Possible new Royal Navy Destroyer Books

[Laurence Batchelor]

I happened to stumble across these today and thought I'd post in case others hadn't noticed these forthcoming titles yet:

1) A Hard Fought Ship: The Story of HMS Venemous (Paperback)
# Publisher: Holywell House Publishing; 2nd Revised edition edition (Mar 2009)
# Language English
# ISBN-10: 0955938201

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Fought-Shi ... 36&sr=1-50

2) Red Tobruk: Memoirs of a World War II Destroyer Commander
by Gregory Smith
# Hardcover: 208 pages
# Publisher: Pen & Sword Maritime (19 Nov 2008)
# Language English
# ISBN-10: 1844158624

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Tobruk-Memo ... 08&sr=1-18

3) Ken Macpherson's RCN C-class destroyer book has been recently been reprinted, revised and expanded with what looks like one of the many colour photographs shown to me to exist in Canadian archives of many of their WW2 ships on the new cover:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Class-Des ... 78&sr=1-30

Does anyone have this third one and can comment on it please?
Cheers

[George W]

I got a copy over the summer. I ordered it from Chapters (Canada) via the Internet as I did not see it locally. The only colour is the front cover picture and one on the back cover (soft cover rather then hardcover in the prior version). I borrowed the previous version from the library when I was building the Resin Shipyard (Darren) Kootenay (displayed on this site) so I can't do a direct comparsion now however the new version is longer. The Kootenay section in both versions is 6 pages long (I photocopied this section for the model) however there are additional photographs but they are smaller. The history may be identical as all the paragraphs start the same but there is a personal story of a crew member at the end (not included in the first edition). The history section ends with the basic specs and TROM is better produced. There are 8 pages of drawings of various ships in the back however they are poorly produced so the detail text is unreadable. Graphically they are better than the prior version as I remember it they were hand drawn.
I have not read it yet but for $20 (CA) it represents very good value. It is especially good if you are modeling any of the 14 A-I ships that may of ended up in the RCN.
Best Wishes
George W

[Laurence Batchelor]

Many thanks George

[bengtsson]

"Red Tobruk" looks like a HUNT class on the cover. Hope the subject of the book is a Hunt. Must be one of the early ones. Any guess

Bob B.

[RNfanDan]

The ship is HMS Eridge (L68), a Type II Hunt class destroyer. Although the ship was considered a loss it did not sink, and was used as an accomodation/storage hulk for the remainder of the war. It was also "cannibalized" for parts needed to repair other Hunt-class units on Med duty.

Interesting book, I may buy a copy of it, soon!

Dan

[bengtsson]

The ship is HMS Eridge (L68), a Type II Hunt class destroyer. Although the ship was considered a loss it did not sink, and was used as an accomodation/storage hulk for the remainder of the war. It was also "cannibalized" for parts needed to repair other Hunt-class units on Med duty.

Interesting book, I may buy a copy of it, soon!

Dan

Thanks This book is at the top of my list. The Hunts are interesting ships, I've always wanted an operational history of one.

Bob B.

[Laurence Batchelor]

Bob then I would recommend this fellow already published:

Tetcott - The Thrill of the Chase

http://www.hmstetcott.com/book.php

It cost me �20 + �3 UK postage, but it is nice to know the money goes to a good cause!

[bengtsson]

Bob then I would recommend this fellow already published:

Tetcott - The Thrill of the Chase

http://www.hmstetcott.com/book.php

It cost me �20 + �3 UK postage, but it is nice to know the money goes to a good cause!

Yes, thanks for the tip Laurence. I'll add that one to my purchase list. The Pound/Dollar exchange rate has made me a rich man as of late . Not long ago the 2 x 1 rate was making me sing the blues. Last week I spent time on Ebay UK and found a number of good buys. One was an operational history of Dido. Hope to add a few more RN books before the dollar does a nose dive.

Bob B.

[Laurence Batchelor]

and likewise its bad for me if I buy from the US!
Hurry up with that nose-dive please!

[RNfanDan]

I see today a new Shipcraft book on RN A-I class destroyers is forthcoming from Seaforth (sp?) sometime in February 2009.

Pre-order price from Amazon is less than �10.

I do not recognize its author (Brown) but perhaps it will be a decent book. This series of publications has its ups and downs, to be sure and lots of milquetoast to boot, but perhaps a glimmer of hope exists there will be something of value to be had from this newest one.

[Laurence Batchelor]

Les Brown runs the Small warships SIG stand at Telford each year, builds models, writes the newsletter and knows John Lambert well having already worked with him on the larger hardback Shipcraft book on Flower Class corvettes, which has already been published.

It seems Seaforth were pleased so they signed him up to do an A to I book.