Super Destroyers: From the Torpedo Boat Era to the Dominant Surface Warship of Today Hardcover – July 16, 2024

This is a great book describing the thinking of the various major navies regarding design requirements for destroyers in the 1880s to the early 2000s. It especially focuses on the pre-1914 ships through WW II. Most of the book discusses the ships of Britain, the US, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy with a little information on the USSR. International political influences and perceived national warship naval requirements are both discussed.Pages 92 - 96 in Chapter 5 discuss the initial efforts of the Americans at the 1921 Washington Naval Conference to apply limits to sizes and numbers or aggregate national tonnage for cruisers and destroyers, similar to what was established for battleships and aircraft carriers. I had never previously understood that this idea was even attempted and why it failed. Chapter 6 discusses the attempted repeat of the idea at the Geneva Conference in 1926 and why it failed again. Pages 117 - 124 discuss how the US, Britain, and Japan finally agreed to limitations on cruisers and destroyers at the 1930 London Conference but which were rejected by the French the Italians.There is only a little information on the design development histories of specific ship designs — just enough to keep the reader informed on why certain designs were selected or constructed. Short tabulations of displacement, dimensions, power plant horsepower and ship speed, and armament are provided for most designs.I have noticed that a couple of reviewers have commented (complained?) that the book expends much text on what they consider to be ships much smaller than “super destroyers.” Firstly, author Stern spends 86 pages in four chapters explaining the background histories of the torpedo boat concept that led to the more or less classic concept of super destroyers of the 1920s - 1930s. Those ships did not suddenly appear out of thin air. If you already know this background, then perhaps these chapters are unnecessary. Secondly, in page 87 Stern provides his definition of a “super destroyer:” a ship of at least 2000 tons displacement, with a main gun battery of at least 4.7-inch (120 mm) and an upper limit of 5.9 inches (150 mm), a speed of at least 35 knots, and finally a maximum displacement of 3000 tons to exclude small cruisers. I personally would add a requirement for at least six guns of minimum 4.7 inches (120 mm) or four of 5.9- inch (150 mm) to exclude ships such as the American “Fletcher” class and several British classes built in the 1930s; in my opinion those ships were not “super destroyers.” But the book includes all the destroyers built from the 1880s to the 1930s and those built in WW II, which was ok with me.

The work is described by the author as a follow-on (successor) to a 1978 booklet titled "Super Destroyers" - a book in this reviewers library - that focused on the destroyer designs between World War One and Two. In most respects, this new big book is best at its text in this precise period.The book is divided into eleven chapters, each focused on a particular set of years, during which torpedo boat 'destroyers' to post-World War Two ships were active, as follows:* 1 - Steam launches, torpedo boats, and competing ideas, 1876-1885* 2 - Torpedo boat destroyers to lead destroyers, 1884-1915 (p. 31)* 3 - The test of battle, Part I: 1917* 4 - The Intermediate precursors: 1917-1918 [p.76]* 5 - The fist of the True Super Destroyers - Washington Swings and Misses, 1922-1928* 6 - Trying to Hold Back the Flood, 1927-1930 [p.107]* 7 - Strange Breed - London's Children, 1930-1937* 8 - Let Slip the Dogs of War - The Floodgates Open, 1935-1939 [p.152]* 9 - THe Tis of Battle, Part 2, 1942-1945*10 - Building from Experience, 1942-1945 [p.199]* 11 - A Type for the Future, 1946-The chapters are followed by a Sources [p.234], Notes, and Index section.This reviewer has a problem with the book title and its totality of textual content. The use of the header title "Super Destroyers" is not really relevant until the days of mid-World War One and after, when "leader" [most Royal Navy and export designs) and large destroyers (German, the AG Vulcan designs in particular) were being build for their respective navies. In the book this begins with Chapter 3 (The test of battle, Part 1 - 191 and really is best relevant to Chapter 5 [p. 87-on].The earlier sections of the book, some 66-pages, focus on torpedo boats is only relevant to the books subtitle: "From the Torpedo Boat Era to the...."; the bottom line, is the book is very much more of a history of the torpedo boats and destroyer designs - and less about "Super Destroyers".Into the Future [see Chapter 11] begins with page 213 to 230 - but it is mostly photographs! Minimal text, other than the first four pages in this chapter. Thus, the author does the reader a disservice by suggesting they are getting a worth discussion and analysis of post-World War II designs - when they are not. As such, the title should have ended with "1945", not "Surface Warships of Today".Another point that is of concern is the post-World One coverage of many designs, particularly Italian, British and Japanese. The author discusses at length a wide range of these nations destroyers, which are not "super-destroyers" by any stretch of the imagination (IJN "Minekaze"/Kamikaze/Mutsuki-series; British "A" to "E" classes; Italian "Turbine"-series) - when the chapter should have only focused on the IJN "Special Type" and French contre-torpilleurs - the only true "super-destroyers" of the period.Commendable is the author coverage of the Washington and later naval treaties, and WW Two battles (Chapter 9), that includes the impact of the Okinawa campaign on and participation of destroyers versus he kamikaze. Well done.While this is a topic that has been written about by numerous prior authors (H.T. Lenton, Dr. Oscar Parkes, M.J. Whitley, Robert Sumrall, Norman Friedman of late), the book is failed by its Editor and Publisher, for not demanding a more tightly written book, that otherwise is largely a history of the "development of the destroyer-type". As such, it looses my 5-Star rating that was my first impression.Most unfortunate.