Customer Reviews

British Battleships 1939-45 (1): Queen Elizabeth and Royal Soverign Classes (New Vanguard)

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2 star:		(1)
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Between them, the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Sovereign-class battleships provided ten of the twelve dreadnoughts in Britain's battle line at the start of World War II. They were old, but remained fearsome to their enemies thanks to their outstanding 15-inch main armament. The Queen Elizabeth class, in particular, proved valuable in surface actions at Narvik, Calabria, Cape Matapan, and in numerous other engagements.

This title is remarkably detailed and informative for its short length. Author Angus Konstam gives insights not available in most other titles. The Queen Elizabeths were the last dreadnoughts designed by Sir Philip Watts. They were revolutionary, despite being designed for guns that did not yet exist. They had flaws - draught was too great, and beam too narrow to be optimal, but they were still the finest battleships of their day. There is also adequate attention given to the slower, less spectacular "R" class battleships which followed. The emphasis is on the World War II condition of both classes. All of the "QE" and "R"-class battleships were modified from their original condition, and some were quite drastically improved prior to World War II. Of the "R"-class ships, Royal Oak had received the greatest modification prior to WWII - ironic, since she was lost within two months of the war's start.

There are plentiful photos, many of which I had never seen before, detailed color profiles of the ships in their World War II condition, diagrams depicting armor protection in both wars, and a useful table on gunnery characteristics. This title gives only limited battle histories of the ships, focusing on the famous (and lucky) HMS Warspite in two incidents: (1) scoring a vital hit at 26,000 yards on the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare at Calabria, and (2) surviving a near-fatal hit from a German glider bomb off Salerno.

Although a brief 46 pages, this title is a good value for the money - well-researched, with enough depth to interest researchers, yet readable and understandable to anyone interested in these classic, historically vital battleships.

Anyone looking for a book about British battleships might ordinarily expect to find a very thick and equally expensive work in which all such vessels are detailed. Alternatively, they might find the history of one particular ship. In this instance, however, the publishers have confined themselves to two classes of British Battleship - namely the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Sovereign classes.

With only 47 pages, I was impressed by the amount of detail. There are no shortages of either photographs - many of which do not appear to have been previously published, or artwork of the highest standard arranged alongside all the facts, figures, dimensions and detail that one would expect to find in any comprehensive account.

Of immense value to the serious historian as well as anyone else with an interest in the subject, this book will also provide all the data required for the serious modeller.

It says much for the work that my only criticisms are very minor. Being one of very few people outside of the Royal Navy to have visited the remains of HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow, I would like to have known who took that underwater picture of her director platform. Elsewhere, having learned HMS Repulse was laid down as a Royal Sovereign class battleship, her fate is recorded as converted to battle cruiser in 1914. Viewed in the context of what eventually happened to all the ships in that class, I know what they meant. Her conversion, however, was never her fate.

Nevertheless, do not let such inconsequential comments mar your enjoyment of an otherwise excellent product.

NM

Like most of this series it is concise and informative, but in this and other recent releases I have noticed they do not go into the upgrades and updates, nor the weapon and armor specifications in detail like earlier books did.

like this series -- wish it was thicker with more details but good enough for "overview"

I like the way it develops the theme, first historical background, the development of each class battleship, and finally a summary of the history of each vessel. Do not delve too deeply into the changes in the vessels.

For someone who starts in the naval theme of these wonders, is interesting enough to follow in produndizando.

This book is a good short history for those who want to know the basics of the early WW2 British Battleships. Worth the money.

This book has a lot to recommend it - it's well written, handsomely illustrated, provides a good account of the ships' development and service history and includes all the vessels' key statistics, including detailed coverage of how they changed over time. However, on page 38 it states that HMS Revenge "made a brief trip to Tehran carrying the Prime Minister" (Tehran is hundreds of kilometers from the nearest sea and 1,200m above sea level). The fact that such an obvious mistake could make it through the quality control process (or lack thereof) casts serious doubt over the entire book's content and means that it is best avoided. Osprey charges quite a bit for these slim books, and there's no excuse for not ensuring that their content is of the highest quality.