A highly illustrated guide to the main battleships of the 20th century. For centuries, battleships provided overwhelming firepower at sea. They were not only a major instrument of warfare, but also a visible emblem of a nation's power, wealth, and pride. The rise of the aircraft carrier following the Japanese aerial strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941 highlighted the vulnerabilities of the battleship, bringing about its demise as a dominant class of warship. This book offers a detailed guide to the major types of battleships to fight in the two world wars. Explore HMS Dreadnought, the first of a class of fast, big-gun battleships to be developed at the beginning of the 20th century; see the great capital ships that exchanged salvos at the battle of Jutland, including the German battlecruiser Derfflinger, which sank the British battleship Queen Mary; find out about the destruction of HMS Hood, which exploded after exchanging fire with the Bismarck, which itself was sunk after a trans-Atlantic chase by a combination of battery fire and aircraft-launched torpedoes; and be amazed at the "super-battleship" Yamato, which despite its size and firepower, made a minimal contribution to Japan's war effort and was sunk by air attack during the defense of Okinawa.