Customer Reviews

Jane's Fighting Ships of World War 1

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

 

 

These books are valuable in giving you a slice of Jane's work, but as a source for information on the ships themselves, there are better alternatives. Foremost among the faults I'd cite in these Janes compilations are that they are contemporary accounts from a single national source-- meaning that the particulars for the speeds, armor, and capabilities of a good many ships are foggy or incorrect owing to the lack of proper information from potential enemies who did not care to advertise the precise specifications of their ships. Another issue is that the content comes not from a single edition of Janes annual catalog, but from a smattering of editions that spanned the era. The edition from which each ship's section is culled is not spelled out, so you are denied the ability to understand perhaps how reliable you may wish to regard each profile. However, owning Janes material has its own value, in that this is the Farmers' Almanac of the subject, and sometimes the weather forecast in an old Almanac is not as valuable as possession of the edition.

For a better source for this information, I would recommend Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906-1921. You will probably have to use a bookfinding service for this, but you will not be dissatisfied if you can procure a copy. It features much more information on each ship, and in many cases provides valuable context that cannot readily be seen through endless tables of horsepower, armor, and the like. For instance, in many cases the specifications may not be false per se, but carry with them a host of caveats that defy a tabular form, and Conway's gives these to you. to paraphrase, e.g.: "This class was intended to be much the same as the preceding class, aiming solely to reduce per unit cost and fatten the fleet." or "The new Mark XI guns these ships carried had a longer range than the preceding Mark X weapons, but their higher velocity came at a cost of greatly reduced accuracy at common ranges and was seen in retrospect as a failed design." That type of contextual overview is what any source like this needs to be a truly reliable document. While it cannot thereby tell you EVERYTHING, it creates in each reader a sense that numbers lie, and that sometimes looking to sources for comparative analysis is an essential companion to having a table of figures that purports to capture the ship.

"Jane's" is probably the world's leading byword when it comes to information about ships especially, though not exclusively, ships of the world's navies. In this special edition of those warships which existed during WW1 we are treated to the full specifications of each vessel complete with the same information with regards to it's machinery and armament.

Each section (Navy) commences with waterline silhouette profiles of the entire fleet followed by individual classes of ships from biggest to smallest. For the vast majority of entries we have a detailed profile and deck view of each class of ship with all parts numbered and named. Additionally, in most cases the publishers have been able to include at least one photograph (often more than one) of each type of ship. However, the publishers do point out that some of these pictures are of an inferior quality but are included in the interests of completeness because no other pictures are available.

Various engineering and gunnery notes are also found in addition to more general information explaining the specific differences between various ships of the same class.

Altogether, typical 5 star material from an established publisher of high quality material.

NM

I found Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I to be a great reference book that goes along with Jane's Fighting Ships of WWII. The book includes all navies that were in WWI (too many to list). All pictures are black & white. The only color picture is the dust jacket. For each Navy, the book lists or shows the ranks that are availible, the flags used, location of naval bases, etc. Usually, there is only one picture (if one is available)of each ship. If you are a WWII buff, you will need this book to go along with the Jane's Fighting Ships of World War Two.

Readers seeking a guide to the ships that fought in the First World War will be disappointed with this book. What the publisher has done is to reprint the 1919 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships with extracts from the 1914 edition, with only minor additional notes from the editor of the book. Yet the reproductions are poor (would it really have required that much effort to provide better photos?) and the updates are incomplete, particularly with regard to ships that were completed during the war. The result is a book filled with technical specifications but only passing mention of the fates of many of these ships. While it contains much interesting information (such as charts of ports and the ranks and insignias of the major fleets), anyone seeking a more comprehensive guide to the vessels of the era would do well to follow the earlier reviewer's advice and check out Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906-1921 (Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, Vol 2) instead.

I was surprised at the few naysayer reviews but opinions differ. In my experience (I have only about a dozen WW1-WW2 naval books which is not an immense library) this book and the WW2 equivalent are clearly the most comprehensive technical references. All the other books I have sometimes add detail but the center of all my books are easily the Janes. If you buy no other technical naval books of the period, it will be this one.

It certainly is spot on... the review by AM Lovell 'regular guy' that is. You see, Mr Lovell has hit the nail on the head when he points out that there is a great wad of factual errors in this work. And he explains why. Basically this book and it's sister tome on WW2 is aimed at showing what information was available at the time. Culled from the books of Janes Fighting Ships during WW1 this book is only as accurate as it's sources could be and therefore all the propaganda of the time regarding speeds and armour thickness and the like is presented as fact. For a better result in relation to getting all the nitty gritty right I'd suggest you head towards the Conways series on warships, they have tomes starting from 1865 and covering into the 1980/90s.

Having said all that I still support this book as it gave me much pleasure in terms of the way each nations ships are set out in a rational order, the silhouette order of battle pages, the photographs of many of these old ships and also the flavour of the time that comes out in these books simply because of the various factual errors.

Taken as a gospel reference work these books fail, but it's my inkling that they were never really intended as such, more as a work of historical value to show what the situation was THOUGHT to be at the time. And for that purpose, this book and it's WW2 partner definitely score well.