Customer Reviews

Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II

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The G&D books cover a lot of territory. Each section begins with a short design history followed by an overview of the design, broken down into categories (armament, protection, propulsion plant, etc). When it comes to understanding a ship's armor scheme, there's no substitute for seeing a series of drawings; stats-in-a-vacuum like those in a Conway's are less than useless, and a token cross section gives only a glimpse. G&D provide a fully realized picture. The chapter on the Bismarck class is blemished by a lack of definitive information; only now is the extent of the 80mm weather deck generally becoming known, and G&D label it as 50mm throughout. In fact, plenty of questions remain on Bismarck and Tirpitz and their differences, so it's hard to fault G&D for this.
Another weakness is the reference to gun penetration data based on USN calculations; the formula for these calculations was actually intended to predict performance against homogenous armor, and its most common application has been for face-hardened armor. Thus they serve to be indicative only in the most general sense--in other words, why bother?
I find it easier to pick out the nits than to try to elaborate on the battery of qualities in the three books. They sit on the shelf within easy reach, and I refer to them regularly.

FIRST THOUGHTS: THIS VOLUME WAS MY FAVORITE OF THE TRILOGY

I have read many books about this subject and this volume adds some fresh perspectives and details to what I have already come to understand. Although no book on the subject can be considered either perfect or all-inclusive this series and this specific volume in particular is comprehensive and organized in a very easy and useful format making it a 'must-have' for those with an intense interest in Battleships.

IN A NUTSHELL: CASE STUDIES OF 7 DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT CLASSES OF DREADNOUGHTS FROM 4 COUNTRIES

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER TWO: THE YAMATO CLASS
CHAPTER THREE: THE SCHARNHORST CLASS
CHAPTER FOUR: THE BISMARCK CLASS
CHAPTER FIVE: GERMANY THE "H" CLASS BATTLESHIPS
CHAPTER SIX: THE "O" CLASS BATTLECRUISERS
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE VITTORIO VENETO CLASS
CHAPTER EIGHT: SPAIN
CHAPTER NINE: CONCLUSION

APPENDIXES

A- STABILITY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BISMARCK CLASS
B- INBOARD PROFILE AND DECK PLANS OF THE BISMARCK
C- BATTLESHIP AND BATTLECRUISER GUNS


WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT: THE ZENITH OF A NATIONS TECHNOLOGY & POWER


BOTTOM LINE: THE FINAL 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 and this volume in particular have fed my interest to look deeper into the topic of Dreadnought construction. After reading this series 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'.

The authors of this book complete their trilogy on capital ships of the World War II era with this book. They examine WWI development, the Washington Naval Conference and its effect on pre WWII designs, the escalator clause and wartime developments affecting the battleships and battlecruisers of Japan, Germany, Italy and Spain. Spain is included among the Axis powers due to Franco's right wing regime and aid received from Germany and Italy during the civil war. Step by step details of the design of Yamato and the inherent weakness of her underwater protection are discussed. The gunnery comparisons between Yamato and Iowa are surprising. The chase and sinking of Bismarck and Scharnhorst are detailed and the weaknesses in German designs are pointed out. Finally, the authors compare capital ships in four design areas: 1) battlecruisers 2} 35,000 ton designs 3) 45,000 ton designs 4) 45,000 plus ton designs. There are gunnery tables included at the end for comparison of contemporary naval artillery. This book, along with their books on Allied and US Battleships, belongs on the shelf of any wargamer or warship historian/enthusiast.

