previously, in the First World War, during the Battle of Jutland, British battlecruisers suffered heavily under the battleship guns because as most often happened, they were thrown into the battleship line, meaning their speed advantage came to naught.

Ronald Bassett has presented an interesting study on this class of ship. Clearly well researched, the book would be a proper addition to any naval historian’s collection. He also manages to take what could have been a lot of pages filled with boring information, and turned it into a book that holds your interest.

Reviewed by Daniel L Little – January 29, 2018 - www.daniellittle.com ( )