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Destroyers were the cavalry of the Navy, highly trained men in fast well-armed ships designed to attack the enemy fleet with torpedoes. But unlike the cavalry, destroyers were more than an elite; they became all-purpoose fighting ships, anti-aircraft escorts and submarine killers. No commander in World war 2 ever had enough destroyers, for his battleships and carriers dared not put to sea without them, and even 25 year old veterans of World War 1 played their part as convoy escorts.
The destroyer-tradition bred first-class fighting men, and most of the well-known admirals made their name in destroyers - Cunningham, Mountbattemn, Arleigh Burke and Tanaka. The destroyer battles of World War 2 are among the most famous of all time: Narvik, the sinking of the Bismark and Scharnborst, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. For the British destroyers, Dunkirk was probably their finest hour, when they evacuated more soldiers than any other type of ship, in some cases 1500 men at a time. For the Americans it was Okinawa, when the radar picket line stood alone against the Kamikazes, or Leyte when dstroyer escorts fought the Yamato.
The conditions aboard the destryers varied from spartan to awful. They 'rolled on wet grass', their slender hulls plunged through the waves rather than over them, and in battle everyone knew they were expendable. Yet all destroyer-men loved their 'boats', as the British called them, or 'cans' to the US Navy. This book recaptures the highlights and personal flavour of destroyers and the men who made them so famous.
In this lavishly illustrated volume noted historian Antony Preston relates the exciting saga of the great destroyers of all the maritime powers. Rare photos, maps and cut-away drawings embelish a text that is as rich in technical detail as it is in anecdote and fast-paced narrative. Destroyers is a unique and necessary addition to the personal library of anyone interested in ships and the sea.
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