With Norman Friedman's work on British battleships of the post-"Dreadnought" era due for publication in a October, I thought it would be a good time to compare two of the classic reference works on British capitol ships of the period between World War I and the end of World War II. On one side, we have Alan Raven's and John Roberts' expensive and sought-after classic "British Battleships of World War Two" of 1976. On the other side, we have R.A. Burt's "British Battleships 1919-1945," which received an update and revision in 2012. It would be easy to dismiss Burt's book as a poor man's version of Raven's and Roberts' (who, interestingly enough, will be contributing plans to the new Friedman book) book. However, that would be unfair and untrue. In some respects, Raven and Roberts' (referred to as "R&R" from now on) book still reigns supreme among British BB references. In a few key areas, however, Burt's is actually superior.
The quality of the photographs in Burt's book is definitely superior to R&R. As you'd expect from a recent Seaforth/Naval Institute title, most of the photographs are extremely crisp and detailed, presumably the result of them being scanned directly from the original negatives. R&R suffers from being published in the mid-70s on poorer quality paper, and many of the photographs are rather muddy or feature excessively high contrast. Although Burt's line drawings aren't quite as sharp looking as John Roberts', many of them actually more detailed, especially in the cross-sections of the King George V- and Nelson-class battleships, the transverse sections, and the depictions of battle damage.
Burt's book is also superior to R&R's when it comes to the histories of individual ships. Each ship here receives a fairly detailed timeline of its career post-1919, as well as detailed reports of each instance these ships received damage, accompanied by lengthy official reports and detailed diagrams. R&R features a well-written distillation of British capitol ship operations during World War II, but not as much history as Burt. There are some intimate photographs of life onboard, and of calm moments between the World Wars, giving this book a more humanistic feel. There's even a few ships covered here but not in R&R, including the ex-battlecruisers Furious, Glorious, and Courageous", which receive two chapters, and the old battleship Iron Duke, in commission until the end of the war.
In some respects, however, R&R is vastly superior. The devil is in the details, and Burt never approaches the same level achieved by R&R. R&R included numerous chapters on the lessons learned in both world wars, comparisons with foreign battleships, British capitol ship design between the wars, including chapters on the Lion-class and the genesis of the King George V-class, and the impact of the Washington and London naval treaties. Burt largely focuses on the finished ships and their histories, pushing the more detailed nitty-gritty stuff aside. I prefer the layout of R&R to Burt; R&R is helped immensely by having a detailed table of contents and a fairly comprehensive index, something which Burt lacks.
I think it's safe to describe "British Battleships of World War Two" as a rather dense technical study, while "British Battleships 1919-1945" is a beautifully illustrated tribute to these ships. Burt's only really galling omission is the HMS Vanguard, the last battleship ever launched. After spending $160 on R.A. Burt's revised and updated "British Battleship" trilogy, I now own a beautifully illustrated, detailed study of every British armored fighting ship since the HMS Devastation of 1869 - except one. R&R featured an entire chapter on Vanguard, complete with a fold-out plan. Speaking of plans, many of those in R&R are presented as foldouts, and all of the plans in this book have large gaps in the middle so detail doesn't get lost in the gutter. Catch-22, I suppose.
In the end, you might want to vote with your wallet on this one. I've seen copies of R&R going for reasonable prices on Ebay, but anyone not willing to wait months for that perfect bargain to pop up might want to buy Burt's instead. Both books have their positives and negatives. R&R is a masterpiece starting to show it's age, and Burt's is beautifully illustrated and informative, but nowhere near as ambitious. Both belong in the collection of any serious warship enthusiast.
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