Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I expected this book to be another "mass merchandising" book on WWII warships, but it was surprisingly refreshing in its insightful comments. It is written like a "Consumer Reports" of warships; each entry consists of brief, standard specs (w/ many abbreviations) and concise, lucid and short critical commentary describing the fighting capabilities of the class. For example, it described the Bismarch as overrated (built on WWI battleship design concepts); the Hood as outdated (built on pre-WWI w/ Jutland retrofits) but unmodernized; and the Iowa class as the definitive U.S. battleship (best overall). When appropriate, the book explores, with surprising insightfulness, the armor scheme & torpedo protection, main gun selection, dual purpose vs. tertiary gun scheme, and other characteristics that make a successful design or a subpar design. The general theme is that this is not another "narrative" type book, and it almost goes out of the way to find a major fault with every class (since every class is a compromise of size, cost, technology, etc.). It is brief, with no more than an equivalent half page-column for major ships but as noted by other reviewers, covers a complete range of ships; I think only the major or interesting ships are accompanied by a photo. Here is the downside: (1) the author is described as a freelance writer, so his background and credentials are atypical, i.e., how authoratative is he compared to a John Roberts, Alan Raven, Norman Freiedman, etc.??; (2) there are no line drawings, so this is not a "technical" book; (3) the photos are newspaper-like, dark & lacking detail (they are better than the Jane's reprints of WWI & WWII fleets which were essentially photocopies; and (4) the book paper is similar to softbound book paper; it has a low production value & newspaper feel to it (by a non-military book publisher). At a list price of $[money], it is worthwhile book. If only this material was combined with a Lenton or a Whitley book, it would be standout. The book also has a rebel feel to it; it's almost like the author is saying "You can't get this material from the others - - they're too busy repeating the known stuff. . ."
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For the first time ever for a popular audience, an extraordinary single volume that describes-and assesses in no-holds-barred fashion-every navy that took part in the Second World War.For decades, the legions of World War II buffs interested in Allied and Axis naval history were limited to expensive, multi-volume works written for specialists. No longer will this be the case. Fleets of World War II, packed with data and illustrated throughout, is not a simple list of ships but a fascinating and often pungent appraisal of those ships and the fleets they served. Japan built the world's largest battleships with guns bigger than anything in the Allied arsenal-but was bigger in fact better? The British engaged in a wartime flurry of ship production-but did they build the ships they needed for victory? Fleets of World War II dispels the clutter, providing a straightforward appraisal that is nothing short of revelatory.A complete resource, the book includes every nation that took part in the war, along with the key neutrals. Each fleet is surveyed in totality, from the mighty battleships to the humble motor launches. The systematic, plain-English presentation makes for easy reference: nation by nation, ship by ship, with a multitude of details on design, strategy, and combat available nowhere else.
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