Customer Reviews

Submarines of World War Two

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

 

 

Submarines of World War Two is excellent overvue of pretty much every submarine type of the war. There is a large amount of information crammed into this medium sized soft bound book. Be prepared to read in good lighting however; as the print is quite small and some of the section plans will have you looking for a magnifying glass.

Mr. Bagnasco covers Eighteen different navies as well as some neutral forces. Each section includes a wealth of statistics and production data on each class of submarine (and its variants), as well as line drawings and photographs (all B&W). Major types are given additional space and many extras such as wartime conning tower modifications and section drawings are covered.

If you need to know about every WWII sub ever built; and don't have room in your shelf (or budget) for a four volume set, this is the book for you.

There is a certain fascination for the submarine. When it first appeared it was thought to be so "un-British" it should be banned internationally - just like, say, poisonous gas warfare is banned today. Nevertheless, the submarine, in all it's many forms, went on to be a most potent weapon and was last used in a combat situation during the Falklands War of 1982.

The countries; France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, USA and USSR are set out in alphabetical order and are then followed by a chapter headed "The lesser powers." Within each of these main headings all the submarines used by that country are fully described with many being illustrated both by photograph and diagram.

The vast majority of the photographs are simply excellent. Why the author should include the occasional out-of-focus image is, as always, beyond me, especially when such an image is used as a double-page spread.

That, however, is my only criticism of what is an otherwise excellent product. This book is now becoming hard to find and, may I suggest, you grab one while you still can. You will not be disappointed and, like me, you might just learn a great deal from the content.

NM

This book covers the technical side of the WW2 submarine story.
There are no adventure stories, just a country by country breakdown of the models of sumarines and their series within groups. Specs on history, physical size, range, armament,numbers
fielded, etc are generous. Diagrams and pictures are in good balance and there is a section on sub developement up to WW2.
This review is on the y2000 printing which I purchased sight unseen. The value of the book was 5 stars without doubt.