Books by Angus Konstam

In 1906, the Germans began building their own dreadnought fleet armed with larger guns, word of which soon reached the British Admiralty. This raised the spectre that the British dreadnought fleet would be outgunned, and prompted the Admiralty to order the building of their own "super dreadnoughts". This book deals with this topic.

The launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 changed the face of naval warfare. The first half-dozen dreadnoughts were all improvements of the basic Dreadnought design, all carrying ten 12-inch guns. Two more versions of the Neptune entered service later that same year. This title deals with this topic.

In mid-September 1943, as the opening move of the Allied campaign to liberate the mainland of Italy, an Anglo-American invasion force landed on the beaches of the Gulf of Salerno, only a few dozen miles to the south of Naples. Using documentary records, memoirs from all sides, this title recreates the battle day by day, hour by hour.

In April 1713 the War of the Spanish Succession came to an end. During the conflict hundreds of privateers - licenced pirates - preyed on enemy shipping throughout the Caribbean. These privateers now found themselves out of a job, and many turned to piracy. One of theme was Edward Teach - more popularly known as Blackbeard.

The idea of a heavy cruiser emerged in the aftermath of World War I, and was closely linked to the limits set by the inter-war Washington Naval Treaty. These impressive cruisers were high-sided, spacious and stately - perfect peacetime ambassadors for British power. In war they also packed a considerable punch. This book deals with these cruisers.

"Warships of the Anglo-Dutch Wars 1652-74".

For four hundred years the Byzantine Empire's naval forces vied with the warships of the Islamic world for mastery of the Mediterranean. This book offers a glimpse of the long-lost world of war at sea in the age of Byzantium.

The most famous admiral in history, Horatio Nelson's string of naval victories helped secure Britain's place as the world's dominant maritime power, a position she held for more than a century after Nelson's death. Today Nelson is revered as an almost mythical figure - a naval genius and a national hero. This book reveals the real Nelson.

"Pirate: The Golden Age".

The break of the German battleship Bismark into the North Atlantic in May 1941 was one of the most dramatic episodes of World War II. It began with a battle between the Bismark and the British battleship Prince of Wales and the heavy cruiser Hood. The Hood was blown to pieces, while the battered Prince of Wales managed to escape.

From the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, from the Balkans to Mesopotamia, gunboats played an influential part in the story of World War I. This is a detailed technical guide to the gunboats of all the major navies of the war.

Drake's daring raids had finally resulted in the outbreak of the long-expected war and it would be the last action of its kind for some years as England sought to protect herself against invasion and the Spanish invasion.

The swashbuckling English sea captains of the Elizabethan era were a particular breed of adventurer, combining maritime and military skill with a seemingly insatiable appetite for Spanish treasure. Angus Konstam describes these characters, including such sea dogs as Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher.

"Yangtze River Gunboats, 1900-47".

With war against Germany looming, Britain pushed forward its carrier program in the late 1930s. In 1938, the Royal Navy launched the HMS Ark Royal, its first-ever purpose-built aircraft carrier. This book tells the story of the small, but resilient, carriers and the crucial role they played in the British war effort.

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, is one of the great commanders of history. This book looks at the many highs and lows in the career of the most successful British general of his era.

Motor Gun Boats were the Spitfires of the Seas of the Royal Navy. Bristling with small-calibre guns and machine guns, they served during the War. This book tells the story of these destructive boats, beginning with their design and development and carrying through to their operational use in the European and Mediterranean theatres of World War-II.

This volume details the uniforms and insignia of Peter the Great's cavalry during the period when he transformed Russia's army into a modern fighting force.

A strategically important natural harbor in the Orkney Islands, Scapa Flow served as Britain's main fleet anchorage during World Wars I and II. In 1914 and again in 1939, the British began building a comprehensive defensive network by fortifying the entrances to Scapa Flow, and then extended these defenses to cover most of Orkney.

An exploration of the British Napoleonic Ship-of-the-Line. It covers some of the most famous individuals and ships of the day, such as Nelson, Cochrane, HMS Victory and HMS Indefatigable. There is also a catalogue of all British Ships-of-the-Line from 1792 to 1815.

The light cruiser was a natural development of the sailing frigate - a fast multi-purpose warship that could patrol the sea lanes, protect convoys and scout for enemy battle fleets. While the battleships and carriers grabbed the headlines, these warships quietly got on with the job of securing control of the seas. This book deals with these ships.

The thwarted invasion of England by the Spanish Armada is studied here in detail. How Philip II's fleet was stopped from invading England and forced into full retreat is looked into with the help of battle plans and bird's eye views of the action.

During the 16th century a new type of sailing vessel emerged, designed to carry the wealth of the Americas to Spain. This book traces the development of the Spanish galleon, and outlines the constructional methods, the ordnance and the crewing needed to produce and maintain these stately vessels.

Details the privateer captains of the golden age of "state-sponsored piracy" - men such as John Paul Jones, Jean Lafitte, and Benito de Soto. It includes episodes such as Bonhomme Richard's epic battle with HMS Serapis.

This volume portrays an accurate picture of the pirates who sailed of the Caribbean and American coastlines during the "golden age" of piracy between 1660 and 1730. It examines their lifestyle and codes of conduct, what ships and weapons they used and the main characters of the period.

Although an inherently unsuccessful design, the battlecruisers were amongst the most famous vessels of the Royal Navy during World War II. This work traces the pre-war development of these warships, then describes their wartime exploits, using this to show their operational performance.

This work provides a detailed description and pictorial exploration of the ships that scoured the high seas during the "Golden age of Piracy". It covers the vessels of the leading pirates of their age.

Offers an account of the origins, events and outcome of the Battle of Poltava in 1709, at which Peter the Great's newly modernized Russian Army smashed the Swedish Army of Charles XII, thus ending more than 50 years of Swedish military supremacy in northern Europe.

The background to this conflict, covered here, lay in the Cuban insurrection of 1895-1898 and its suppression by Cuba's Spanish overlords. Following the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana harbour, the US declared war on Spain, sending some 17,000 men to invade Cuba.