Customer Reviews

Allied Battleships in World War II

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Mssrs Garzke and Dulin have written a trio of detailed, comprehensive and objective analyses of the battleships of the World War II era (designs past 1930). In this volume, they analyze the capital ships of the Netherlands, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Overall, they rate the units of France as the best in the 35,000 treaty class due the Richelieu's fine protection and speed coupled with excellent firepower. The authors analyze the loss of Prince of Wales to Japanese air attack and the loss of Hood to Bismarck in intricate detail. For any wargamer or student of warships or naval history, this book is a must. Even designs contemplated but never laid down or completed are discussed, including the Lion class and French Alsaace class. A must read.

The Battleships trilogy by Garzke and Dulin is probably one of the most meticulously researched books on warships ever. The authors are naval architects and one of them is a former naval officer, so they know their subject inside and out. The drawings are certainly impressive and very useful to any modeler or historian of the subject.

The projected designs of battleships never built by the major naval powers is a distinctive feature of this series and certainly interesting, considering that many of these designs were paper studies. The bibliography of the books show the tremendous research put in by the authors, who spared no effort in writing to eminent naval researchers abroad. A must buy!

Another volume of the outstanding Battleship trilogy by these two authors; accompanies Axis Battleships and U.S. Battleships. This 3 volume set has to be one of the cornerstones of any Warship library. It's hard to imagine improving on it: It has unmatched technical detail balanced by overall strategic and political context, excellent summaries,outstanding pictures and superb line drawings, and is, in short, everything any naval history buff could ask for. The only criticism I can think of is that the slip cover for the U.S. book doesn't match the other 2 volumes, of which this particular book is part! But who cares about the slipcovers when the contents are so rich? I've had this 3 volume set for years, and although I consult them often, I will basically never be finished: you simply come back time and again to drink up more.

Dulin and Garzke have authored one of the finest detailed analysis of the Allied Battleships in WWII. This book covers all of the physical aspects, detailed plans, construction, and the operational aspects of the Royal Navy, French Navy, Royal Netherlands Navy, and the Russian Navy. They have also discussed, in great detail, the armament, armor protection, radar, and propulsion plants.

The line drawings and photographs make this book worth the price alone. As an added bonus, this book contains the only published photographs of HMS Prince of Wales extensive damage after her engagement with the German battleship DKM Bismarck.

My recommendation is to buy this book, at all cost, if you have any interest in WWII battleships. This type of book has a history of disappearing from publication and becoming hard to find.

Contents: (1.) Deck Designations (2.) Ch.1 Introduction (3.) Ch.2 The Dunkerque Class (4.) Ch.3 The Richelieu Class (5.) Ch.4 The Netherlands (6.) Ch.5 The King George V Class (7.) Ch.6 The Lion Class (8.) Ch.7 The Vanguard (9.) Ch.8 The Soviet Soyuz Class (10.) Ch.9 The Soviet Battlecruisers (11.) Ch.10 Conclusion

Scott Spencer

Among many books dedicated to capitol ships in the II WW, this volume is a very pleasant reading. It comes close to the experience of on the spot study of the design, construction and operational life of dreadnoughts of allied Navies, leading every naval buff to the very insight of the ship themselves. Each class is thoroughly illustrated, giving detailed information of ship's armament, protection systems, engineering and machinery. The best facet is the careful examination of operational career of each ship and the analysis of battle damage sustained by the ship according to testimonies, technical data and the most probable reconstruction of incoming shell trajectory. The damage studies are interesting since they are presented with extensive use of line drawings, further explaining the ships' innermost structural architecture. Another remarkable feature is the extensive chapter dedicated to Soviet wartime effort to build capital ships. It literally casts a light on the subject, providing many facts and photographs of this unknown page of II WW. Profiles, armor diagrams, shear,frame & body plans, line drawings are very accurate as they are results of blueprints' deep investigation.

This book is really an authoritative source for studying battleships from their inception to their final days.

Excellent as a general technical reference. Compiles technical data very hard to find in a reasonable amount of places elsewhere. Drawings much improved from those that blighted their previous work on US battleships. Wish they would redo the book on US battleships.

