C Class Destroyers

Maritime Books 2012

40 ships of the C Class were planned for the Royal Navy in World War II with 32 completed and the last eight cancelled in favor of newer designs. The class was broken down into five groups of eight, with each octet being given CA, CH, CO, CR and CE names. The Royal Canadian Navy was to receive the who CH group (something I did not know) but due to manning considerations this was deferred to the later CR group. In any event the war ended before the CRs entered service and only two went to the RCN, four to Norway and two to Pakistan.
Each variant of the C Class incorporated improvements over the previous batch with later ships having a large dual purpose gun director which necessitated the removal one of bank of torpedo tubes.
The CA group were given a partial modernization in the 1950s and HMCS Crescent was the only member of the class to receive a Type 15 style modernization. Coming in 1955-56, Crescent's modernization was far and away the best Type 15 style modernization of any navy.
Profusely illustrated in the Maritime Books manner, this book is an entertaining read.