My copy finally turned up so I'll give you a mini-review as a few people were asking for more information on this new book.
This book is Hardback and 25cm x 20cm.
It contains 258 pages and 168 photographs.
It retails for around �20 or $40.
It has NO PLANS and NO COLOUR ARTWORK.
I have owned the authors previous books on Cavalier, Cumberland and Superb so I have to be honest I did not have high hopes for this one, but I'll try to be as objective as I can.
The composition of the book starts with an introduction then it moves on to the operational histories of each ship split into 1942 build programme, 1943 build programme and then finally the ships that served with the RAN.
Appendices are then included at the back which are: Battle class build programme, Technical Specifications, Full Power Trials, Secondary Armament Changes, Previous Vessels of the Name, Squadron�s and Flotillas, End of the Line - The Axeman Cometh, Bibliography, Acknowledgements.
I shall firstly start with the good things this book does.
It has good photographic re-production with many photographs of the ships in question from late-war and peacetime.
Further, the editor or publisher must be commended for utilising many private collections that Maritime Press have access to e.g. Steve Bush Collection or the Maritime Photo Library.
It also it would seem borrows from many ex-crewmates on these ships, which again is nice to see.
In terms of photo coverage many of the shots are of the entire ships in question.
It will thus be a useful reference for photos of this class, but also to quickly use as a reference book to see where a certain ship was at a given time from the operational histories.
Moving onto the criticisms of this book and I make no apologies there are many!
Firstly there are not many on-deck photographs showing the equipment and small details such as weapons, radars, there appears few photographs from the PREMIER sources namely the IWM and the NMM.
Pages 16 and 17 being the exceptions showing on-deck views of a squid and 2 single 40mm bofors
but the rest of the book are the usual ship views only so basically for many of the fine details on these ships you might have to use others books in a complementary manner.
In terms of technical information this book gives it fail on a number of levels. For example it does not give important information on such things as engineering, damage control, electronics, sonar, gunnery, torpedoes and other ASW weapons.
The book tries to cover the design history of the ships briefly in its introduction and technical specifications in the appendix, but again key information is missing such as the number of 4.5-inch rounds per barrel which was carried or the number of 40mm ammunition say.
Yes that might be for the rivet counters, but I consider that important technical information perhaps you agree?
There is NOT one plan in this book, what a terrible mistake!
There are NO CAMOUFLAGE patterns or COLOUR/B&W ARTWORK such as The Kelly's book another massive error!
In the Acknowledgements page in this book the author states "THE SCALE OF RESEARCH FOR THIS PROJECT MEANT..." well I'm sorry that is laughable.
The majority of the text in this book is simply a list for each ship as a tabular record of movement.
Being familiar with British naval archives this author has merely copied these lists verbatim from MoD ship histories, most likely at Naval Historical at Portsmouth.
I'm sorry but I do not call that 'proper research' merely plagarism and lazyness!
The fact that it is a poorly researched book comes through in the bibliography which is wafer thin to say the least as it only lists 3 books, 5 newspapers/magazine sources consulted and 6 archives examined which does NOT include the IWM or the NMM - a criminal omission in my opinion!
Further why does he not even consult the best previously published work on this class namely the Peter Hodges book (by far and away the best book from a modellers perspective), he has not consulted March, the Warship Supplement articles or Friedman's book (Maybe I can let him off on the later as this would be released at the time when this book was nearing completion) but he has not looked at the Naval Historical Association of Australia or the who have all published data on these Battle class ships which this book would benefit from consulting.
If I'm mistaken and the author has looked at all of the above then in my defence he should have put them in bibliography!
Another criticism is the bibliography includes no primary source material, no archival references and it does not even give the issues covered for say Warship World it just lists the magazine title!
Again this is poor referencing and little use for anyone wanting to follow up these sources.
I suppose there is a reason this book is written in the such a way. Boniface according to the dust-jacket is a journalist and broadcaster by trade.
I'm sorry Maritime books but it would appear this type author is simply not up to the task to publish work of this nature.
I consider the type of book this should have been would be what I call a total history of a ship i.e. technical, operational and visual.
This just about meets the operational criteria and fails for the other two.
A book on any RN destroyer class should follow a similar format to The Kelly's - anything else is merely a partial history and misses large chucks of relevant information that should be published on such ships.
By publishing this book it makes it harder for any other prospective author to convince a publisher to commission another book on this class for commercial reasons.
That might sound a person dig but I am in no way planning a Battle class book, merely pointing out how publishing 'questionable work' closes the door for some.
I would give this book 2 stars out of 5.
Maybe I expect too much?
But I have the advantage of knowing what�s out there and if the naval book buying public is being served up this kind of dish, then the establishment should be done for food poisoning!
