Customer Reviews

World War II: A Statistical Survey: The Essential Facts and Figures for All the Combatants

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

 

 

Great comprehensive book to get started on the "real" numbers of WWII.
It would have got 5 stars if I could be more sure of the truth of the numbers. Some of them disagree with other sources, some things are entirely missing. Where has the 2 largest battleships the world has ever seen gone? Mushasi & Yamato does not exist in this book... Is there more important missing? Many names on ships are easily availible in Janes Fighting Ships, can't see why more couldn't have found their way to this book. The hardware part is at best popular.
Still, as a One of its Kind, I highly recommend this book.
Regards
Morten, Denmark

This book is aptly titled; it consists almost entirely of tables listing every statistical detail about World War II. Want to know what Bulgaria's order of battle was? Need to know how many aircraft carriers Japan build during the war? The range of Soviet tactical bombers? It's all here. On the other hand, there is little narrative, and the book assumes a detailed knowledge of World War II. However, you will not find so much information collected in one place anywhere else. Definitely not for everyone, but very valuable for anyone who wants to know (sometimes obscure) facts about the War. The one weakness of the book, as has been pointed out, is the absence of citation to primary authorities.

This book is a wonderful compendium of statistics on the Second World War, many of which would be difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere. It should provide many hours of browsing enjoyment.

However, I have one quibble - I would have liked to have seen more comprehensive lists of ships, aircraft, and other hardware. Ships are listed at the class level - it would have been nice to have individual ships listed, at least aircraft carriers and capital ships, perhaps even cruisers. "Major" aircraft types are included, but the list is far from complete - the Devestator does not appear! As the author mentions, much of the detail is readily available elsewhere, so perhaps more complete lists at the expense of detail would have been the better approach. Then again, at this price, how about more complete lists with all the detail?

Finally, the author's credibility can't be enhanced by his misspelling "Bismarck", twice. Come on!

This book contains a wealth of information on any subject you can think of. It has everthing to the distribution of battle wounds over the human body for different countries to the chrome ore produced in 1937 by Southern Rhodesia. Everything is superbly organized and easy to find. If you want a statistic from WWII, it's in here. This book will be intriguing to anybody who likes history.