I'm adding my voice to the chorus of praise for the G&D books. The attention to detail is impressive. The authors go so far as to account for the different definitions of "inch"--an inch of armor in the Royal Navy was actually 0.98in, and this reflects correctly in the figures cited for the KGV, Lion, and Vanguard classes. In citing the damage inflicted on France's Dunkerque by exploding depth charges, the authors properly tally, not the amount of explosive in all the depth charges lying alongside the ship, but only the amount which detonated properly. Impressive work.
It should be no surprise that more recent revelations have overtaken G&D's look at Soviet designs. Still, the info they do present is generally representative of the design's actual properties. A similar state applies in the chapter on Dutch Design 1047.
The only caution requiring the reader's attention is that the occasional typo pops up to confuse the statistical information. This is a general caveat for all three volumes rather than this one in particular.

FIRST THOUGHTS: THIS VOLUME INCLUDED BOTH THE MOST AND LEAST FAMILIAR SHIPS TO ME

This was a real pleasure to wade through. Although I have read a great many volumes which detail the British Dreadnought classes quite well, I knew very little about the 2 French classes and the proposed Dutch Battlecruiser. The oversize fold-out sketches were a real pleasure to behold, especially under a bright light and a magnifying glass. Over the years I have read many books about naval vessels and military history and this volume, like the rest of the series, adds some new and fresh perspectives to my thinking. Whereas NO single book or series on the subject of 'Battleships' can be considered THE FINAL WORD on the subject, this series, of which this specific volume belongs, is so well organized, detailed and comprehensive that I firmly believe that it is a 'must-have' for those with an intense interest in Battleships - like myself.

IN A NUTSHELL: CASE STUDIES OF 8 DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT CLASSES OF DREADNOUGHTS FROM 4 COUNTRIES

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER TWO: THE DUNKERQUE CLASS
CHAPTER THREE: THE RICHELIEU CLASS
CHAPTER FOUR: THE NETHERLANDS - DESIGN 1047
CHAPTER FIVE: THE KING GEORGE THE V CLASS
CHAPTER SIX: THE LION CLASS
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE VANGUARD
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE SOVIETSKII SOYUZ CLASS
CHAPTER NINE: SOVIET BATTLECRUISERS
CHAPTER TEN: CONCLUSION

APPENDIXES

A. FULL-SCALE ORDNANCE TRIALS
B. THE PRINCE OF WALES
C. BATTLESHIP AND BATTLECRUISER GUNS



WHAT IT IS: THE ABSOLUTE ZENITH OF A NATION'S JINGOISTIC TECHNOLOGY & POWER

In essence, the Dreadnought represents everything a powerful or wanna-be powerful nation can impart into a ship to project power on the behalf of that nation. I just made that up, but it is so obviously true. When one goes through these volumes, one can see a combination of the national pride, desperation and deviousness that lay behind the erection of fleets of these incredible vessels. Here are some motives that are touched on in these volumes:

The British wishing to limit the size, power and number of Battleships by treaty as their global fortunes were on the wane proposed and built ships that were less than ideal in all respects prior to World War 2;

The Japanese wishing to keep the world in the dark as to the size and power of their new ships [Yamato Class], hide the construction of the ships and put out false documents regarding the ships' displacement and the gun caliber of its main batteries [460mm];

The Americans utilizing the escalator clause to include 16" guns in the North Carolina class as a response to the secret Japanese building program;

The Germans building larger ships than they were limited by treaty to do as the need for armored protection increased as war approached;

The French built the Dunkerque and Richelieu class as a response to the Germans building the 'Pocket Battleships", followed by their 'Battlecruisers';


BOTTOM LINE: THE SECOND VOLUME OF AN AWESOME HISTORIC TRILOGY

After a complete reading of the entire trilogy, I feel, I now better understand the construction and design considerations that lead to a completed Dreadnought. These books including this volume have fed my interest and have encouraged me to look deeper into the topic of Dreadnought engineering and construction. Now, after reading this series, and then re-reading it, I feel better able to grasp the technical materials that I will have to deal with as I continue to delve into the fascinating topic of 'Dreadnoughts' and their effect on history.

For anyone who is a serious student of battleship history. This book gives great information on the construction details of the "big guns" of the allied navel forces. A great companion to the authors' Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships of WWII.