Customer Reviews

German Warships of World War I: The Royal Navy's Official Guide to the Capital Ships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Submarines, and Small Cr

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This is a fascinating book, because it is essentially what the subtitle says - the British Royal Navy's recognition and intelligence guide to the Imperial German High Seas Fleet. Friedman write the introduction to this reprint of that work, and ties in the history of such guides through WWII and to intelligence today, which is a fascinating little essay of its own.

The main points of this book are the details - including some operational details - of the German warships. Some ships already lost at the time of this volume (1917) have negligible coverage, so if you want to know about SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU do not look here. But the details on the extant ships of 1917 are surprisingly detailed, SEYDLITZ especially - it appears that the claim that the British had acquired her blueprints is true, based on the extremely thorough and accurate coverage of that vessel. There are also details such as the forward guns of German dreadnoughts not generally being fired at night (to avoid blinding the bridge crews in the days before flashless powder); how firing orders were transmitted to destroyer gun crews, and much more. Thus this is a most useful book for the serious student of the WWI German Navy even if the data is seen through a British filter.

I just want to concur with the other reviewer and state that the details in this book are hard or impossible to find elsewhere, especially in English. One point worth noting, however, is that one should keep in mind that since this was a compilation of intelligence possessed by the Royal Navy in time of war with the ships and subjects covered in the volume, one cannot expect everything inside to be a literal truth. Rather, the truth to be found in this work is a deep understanding of the information the British had in hand when making their choices of ships design and in the evolution of their tactics and outlook. As such, it becomes a prism through which other studies of the Royal Navy can perhaps be re-evaluated.

For the hard-core, the document this book is based upon is in the UK's National Archives as ADM 186/383 (Part III). Those finding this book helpful might also look over Part IV of that same compilation, which focuses on German guns, shells, torpedoes, mines, and fire control.