In the history of naval warfare probably no type of ship has provided
more firepower per ton than the monitor – indeed they were little more than a
huge gun mounting fitted on a simple, self-propelled raft. Designed and built
rapidly to fulfil an urgent need for heavy shore-bombardment during World War I,
they were top secret in conception, and largely forgotten when the short-lived
requirement was over. Nevertheless, they were important ships, which played a
significant role in many Great War campaigns and drove many of the advances in
long-range gunnery later applied to the battle fleet. Indeed, their value was
rediscovered during the Second World War when a final class was
built.
Monitors were largely ignored by naval historians until Ian Buxton
produced the first edition of this book in 1978. Although published privately,
this became an established classic and copies of the first edition are now
almost unobtainable, so this new edition will be welcomed by many. It has been
completely revised, extended and redesigned to a generous large format which
allows material deleted from the original edition for lack of space to be
restored.
