For most of the Twentieth Century Britain possessed both the world’s largest
merchant fleet and its most extensive overseas territories. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the Royal Navy always showed a particular interest
in the cruiser – a multi-purpose warship needed in large numbers to defend trade
routes and police the empire. Above all other types, the cruiser’s competing
demands of quality and quantity placed a heavy burden on designers, and for most
of the inter-war years Britain sought to square this circle through
international treaties restricting both size and numbers. In the process she
virtually invented the heavy cruiser and inspired the large 6in-armed cruiser,
neither of which, ironically, served her best interests. For the first time this
book seeks to comprehend the full policy background, from which a different and
entirely original picture emerges of British cruiser development.
After
the war the cruiser’s role was reconsidered and the final chapters of the book
cover modernisations, the plans for missile-armed ships and the convoluted
process that turned the ‘through-deck cruiser’ into the Invincible class light
carriers. With detailed appendices of ship data, and illustrated in depth with
photos and A D Baker’s specially commissioned plans, British Cruisers truly
matches the lofty standards set by Friedman’s previous books on British
destroyers.
