Books on German WWI Warships and Naval Actions

[bengtsson]

I recently bought a couple of books that should be of interest for fans of Germany's World War I Warships and Naval History.
From Japan comes a book entitled "German Warship Photo Collection" This is in the usual high quality Japanese style. Large photos reprinted on full pages. High quality glossy art paper, and mostly clear sharp photos. The U-Boats are not covered. But all the major surface ship types are. It should be of great interest for modelers for the detail in each photo.
It is available from Japan via Hobby Link Japan http://www.hlj.com
The best photo collection of Imperial German Warships I have seen.
A new Naval History Book "Battle of the Seven Seas, German Cruiser Battles 1914-18", by Gary Staff.
I have most every book on World War I surface combat, including the one's printed in the 1920-30's.
So I expected the same old tired accounts. But far from it! The author has gone into the German records and produced accounts from the German perspective that are fresh, revealing and one of a kind. There really is much new to learn from the German records. I count this book the very best on German Naval History of WWI.
Hope this prompts people with an interest in the German WWI navy to look into these books.

Bob B.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi Bob
The books sound very tempting.
I am very interested in WW1 German destroyers/torpedo boats and am currently building a 1/48th scale model of one. Do the books cover these vessels in any depth? I have Harald Focks books on these ships, can you recommend any others?
Many thanks.

Picketboat

[bengtsson]

Sure, I also have an interest in Germany's WWI Destroyer fleet, though they are not as impressive as the true DD's that the British Navy fielded.

As for the German Warships Photo book from Japan, they have the following photos, All better than you will see in any other reference, but not up to building a model from.
V188 Not so good for the model builder
G137 Nice photos but not so good for model building
G169 "
V186 "
V1 "
V5 "
G7 "
V99 "
B109 "
G8 full page
V25 "
S49 "
V125 "
V 116 "

As you probably well know, sources on German WWI DD's are few and far between, though maybe something exists in German on the subject.

"Warship Profile #27 SM Torpedo Boat B110" is a great reference, the best in English for a German Boat.

That is about all I know of other than the odd picture in the books on German WWII DD's.
Try the used book search sites, the Warship Profile should be easy to find, it is a real prize for anyone with an interest in German WWI Torpedo boats.

Bob B.

[PICKETBOAT]

Bob


Many thanks for your recommendation of the book Warship Profile number 27 Torpedo boat B110. I managed to get a copy from ABE BOOKS for only �7. Fantastic reading and lots of pictures I have not seen before.
Although I have pretty much finished building my model of the Torpedo Boat V105 its set me thinking about building one of the B vessels (much bigger). As I made moulds and cast the majority of the deck fittings for V105 I would be able to re use these to make the standardised fittings on the B boat.
Thanks again for your help.

Steve

[Jimmy Conway]

PICKETBOAT

Do you have some book to point as photographic reference for building V105/V108 torpedo boats?
Thanks: Jimmy

[PICKETBOAT]

Jimmy

Sorry I dont know of a specific book (there might be one). I trawled around and collected pictures from a few sources. As two vessels of the class ended up in Poland there are quite a few pictures from that country although the last surviving vessel underwent at least two major refits. Try Wikipedia. Try and Google the Polish names for the two vessels. Is it a specific bit of info you need or just general photos? I may be able to help in some way. I assumed that standardized deck fitting were used and when not sure used photos of other contemporary German destroyers/torpedo boats as a source. I used the plans reproduced in Harald Fock's book "Z-vor!"

Steve

[Jimmy Conway]

Steve, I'd like to have more pics to visualize points of the ship, details.......

But I thank for your words, and I'll see what I can do.

Best regards: Jimmy