Battleship Books

Each naval power gets a couple pages of general overview, accompanied by a brief by-class description of the ships. The facts, figures, pocket history and pictures are all standard fare. The line drawings are peculiarly distorted to make the ships look short and plump.

If you want a single book with broad but lightweight coverage of 20th century battleships, this is one of several worth considering. However, Greger's references include Breyer, Raven, Burt, Parkes, Friedman, and the committed naval history buff would do better to turn to these.

I have found this book a good addition to my library. It contains sokme unique photos of minor Navy Battleships and an interesting commentary on German battleships; the book is translated from the German and brings a Non British/American slant to the topic. In addition, it shows pre-WWI in both their original form and then as modified in WWII which is rarely available from other sources which tend to describe but not illustrate the changes.

From the reviews seen here, one would think that Greger's book is a complete dog; but it's not that bad. One thing that Greger does well is his description of the ships of the minor naval powers such as the Austro-Hungarian and South American navies. It seems as if there is more of an emphasis on German ships, which is refreshing as there is not as much information on the Imperial German navy and Kriegsmarine as there should be. Also interesting are the drawings of the projected Soviet dreadnoughts.

A pretty good effort, definitely on a par with anything written by M. J.Whitley, and in some respects better than Whitley's latest effort on battleships. Don't write this one off completely!

I purchased this book a few months ago at full retail price. I could of overlooked it's lack of information if at least the quality of the photographs were good, but they were abysmal.

IN A NUTSHELL: IT'S A BOOK ABOUT 'THE WORLD'S' BATTLESHIPS

"Battleships of the World", uniquely combines World War 1 and World War 2 Battleships while seperating the ships into their modernized and original forms [as was frequently the case because of the Washington and London Disarmament accords].

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THIS VOLUME: EASY TO USE

1]- CONCISE SUMMARY OF 'DEVELOPMENTS TO 1918' PRECEDES EACH COUNTRY'S SHIP LISTINGS, FOLLOWED BY 'DEVELOPMENTS TO 1945' & MORE OF THE SAME.

2]- WORLD WAR 1 DREADNOUGHTS THAT WERE MODERNIZED FOR USE IN WORLD WAR 2 APPEAR IN BOTH SECTIONS FOR EACH COUNTRY, & 'DEVELOPMENTS TO 1918' + 'DEVELOPMENTS TO 1945'. In essence, the book treats modernized ships like the 'Warspite' as though they were two ships with data and photos for both versions.

3]- EXCELLENT REFERENCE AND A PERFECT COMPANION TO A WAR-ACCOUNT READER WHICH INCLUDES BATTLESHIPS. In essence, it provides the ships specs quckly, which are usually lacking in most readers. [eg. 'GREAT SHIPS PASS', by Peter C. Smith, Naval Institute Press]


WHAT I DID NOT LIKE ABOUT THIS VOLUME: SKIMPY SHIP'S DATA & SKETCHES

1]- LACKS DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE PLACEMENT AND SPECIFICATIONS OF THE ARMOR. Instead offers just a 'PERCENTAGE OF THE WEIGHT OF THE SHIP IN ARMOR' and a few 'maximum thicknesses'. I want to know what kind of armor was used and where, how it tapers and is attached to bulkheads, the hull and the decks. What underwater protection systems are utilized and some diagrams would be nice. Armor is what makes Battleships different from other ships. Battlecruisers are faster and often have the same caliber weopens, but Battleships are built to function under conditions that would sink other vessels and how this function is maintained in battle [armor] needs to be included in any reference about these great ships.

BOTTOM LINE: A DECENT REFERENCE BUT NOT ALL INCLUSIVE OF WHAT IS IMPORTANT

This book is certainly a worthwhile reference and does give the German Kreigsmarine as well as the American and British navies both a nice summary and decent ships' details. Other navies are included but the detail is somewhat less.
After living with htis book for several months, one can't help feeling that something is really missing along the lines of a coastline that has been simplified for use on a small-scale map.

Having found the last resting place of the Titanic and Bismarck, it was only a matter of time before someone would find the "Hood." This ship was indeed the pride of the Royal Navy and fondly regarded as the most beautiful ship wherever she went. With her recent discovery, there were bound to be a plethora of books on the subject giving rise to the age-old debate of how and why this magnificent Battle Cruiser sank so quickly.

