abc Royal Navy of the 1950s and 60s

For the first time in our series of facsimile reprints from the Ian Allan Publishing abcs which were originally published from the 1940s onwards, we have been looking at some of the naval and nautical titles which were released in the 1950s and 60s. This volume consists of two abcs from the 1950s; abc British Warships and abc The Sea and Ships and two from the 1960s; abc Royal Navy and abc Fleet Air Arm. While three of component titles of this volume are solely devoted to matters naval, abc The Sea and Ships is a general introduction to ships and shipping. Even today, decades after its original publication, readers will find it very useful. It deals with virtually every aspect of the subject from ship design, navigation and nautical terminology through to lifeboats and the port registration letters of British fishing boats. Many of the obscure terms used in the Shipping Forecast are finally explained in this delightful little book. abc British Warships was also originally published in the 1950s. Readers will be struck by the sheer number of ships which the Royal Navy has at its disposal back then and the variety of classes which made up the fleet from aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and submarines to minesweepers, patrol boats and support vessels of all kinds. This volume also includes the fleets of some of the countries which were formerly part of the British Empire. abc Royal Navy (1961) focuses on the rather smaller navy which existed at the start of the 1960s though still enormous by comparison to what exists today. abc Fleet Air Arm lists, describes and illustrates not just the aircraft of all kinds flown, but land bases, squadrons, camouflage and a wide range of other aspects of the service.