US Navy Gunboats 1885–1945

US Navy Gunboats 1885–1945 cover

US Navy Gunboats 1885–1945

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Description

A study of the history of the US Navy's gunboats and their role in building a worldwide American naval presence abroad and in combat, from the Yangtze era through to World War II.

For more than half a century, American gunboats were the ships often responsible for policing small crises and provided deterrence and fast-response capabilities around the world – showing the flag, landing armed parties, patrolling river and littoral areas, and protecting ex-pats. They were often the United States' most-visible and constant military presence in far-flung foreign lands, and were most closely associated with the Far East, particularly the Philippines and China. Most famous, of course, was the multinational Yangtze Patrol.

Many US gunboats were built, purchased or reassembled overseas where they usually served out their entire careers, never coming within 7,000 miles of the national homeland which they served. Numerous gunboats were captured from the Spanish during the 1898 war, many being raised from shallow graves, refurbished, and commissioned into USN service.

The classic haunt of US gunboats was the Asiatic Station of China and the Philippines. Gunboat service overseas was typically exotic and the sailors' lives were often exciting and unpredictable. The major operational theaters associated with the US gunboats were the pre-1898 cruises and patrols of the earliest steel gunboats, the Spanish-American War of 1898 (both the Philippines and the Caribbean), the guerilla wars of the early 20th century Philippines and Latin America, the Asiatic Fleet and Yangtze Patrol of the 1890s1930s, and finally World War II, which largely entailed operations in China, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Alaska, and on convoy routes. It was Japan's sudden 19411942 "Centrifugal Offensive" that effectively spelled the beginning of the end not just of most American gunboats, but also the century-old world order in Asia that had provided US gunboats with their primary mission.

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Product details

Published Apr 13 2021
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 48
ISBN 9781472844705
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations Illustrated throughout with 40 photos and 8pp of colour illustrations
Dimensions 248 x 184 mm
Series New Vanguard
Short code NVG 293
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Brian Lane Herder

Brian Lane Herder graduated with a BA in History f…

Illustrator

Adam Tooby

Adam Tooby is an internationally renowned digital…

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