Cheers
Laurence Batchelor
My copy finally turned up so I'll give you a mini-review as a few people were asking for more information on this new book.
This book is Hardback and 25cm x 20cm.
It contains 258 pages and 168 photographs.
It retails for around �20 or $40.
It has NO PLANS and NO COLOUR ARTWORK.
I have owned the authors previous books on Cavalier, Cumberland and Superb so I have to be honest I did not have high hopes for this one, but I'll try to be as objective as I can.
The composition of the book starts with an introduction then it moves on to the operational histories of each ship split into 1942 build programme, 1943 build programme and then finally the ships that served with the RAN.
Appendices are then included at the back which are: Battle class build programme, Technical Specifications, Full Power Trials, Secondary Armament Changes, Previous Vessels of the Name, Squadron�s and Flotillas, End of the Line - The Axeman Cometh, Bibliography, Acknowledgements.
I shall firstly start with the good things this book does.
It has good photographic re-production with many photographs of the ships in question from late-war and peacetime.
Further, the editor or publisher must be commended for utilising many private collections that Maritime Press have access to e.g. Steve Bush Collection or the Maritime Photo Library.
It also it would seem borrows from many ex-crewmates on these ships, which again is nice to see.
In terms of photo coverage many of the shots are of the entire ships in question.
It will thus be a useful reference for photos of this class, but also to quickly use as a reference book to see where a certain ship was at a given time from the operational histories.
Moving onto the criticisms of this book and I make no apologies there are many!
Firstly there are not many on-deck photographs showing the equipment and small details such as weapons, radars, there appears few photographs from the PREMIER sources namely the IWM and the NMM.
Pages 16 and 17 being the exceptions showing on-deck views of a squid and 2 single 40mm bofors
but the rest of the book are the usual ship views only so basically for many of the fine details on these ships you might have to use others books in a complementary manner.
In terms of technical information this book gives it fail on a number of levels. For example it does not give important information on such things as engineering, damage control, electronics, sonar, gunnery, torpedoes and other ASW weapons.
The book tries to cover the design history of the ships briefly in its introduction and technical specifications in the appendix, but again key information is missing such as the number of 4.5-inch rounds per barrel which was carried or the number of 40mm ammunition say.
Yes that might be for the rivet counters, but I consider that important technical information perhaps you agree?
There is NOT one plan in this book, what a terrible mistake!
There are NO CAMOUFLAGE patterns or COLOUR/B&W ARTWORK such as The Kelly's book another massive error!
In the Acknowledgements page in this book the author states "THE SCALE OF RESEARCH FOR THIS PROJECT MEANT..." well I'm sorry that is laughable.
The majority of the text in this book is simply a list for each ship as a tabular record of movement.
Being familiar with British naval archives this author has merely copied these lists verbatim from MoD ship histories, most likely at Naval Historical at Portsmouth.
I'm sorry but I do not call that 'proper research' merely plagarism and lazyness!
The fact that it is a poorly researched book comes through in the bibliography which is wafer thin to say the least as it only lists 3 books, 5 newspapers/magazine sources consulted and 6 archives examined which does NOT include the IWM or the NMM - a criminal omission in my opinion!
Further why does he not even consult the best previously published work on this class namely the Peter Hodges book (by far and away the best book from a modellers perspective), he has not consulted March, the Warship Supplement articles or Friedman's book (Maybe I can let him off on the later as this would be released at the time when this book was nearing completion) but he has not looked at the Naval Historical Association of Australia or the who have all published data on these Battle class ships which this book would benefit from consulting.
If I'm mistaken and the author has looked at all of the above then in my defence he should have put them in bibliography!
Another criticism is the bibliography includes no primary source material, no archival references and it does not even give the issues covered for say Warship World it just lists the magazine title!
Again this is poor referencing and little use for anyone wanting to follow up these sources.
I suppose there is a reason this book is written in the such a way. Boniface according to the dust-jacket is a journalist and broadcaster by trade.
I'm sorry Maritime books but it would appear this type author is simply not up to the task to publish work of this nature.
I consider the type of book this should have been would be what I call a total history of a ship i.e. technical, operational and visual.
This just about meets the operational criteria and fails for the other two.
A book on any RN destroyer class should follow a similar format to The Kelly's - anything else is merely a partial history and misses large chucks of relevant information that should be published on such ships.
By publishing this book it makes it harder for any other prospective author to convince a publisher to commission another book on this class for commercial reasons.
That might sound a person dig but I am in no way planning a Battle class book, merely pointing out how publishing 'questionable work' closes the door for some.
I would give this book 2 stars out of 5.
Maybe I expect too much?
But I have the advantage of knowing what�s out there and if the naval book buying public is being served up this kind of dish, then the establishment should be done for food poisoning! :heh:
Cheers
Laurence Batchelor