Andrew Norman favours one particular theory for the sinking of the Hood - and I must say, it really is as plausible as any I have read (except for the "Built from the same faulty batch of steel as the Titanic" theory.). His description of the "Concept of the Immune Zone" is easily understandable - and something of which I was previously unaware. His conclusions that an 8 inch shell from the Prinz Eugen sank the Hood is, therefore, as sound as any. That said, it is the job of any good author to write his book in such a way as to lead the reader to that same conclusion.

HMS Hood - Pride of the Royal Navy is hardback, measuring 9¼ in x 6 in and contains over 150 pages of information and dialogue presented in an easy-to-read style. There is also a liberal sprinkling of very relevant b & w photographs throughout. Altogether, a very competent piece of work, where the author sets the scene by telling us all about the ship through the recollections of a variety of very different people who served on board at different times. This gives the reader a good "feel" for the ship before arriving at the events of May 1941 - which are described in even closer detail. As the jacket states "In these pages you will meet" and then lists 5 of those individuals - two of whom had the great fortune to be amongst the three survivors on that fateful day.

Doubtless, those who subscribe to a different "reason" as to why the Hood sank so quickly, will knock this book in order to place their own favoured theory at the top of the pile. Personally, I don't know because I wasn't there - but I do believe this book should be read alongside all other theories in order to provide a balanced view. Unlike many, it is a very good read.

NM

Spotty history, technical speculation, second rate naratives.

Don't waste your time with this mess of a book. I knew I was in trouble when the author had already refered to the Bismarck as a "pocket" battleship in the prologue.

It covers little to nothing on the design of the Hood. It spends an entire chapter covering some obscure world cruise but has zero account of the Hoods pre-Bismarck battles (as part of Force H), zips straight through the Denmark straight fight, then dives into poorly thought out conjecture and speculation as to why the ship was lost.

His grand conclusion is that an 8" plunging shell (HE by the way, not AP) from the Prinz Eugen somehow passed straight down one of the stacks, penetrated the steel bar supports and armor, and exploded in the boiler room. Here superheated steam (itself a massive fire supressant) and pre-heated oil were released and flashed into a major fire that broke the ship in two and sank it. All this theory is based on the fact that something similar happend to a cargo ship bombed by a brit naval aircraft at some other point in the war. You gotta be kidding me.

I picked this title up for $5 at a remainder sale, and it was overpriced at even that price. Spend your money on something educational like a comic book. This title has no place in the library of any serious naval historian.

The author's potential contribution to the study of HMS Hood lay in recording the memories of her crewmen. Surprisingly though, the "recollections" section takes up a mere 40 pages--published separately as a booklet, this might have been worth a modest price. Here I will discuss the remaining 100+ pages with their focus on technical/historical material: warship design, naval combat, and battle history, none of which Norman understands. From a vast list of errors, I have selected a few representative examples.
NORMAN on warship design: Regarding deck protection, "Hood's armor was not plate, but of the cemented type...." This is pure gibberish. Hood did have British C armor ("C" for "cemented") in thicknesses up to 15-inch, but not on her decks, which instead had lesser steel with no individual plate more than about 2-inch. No mere detail, this bears directly on the cause of Hood's loss, and the author cannot even correctly parrot the fundamentals.
NORMAN on battle history: "Most, if not all [of Bismarck's shells], failed to explode or did so only partially." In reality, German shells indeed underachieved, but it was Prinz Eugen's ammunition that gave a demonstrably poor performance, not Bismarck's. Norman says that, if Bismarck hit Hood with a shell, "chances were that it had not exploded"--opening the door for his theory that Eugen fired the fatal shell. Norman's theory depends on ignorance of the basic facts.
NORMAN on naval combat: When sunk, Hood was "well within" her immune zone, "defined as a range no closer than 12,000 yards, and the outer limit beyond 25,000 to 30,000 yards." The concept of an immune zone--the area where both the belt armor and the deck armor are likely to resist the armor-piercing shells--did not apply in this instance for the simple reason that Hood had no immune zone. Quite the contrary, through much of Norman's specified zone, neither Hood's belt nor her deck would suffice to keep out Bismarck's shells. She was doubly vulnerable! But Norman again is steering us toward his Eugen theory, puzzling though it is--if Hood was immune to Bismarck's 800kg armor-piercing shells, what could Eugen achieve with shells that were 122kg and not armor-piercing? Norman claims Eugen's shells could by-pass Hood's armor, plummeting straight down Hood's funnel, though he offers no explanation how the shells could achieve the great heights necessary for this trajectory. In fact, Eugen's shells were descending from an angle only about 20 degrees above the horizontal; so unless the Germans managed a bank shot off a low-flying billiards table, this theorized hit was physically impossible.
Given the availability of many fine books on Hood and Denmark Strait, this one earns little regard. The final word on Norman's research appears on page 82 with a photo captioned "Hood at speed"--a dramatic photo which, unfortunately, depicts the battleship Royal Oak, a ship four years older than Hood and from an entirely different class.