I have had a long time interest as a historian and having had personal connections with the sea, I have built up a library for about 30 years which includes the significant texts on naval construction. I have all three of the Dulin/Garzke books, and of the three books the tome on Axis/Neutral ships is by far the best production. I suspect, though, that the tome on Axis/Neutral ships is better only because the authors have had to learn something about writing in their two prior attempts. The "strengths" of Dulin & Garzke are in assessing engineering, and in condensing text for a supposed "average adult" to follow the history of a ship. Unfortunately, Dulin & Garzke miss the point: the average reader with an interest in naval architecture is most likely to have technical experience with, or possesses graduate-school background, which calls for a greater depth of writing (and dedication to subject) by the author. For example, we get tantalizing hints of strategic considerations in discusing the German "Z" program, but the reader would walk away from the book not understanding that there was a Japanese "super battleship" concept in mind which produced the Yamatos. The discussions about armour and gunnery are acceptable, but again the reader with a greater interest in nautical history walks away unsatisfied. Tabular material is decently presented, and the faults of prior texts (such as an incomprehensible armour key) are avoided. On the other hand, the reader is given pictures which are all-too common in the literature; the most interesting presentations are on the B-65 class and the proposed Italian and Spanish designs. Here again, when one expects Dulin & Garzke to go "deeper" into the material, the trail ends abruptly. At least in this book Dulin & Garke avoid the farce of presenting the same picture 5 times (!) as in the treatment of the Montana class. I have considered this book "acceptable" but I hold forth that Dulin & Garzke would have brought forth a trio of superlative books if the authors had done more digging and possessed greater dedication to the material.

After a very brief history of political influences on warship construction between the wars (mostly discussion of the disarmament treaties and the compliance or non-compliance of the affected navies) and another very brief discussion of warship design basics, we are given the meat of the book--Very detailed coverage of a few selected ship classes from each of the Axis navies. A brief operational history of each ship class is followed by exhaustive discussion of technical details. The authors assume great familiarity with naval terminology and technology by the reader, and don't slow down to cover anything that might be new to you. But the detailed critiques and comparisons are fascinating. Highly recommended for warship buffs who want to know it all about these particular ships. Note that it is not a "complete" guide to Axis battleships, and doesn't pretend to be one.

Nits include that the paper doesn't give best advantage to allow the reader to examine details of some of the excellent photos, and the size of the photos isn't all we could wish for in some cases where the original photo apparently contains a lot of detail--This is not a picture book, so perhaps judging it by those standards is unfair.

Other nits include that the book is now 25 years old, and in some cases new knowledge has come to light that would influence some of the conclusions here.

Final nit is that as mentioned, in some cases those who aren't professional marine architects, or at least extremely enthusiastic amateurs will be thumbing through reference books to uncover some of the terminology.

An essential book for those with a deep interest in these warships.

I'm not a full time literary critic, just someone who bought this book and is disappointed. I will not list the positive sides of a book that sets you back 76 $. They should be obvious. The first 10 minutes of going thru the pages without reading much though, held three major disappointments for me. Had I been in a bookstore, I would have put the book down and not bought it, thinking it's not worth the money. Here is what put me off:

1.) The line drawings look like twice xeroxed before they were printed. Large parts of thin lines (e.g. antenna lines) are missing. I can live with this in a paperback, but not here.

2.) Photos in general are of poor quality. A book of that price should provide glossy paper for photo pages.

3.) The photo on page 216 is the wrong way round.

4.) The text with the photo on page 269 is totally misleading. It refers to the battleship Tirpitz and shows the snow covered scenery of a Norwegian fjord. In the upper left hand corner you see a mid-sized ship, the bow facing you. It is the only major ship in the picture and it has two support boats moored on either side. The caption says: "... The German battleship is moored to the right, off the island of Aaroy..." What does that mean now? Does it mean the ship depicted is Tirpitz, and there is an island Aaroy to the left outside the frame? Or does it mean the ship that the full page photo refers to (Tirpitz) is not in the picture, but somewhere off to the right, and nobody seems to know (or be willing to mention) who the only big ship in the picture is? The ship shown is either Hipper or Prinz Eugen, both heavy cruisers, both stationed in Norwegian fjords, both operating with and without Tirpitz. It is not the battleship Tirpitz, as Garzke and Dulin make believe. Poor work.

I quit reading the book after that.