Description
Book SynopsisA 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
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION GUNBOATS The first steel gunboats 1890s gunboats Early 20th-century gunboats Spanish-American War prizes River gunboats (PR) Steel monitors (BM) World War II gunboats 1936–42 Armed yachts 1898–1945 (PY) Special flagships 1905–77 SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 1898 Manila Bay Cuba and Puerto Rico BANANA WARS 1899–1916 34 THE ASIATIC STATION 1899–1937 36 ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 1937–42 39 The Panay Incident, December 12, 1937 Escape from China, late 1941 Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 Twilight of the Asiatic Fleet 1941–42 CONCLUSION SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