This book will obviously attract most attention from the reader with a keen interest in historical and military subjects, particularly naval disasters, ancient and modern. HMS Hood, flagship and pride of the British Royal Navy, had been considered an unsinkable battle cruiser until her encounter with the German battleship Bismarck and her consort, Prinz Eugen on May 24, 1941. Only 3 crew members from the Hood survived; 1,418 went to their graves that day, a hideous waste of human life, as all such war casualties are. The author covers the death of the ship, the postmortem (Boards of Enquiry), the doubts over the official verdict, and some of the theories as to what went wrong, including one of his own. As a civilian from a later generation, I couldn't begin to offer an opinion on the theories. But the author's description of the battle (in which the battleship HMS Prince of Wales also took part) is vivid and shocking.

The first section of the book is easier reading for the non-military or non-history reader, covering as it does recollections of everyday life aboard the Hood before she was drafted into service for World War II. The Hood visited many ports on her world cruise (crossing the equator six times) and the crew had collected quite a menagerie on board, including a kangaroo. The anecdotes are often funny and eye-opening.

Some of the technical details (that is, military specs) can be a bit tedious for the lay reader, but naval buffs will certainly appreciate them. The book is well-written, well-researched, and full of original photographs from some of the men who served on HMS Hood, along with other unique and original source material. It is definitely a keeper! ...

Some of the criticism leveled against this book are fair, but in the same breath it is unfair to dismiss the book entirely based upon the authors assertion that the Prince Eugen was responsible for the sinking of the HMS Hood. There is much more to this book, it contains a snapshot of shipboard life that no longer exists in this day and age. For a less insulting, highly professional discussion of the sinking of the HMS Hood read the article at http://www.warship.org/no21987.htm

This is a big, heavy book printed on high-quality paper, with lots of good pictures, but a definitive reference it is not. The text is simply a very rushed overview of warship history, with numerous errors and no evidence of familiarity with recent developments in the field. It certainly is not a reference text; experienced readers will not learn anything new, and novices will be put off by pages and pages of what amount to written tabular lists. The pictures [with the occasional odd exception] are excellent, clear, and above all, large, and for the enthusiast, can justify the purchase price. However, several are miscaptioned [in particular HIJMS _Shokaku_ is captioned HIJMS _Soryu_], a couple are printed with the negative reversed, and in many cases the picture selection is decidedly odd [the numerous category of FAC has no fewer than 9 illustrations of _Spica_-class variants, when many more important ships are left unpictured]. Unless you like to look at pretty warship pictures, this book is not for you.

From Andrew Fanshaw, Hartford, Connecticut.

I was given this book as a Christmas gift, and would like to say that it is an excellent read, with page after page of stunning pictures, it has kept me enthralled. Christopher Chant is obviously an expert on the subject giving first rate historical background. Was was amazed that a book of this size and content could be such excellent value. Well done!

If you are looking for a wonderful coffee table book that you can show little children so that they can ooh and ah to, then this is the book for you. This book has nice pretty pictures, which are not very accurately captioned, and it printed on very nice paper. However, for a more serious review of the history of Warships, I strongly recommend that you discard this book for a doorstop and rely more on the Conway's series (All the World's Fighting Ships). Conway's is for the serious historian. Chant's book, and Chant has written some fairly good books on military subjects, is only for show but not for tell.

The picture captioned "The Japanese admiral Nagumo ..." is, in fact, picture of admiral Tamon Yamaguchi. The picture captioned "A piece of armour plate from the wreck of the Japanese Yamato" is Shinano's turret face armor, etc.

This is a great looking book and is well published, however the content left something to be desired. This may be an OK intro for the beginner but serious battleship buffs need look else where. The book title is not quite true, a substantial amount of space is devoted to the life of the US Iowa's after WW2. Other battleships like the King George class only rate 2 pages???

The Kongo class isn't even mentioned whilst 2 pages are devoted to the Akaga because it was supposed to be a battlecruiser but was turned into an aircraft carrier. Good photos but no line drawings. This offering could have been a whole lot better.

