Customer Reviews

BB-67 MONTANA, U.S. Navy Battleship: Why She Matters Today

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BB-67 MONTANA, U.S. Navy Battleship: Why She Matters Today This is an absurdly overpriced booklet of 24 pages. It consists of 5 pages of extremely elemental text, 4 pages of hard to read design schemes, 11 pages of photographs of a model of the ship, 3 pages of an artists's conception of the ship undeway, and 1 page showing the aborted Montana BB-51 of 1921 in the early stage of construction. I would certainly not recommend this publication for anyone with a serious interest in learning the full story of the design history of the last class of BB's planned for the U.S. Navy.

This book was a disappointment. The line drawings are unreadable, the specifications are elementry, but the photos of the models were well done. It would have been better served as an article in Fine Scale Modeler of how the model was built. Overpriced and under-delivering, not recommended.

I was provided a pdf of this document for review. The un-built Montana class of American super battleships is of interest for military (and naval) history fans, given its place in World War II-era naval planning and production. This document includes introductory material on the inception of the American super battleship design, some information on the evolution of that design, and of course details of the cancellation of the class. This document's strength is its graphical information, including reproductions of design documents, photos of scale models used during construction planning, artistic interpretations of the ship if built, and images of a recent scale model of the ship (with several views and closeups). The author adds some discussion of current major naval projects in the context of the resource- and tactics-driven cancellation of this pre-war design. This document is a worthy addition to the library of an individual interested in World War II naval history and battleships, particularly conjectural designs. Persons interested in greater depth on American battleship design are directed to Polmar's book on that subject, which is cited in this volume.

BB-67 Montana - Why She Matters Today - matters to those who have a passion for the development of big-gun battleships by the US Navy and other Navies - in a brief summary, the book illustrates the four competing designs considered before #4 was selected for production - something explored in great detail in Norman Friedman's excellent book, at more than three times the price. For those who aspire to model the Montana, the plans and photos of models will prove a big help. And for those of us who like to imagine what the Montana might have done in battle, this book gives us plenty of food for thought.

This book isn't for everyone - it's short and the text is sparse - but the photo-illustrations are superb, the models inspiring and the concept, as a monograph, is on-target for those who want to dip their toes into the pool without jumping in the deep end.

I look at the Montana and wonder - why didn't she carry more of the 5" turrets than the Iowas (sure, they were the superior 5" 54s, not the war-winning 5" 38s, but there were only ten turrets, just as in the Iowa). Then I consider - this secondary armament was the equivalent of four Fletcher-class destroyers, suggesting that the Montana could all but escort herself.

And I wonder what genius in the Navy Board decided that speed wasn't important - choosing the 28-knot version #4 over the 33-knot version #33 - dooming the ship by ensuring that it couldn't escort the Essex-class and later Midway-class carriers in combat. A battleship that could only do 28 knots would have been useful only for escorting invasion fleets, not carrier task forces - and the invasion forces didn't need the world's most modern battleship, as the pre-war generations of battleships were sufficient to the moment.

This book offers lots of food for thought, and it also offers inspiration for building a resin kit or "the Mother of all Kit-Bashing" kits (sacrificing two Iowas to the cause). If you are a battleship nut-case like me, and if you're a ship-modeler not afraid of "what if" models, this book matters.

Ned Barnett