Alongside being a sci-fi buff and videogamer, I also have an interest in military history. Predominantly post WW2 but hey, I'll read up on any period just to learn stuff. This also extends to the "what if?" category. One of the reasons I enjoyed D.K. Brown's quintet was reading about the design process for vessels that never touched the water, especially in the Cold War period. Today, I'd like to introduce you to a book that, whilst the original ships did serve (and kept coming back into service), looks at the plans cooked up to keep them relevant in that same period. Written by Wayne Scarpaci, this volume tells the tale of the many simple, crazy and downright loony projects that were discussed to retain the value in specific ships launched during the Second World War.
The front third of the book is taken up by introductions: a background to the conversion of US capital ships, an introduction to the third generation of US capital ships and then a guide to the various missile programs from the mid-1940's to the 1960's. These range from ballistic missiles (Jupiter, Poseidon, Polaris etc), cruise missiles (Triton, Regulus, Rigel etc), surface to air missiles (Little Joe, Lark, Zeus, the "Bumblebee" missiles - Terrier, Tartar, Talos, Typhon etc) and anti-submarine rockets (ASROC). Each weapon system gets a decent biography, tech specs and some good photographs. Where contemporary diagrams are used, these are of varying quality but that's due to the condition of the original, not the quality of this publication.
The majority of the rest of the book is taken up with projects relating to the following classes of vessels - Iowa-class BB's (battleship), Alaska-class CB's (large cruiser) and the South Dakota/North Carolina/Colorado and New Mexico-class BB's (battleship). The Iowa's get the largest section but that's because they were given the most attention, especially in the 1950's.
Each project entry gets a suitable bio and description plus commentary where needed. The commentary demonstrates that the author knows of which he speaks. They also get line drawings of the proposed layout and artwork. Yes. I really must mention the artwork. Painted by the author himself, each piece is very well done, showing the project if it had reached service and, in some, "what if" aircraft and ships that also never reached fruition. It's the art that really brings the book to life. The book ends with a couple of appendices containing timelines and the like.
But what about the projects themselves?
Sticking to the Iowa-class, these were varied and more than a little nuts sounding. Because the Iowa's were big ships and missile systems took up a ton a space, the majority of these projects focused on adding SAM's and various surface to surface systems. From multiple Jupiter silo's to a frankly bonkers suggestion for a missile monitor (1 x Jupiter launcher with 12 missiles, 4 x twin Talos launchers with 400 missiles and 12 x Tarter launchers with 2400 missiles - and then we have the electronics fit to support that layout - a total of 54 radar sets!). As the author notes, this was not practical...
Ideas for converting the battleships to aircraft carriers or assault ships foundered, mostly because of the hull design and the crew numbers needed to maintain the ship. It is also noted that the BB's were designed to be one thing and one thing only, battleships. That was what they were good at and hurling 16-inch shells was a speciality that kept seeing the type return to service, culminating in something like a diet-monitor concept with the 1980's fit of Tomahawks and Harpoons, but that is way outside of the scope of this book.
The author has written a great treatise on the lengths the US Navy went to justify the retention of the large calibre gun ships after the Second World War. They offered space and weight allowance to fit "modern" weapons and whilst the BB's never saw a conversion during the period covered by this tome, the US Navy did convert some heavy cruisers to missile ships with varying (if expensive) degrees of success.
You can buy this book on Amazon and it's reasonably priced too. It provides a great deal to ponder if early Cold War naval history is your thing and could be a handy reference if you ever wanted to bring "what if" ships to a wargaming table.
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