BB-67 MONTANA, U.S. Navy Battleship: Why She Matters Today This is an absurdly overpriced booklet of 24 pages. It consists of 5 pages of extremely elemental text, 4 pages of hard to read design schemes, 11 pages of photographs of a model of the ship, 3 pages of an artists's conception of the ship undeway, and 1 page showing the aborted Montana BB-51 of 1921 in the early stage of construction. I would certainly not recommend this publication for anyone with a serious interest in learning the full story of the design history of the last class of BB's planned for the U.S. Navy.

I was provided a pdf of this document for review. The un-built Montana class of American super battleships is of interest for military (and naval) history fans, given its place in World War II-era naval planning and production. This document includes introductory material on the inception of the American super battleship design, some information on the evolution of that design, and of course details of the cancellation of the class. This document's strength is its graphical information, including reproductions of design documents, photos of scale models used during construction planning, artistic interpretations of the ship if built, and images of a recent scale model of the ship (with several views and closeups). The author adds some discussion of current major naval projects in the context of the resource- and tactics-driven cancellation of this pre-war design. This document is a worthy addition to the library of an individual interested in World War II naval history and battleships, particularly conjectural designs. Persons interested in greater depth on American battleship design are directed to Polmar's book on that subject, which is cited in this volume.

I purchased this book because I am interested in battleships and saw that it was the guidebook of the USS Missouri memorial in Pearl Harbor. I was very disapointed to find almost no technical information regarding the Missouri such as is found in the guidebooks at other battleship memorials. Although this book contains a few nice color photographs, most of the WW II era photos are printed in a brownish sepia tone, presumedly to make them look more "antique"

Published in 1974 by a journalist and world war two Navy veteran, "Battlewagon" is one of many novels that give the reader a slice of life in Hawai`i in the waning days of peace in 1941. Exum clearly knows his way around the fleet, and the central character is a competently drawn Chief Quartermaster who struck me by and large as authentic.

What's unsatisfactory about this book, aside from the good-but-not-great writing and heavy-handed foreshadowing, was how unemotional the story was. Chief Toland has some conflicts with his peers in the Chiefs' mess, a relationship with a Chinese girl, a more substantial developing romance with a Navy widow, and then finally, of course, faces the attack itself. None of these things, however, seem to raise a sweat, either in our hero or in our narrator. Given how bloody the attack was, it's a very bloodless way to tell a story. Still, people interested in the subject or genre and who happen to come across a copy of the book may find "Battlewagon" isn't the worst way to spend a few hours.

(As an aside, I think it's fascinating that Wallace Exum chose "Toland" as the name of his hero, since the combination of "Toland" and "Pearl Harbor" naturally brings to mind John Toland, the author of "Infamy : Pearl Harbor and its aftermath / John Toland ; [maps by Rafael Palacios]." However, the latter book was published a decade after "Battlewagon." Another character, "Ensign Lord," of course suggests Walter Lord, author of another standard Pearl Harbor work, "Day of Infamy, 60th Anniversary: The Classic Account of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor" [1957], though this too may have been coincidental.)

The description of this book's contents is deceptive. It is actually volume 1 of a two volume set, and only The Graf Spee and the Bismark and accounts of the disguised enemy raiders are covered in this volume.

Roger Chesneau is an author of no small repute. An expert on military equipment, both naval and aeronautical, his works include the now-classic "Aircraft Carriers of the World" (1984) as well as numerous AEROGUIDE descriptions of post-WWII aircraft. It was therefore with great anticipation that I awaited the publication of the first two offerings of his "Ship Craft" series of monographs. My opinions of Chesneau's "KGV Class Battleships" and "German Pocket Battleships" are, unfortunately, quite mixed.

These 64 page, large format (A4 page size) soft-cover offerings from Chatham Publishing are designed especially for modelers. The first third of the books cover the design and history of their subjects, with the final 10-15 pages devoted to their "Appearance" during their careers, both from modifications to equipment and camouflage. Chesneau's text is lucid, lively, and concise. There are pages of color profiles (2 for the KGV battleships, 6 for the various Panzerschiff vessels), and 4 to 6 pages of 1:700 scale line drawings with details. These are very well done. A full page of References include sources for plans, Web sites, and videos, as well as the usual books. Where these "Ship Craft" books depart from other histories, and what makes them particularly attractive to modelers, are the 10 page "Model Products" and 20 page "Modelers Showcase" sections. The "Products" chapter reviews the commercial styrene (but no resin) kits available over the full range of scales, with photos of the kit boxes and unfinished kit parts, with Chesneau's considered opinions of each. Available aftermarket photoetch and resin detail parts are also reviewed.

