Customer Reviews

The Independence Light Aircraft Carriers

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This is a very rare instance of a `dis-recommendation'. This is the second of two books by this author, the other focusing on Essex class carriers. While the other book was nothing remarkable, it was OK. For this book the subject is, as the author stated, one that has received little previous coverage. Taking the two into account, I decided to include it on my Christmas gift list hoping to flesh out my library concerning this type of ship.

The problem with this book is that it reads almost exactly as the first. Instead of being an in-depth analysis of the ships, it consists mainly of history any buff will already own in a dozen other books. The very first chapter gives some of the history and reasons the class came into being, but after that it mostly consists of a recap of the campaigns and battles of the Pacific theatre. Since these were mostly the focus of fleet carriers---well as I said, if you have any other book covering the air war in the Pacific, you have this book. The most that can be said is that some of the anecdotes are from the perspective of those that served on light carriers, but this just isn't enough.

All this is made worse by the cost of the book. ... If you can get it for about half price and don't already have other books on these carriers already, then you might consider buying it. A much more cost-effective alternative would be US Light Carriers In Action published by Squadron/Signal. The history coverage might not be as in-depth, but it has many more useful pictures and diagrams and is nearly one-third the price.

This book is essentially the same thing as the earlier Essex
Class Aircraft Carriers. Whole chapters are nearly identical.
The book is basically a very, very sketchy history of US carrier
ops in WW2 with a very little bit of Independence class material
tossed in. The author probably spent less than 5000 words
on the Independence class itself.
Someday someone will write a true history of the class, this
isn't it.

This is an excellent reference source for an often neglected or overlooked class of warships that played a very important part in WWII. I strongly recommend it for anyone interested in Naval Aviation.

The Independence Light Aircraft Carriers by naval aviation and aircraft carrier enthusiast Andrew Faltum is a detailed and comprehensive look at the Independence-class light carriers, built in World War II, which gave a significant contribution to victory in the Pacific. Black-and-white maps and photographs illustrate the fine analysis of these great ships and how they were used at a critical turning point in American military history. A welcome contribution to the growing library of naval history, The Independence Light Aircraft Carriers, rich with its close and accurate inspection of a singularly amazing vessel type, is especially recommended for students of the nautical history of World War II.