Customer Reviews

British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book appears to be an exhaustive history of Royal Navy design since 1935 for all destroyer and frigate type ships. It is good reading and very informative. The pictures are good and contain many photos that I have not seen before. Recommended for anyone interested in naval design or history.

This is a highly detailed technical history, with ample photographs and line drawings. As far as I can tell, it is faultless on that score.

One problem is the nearly total lack of strategic context. A little more discussion at the front of each chapter about British defense strategy (and what *strategic* as opposed to *technical* problems the Royal Navy was trying to solve) would have been very helpful.

More important is the lack of discussion of what British destroyers and frigates actually DID. There is very little operational history included in this book at all. We know what the ships were designed to do - but did they do it? Who knows! Chronologically, this book covers WW2, Korea, Suez, the Indonesian confrontation, the Falklands, the Gulf War, Kosovo, and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Royal Navy destroyers and frigates did important things in all those wars, but Friedman barely alludes to these naval activities at all. He goes to a great deal of effort to lay out British design choices, and then almost completely fails to show whether or not these choices were validated or invalidated by events.

In sum, he gets five stars for presenting technical details, but only one star for strategic context and operational history. The net result is three stars.

This book goes into the drsign of British destroyers from 1936 to the most modern designs. The book goes into extreme detail and is an essentail book for thosr interested in this subject.

I suggest this book because is just perfect.
It has all the informations for the british ship from ww2 to the present with very good details. drawings and very clear photos.
In the end is a had details and imformations about all the ships destroyers and frigates that have the british built from ww2 and after.
The shape is big and the quality is very good.
It si my best book that i have buy for the british ships.