The "Modeler's Showcase" is inspiring, but also fully illustrates the near-fatal flaw in these books. In full color, various modeler's scratch- and kit-built efforts are shown at a wide range of scales. But, on closer inspection, one realizes that nearly every one of these photos is a digital imaging nightmare. Reviewing the black and white photos elsewhere in the book shows that these historic photographs have also been digitally scanned and printed, and show the same problems of "pixelation" and image interpolation. This ruins the resolution in the images. No rigging lines are visible on any b/w images. The digital images also show the annoying Moire interference patterns seen when the pixel size is too large to show repetitive small details in the object (e.g. the deck planking on any of the models, or the hull port holes in the photos on the back cover of the Pocket Battleship book). These b/w photos are the usual, widely-reproduced images, so comparing them to their previous presentations in older publications shows how poorly they have been reproduced here. This is not progress; this is shameful.

I am extremely disappointed with the publisher and printer for the presentation of the photographs in these first two "Ship Craft" series books. Indeed, with Squadron/Signal Publication's "In Action" series having also slipped into this digital imaging abyss, things appear quite bleak for the book-buying modeling community. Roger Chesneau's expert text, the skill of the contributing modelers/artisans, and the accuracy of the color camouflage profiles and line drawings is very greatly diminished by the horrid photographs. Lets hope that the publishers get the message that we will not stand for such poor images in our modeling books. Let us also hope that the four further monographs planned for this "Ship Craft" series live up to the potential shown here.

Roger Chesneau is an author of no small repute. An expert on military equipment, both naval and aeronautical, his works include the now-classic "Aircraft Carriers of the World" (1984) as well as numerous AEROGUIDE descriptions of post-WWII aircraft. It was therefore with great anticipation that I awaited the publication of the first two offerings of his "Ship Craft" series of monographs. My opinions of Chesneau's "KGV Class Battleships" and "German Pocket Battleships" are, unfortunately, quite mixed.

These 64 page, large format (A4 page size) soft-cover offerings from Chatham Publishing are designed especially for modelers. The first third of the books cover the design and history of their subjects, with the final 10-15 pages devoted to their "Appearance" during their careers, both from modifications to equipment and camouflage. Chesneau's text is lucid, lively, and concise. There are pages of color profiles (2 for the KGV battleships, 6 for the various Panzerschiff vessels), and 4 to 6 pages of 1:700 scale line drawings with details. These are very well done. A full page of References include sources for plans, Web sites, and videos, as well as the usual books. Where these "Ship Craft" books depart from other histories, and what makes them particularly attractive to modelers, are the 10 page "Model Products" and 20 page "Modelers Showcase" sections. The "Products" chapter reviews the commercial styrene (but no resin) kits available over the full range of scales, with photos of the kit boxes and unfinished kit parts, with Chesneau's considered opinions of each. Available aftermarket photoetch and resin detail parts are also reviewed.

The "Modeler's Showcase" is inspiring, but also fully illustrates the near-fatal flaw in these books. In full color, various modeler's scratch- and kit-built efforts are shown at a wide range of scales. But, on closer inspection, one realizes that nearly every one of these photos is a digital imaging nightmare. Reviewing the black and white photos elsewhere in the book shows that these historic photographs have also been digitally scanned and printed, and show the same problems of "pixelation" and image interpolation. This ruins the resolution in the images. No rigging lines are visible on any b/w images. The digital images also show the annoying Moire interference patterns seen when the pixel size is too large to show repetitive small details in the object (e.g. the deck planking on any of the models, or the hull port holes in the photos on the back cover of the Pocket Battleship book). These b/w photos are the usual, widely-reproduced images, so comparing them to their previous presentations in older publications shows how poorly they have been reproduced here. This is not progress; this is shameful.

I am extremely disappointed with the publisher and printer for the presentation of the photographs in these first two "Ship Craft" series books. Indeed, with Squadron/Signal Publication's "In Action" series having also slipped into this digital imaging abyss, things appear quite bleak for the book-buying modeling community. Roger Chesneau's expert text, the skill of the contributing modelers/artisans, and the accuracy of the color camouflage profiles and line drawings is very greatly diminished by the horrid photographs. Lets hope that the publishers get the message that we will not stand for such poor images in our modeling books. Let us also hope that the four further monographs planned for this "Ship Craft" series live up to the potential shown here.