Customer Reviews

The Essex Aircraft Carriers

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Let me start off by saying that this is indeed a fine book. However, it's not really a technical history of the Essex class carriers. Sure, it spends a chapter or two describing the design genesis for the ship but that is not the bulk of the book. The bulk of the book is a synopsis of every major and most minor actions that involved Essex-class fleet carriers from WW2 to Vietnam. As such, much of the book is only somewhat related to the Essex carriers and describes the actions that they served in. This is not a criticism, as this stuff is very well done, but rather an observation. While there are photos, there aren't a lot of them and the drawings are few and somewhat simplified. If you're looking for model reference, this isn't the book for you.

My one real criticism of the book is that it is too short. There are small sections or even paragraphs that dropped tantalizing tidbits of information that I would have loved to see covered at length. There's a paragraph that describes the shakedown process of the carriers in a sheltered and mined deep water bay. This is a subject that there is almost no reference on and I would have loved to see more on it. There are several sections like that where I grow really interested and then it's over in a few lines.

All that said, if you want a book that covers all of the facets of the Essex class, from development to service, to modifications, to a list of all of the carriers built; this is your book.