Customer Reviews

US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922-45: Prewar classes (New Vanguard)

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I may be guilty of exaggeration when I claim that the pre-war American aircraft carriers won the war in the Pacific, but I stand by my claim. Osprey's "US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922-45 : Prewar classes" is a compact history and guide to these eight American aircraft carriers, CV-1 Langley through CV-8 Hornet. One ship, the CV-4 Ranger, was a "failure," but participated in Torch. The experimental Langley had been reclassified as an auxilliary when sunk by Japanese bombs in 1942. The illustrious Enterprise and the Hornet were part of the daring Doolittle Raid, the little stunt that had limited material effect, but forced Japan to change horses in mid-stream and lose the fight at Midway against the Enterprise, Yorktown, and Hornet (all of the Yorktown class) and the unsinkable (and immobile) "aircraft carrier Midway Island."

These eight carriers suffered five of their number sunk in action against the Japanese--and two severely damaged multiple times. The Ranger didn't see combat in the Pacific. The Enterprise was perhaps the most famous survivor. And the Saratoga survived the worst Japan and the Pacific could dish out, ending its days as a target for American atomic bombs in Operation Crossroads, sinking on July 2, 1946. CV-4 Ranger was scrapped in 1947. CV-6 Enterprise was sold for scrap in 1958. These pioneer carriers lived on in name only when new aircraft carriers were commissioned.

The color plates show wartime camouflage measures applied during their wartime service. It wasn't really possible to "hide" something the size of two city blocks--the intent was to confuse submarines and aircraft concerning the aircraft carrier's vector and hopefully cause bombs and torpedoes to miss. A useful index and comprehensive bibliography are two items I look for in my reference works--usually, I have new questions after reading non-fiction. It's nice to find answer material. Radar and armament packages are detailed, and sidebars give thumbnail ship stats such as crew, displacement, and maximum speeds. I think I spent my money well on this book.

At first sight there really does not appear to be very much to this book. In fact, I would call it more of a booklet than a book - after all, there are magazines which are much larger. But don't be fooled. This publication is well worth the money and the illustrations by Tony Bryan are of the highest order.

What you get is a synopsis of the state of the US Navy Carrier Fleet at the outbreak of World War Two, details of the individual ships and a summary of their fate. There are historic photographs from the period on almost every page with all the aforementioned artwork placed together in the middle of the book.

This is excellent value for money and will leave most readers wanting to know more about these great ships.

NM

This is a gem of a book. Filled with great BW photos and color plates of the Carriers that won the Pacific war in WWII. Lots of information on the different classes of carriers that made life miserable for the Imperial Japanese Navy. A great companion book to this is the other Osprey book on Imperial Japanese carriers-which is also worth a look.

I'm so glad osprey has published all of these wonderful military books. I always loved reading about the legendary Pacific battles of WW II. Now I can take a trip down memory lane and examine the great ships that helped America secure the seas during the Pacific WWII conflict of 1941-1945.

This book not only honors these legendary ships, but the great men who served aboard them.

Little of interest, most can be found better elsewhere. Pictures are very good.