Despite my having over a dozen books on battleships I was pleased to add this one to my library. Although the author’s first language is German, the text is entirely in English and is generally well-written. The author served in various departments at the USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor, so he has first-hand knowledge of what he writes about here. As a naval historian he has written a number of books, both in English and German. The foreword was written by Daniel A. Martinez, a historian at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, which speaks to the author’s credentials.
The book is printed on high quality glossy stock, is hard cover with no dust jacket. It contains no fewer than 222 black-and-white photographs, 140 color photographs, 20 profile and plan views of these ships, and has 17 sketches. Most of the photographs are small, sometimes four on one page, but the overall quality is excellent.
The book recounts the general history of battleships, from pre-dreadnoughts to dreadnoughts to superdreadnoughts to World War II vessels and then continues to the modernized Iowa-class ships. Each ship in each class has a brief history, a profile view, and a table of specifications. For each U.S. Navy battleship the following sections are listed: propulsion, armament, electronics, and protection.
One very interesting chapter was written by the lead diver of a team who explored the sunken battleship Arizona in Pearl Harbor and who took the many color photographs included in the book.
No book is without flaws, however, and several small niggling errors and incomplete captions provided minor distractions. The word ‘cancellation’ is spelled with only one “l”, which, although somewhat correct, is generally to be avoided in both American and British writings. The word skeg is spelled “skew” at one point. The caption of a photograph of New Jersey says it is at anchor, but the slight bow wave and the two naval bow anchors securely stowed in their hawse pipes says different. Perhaps the author mistook the paravane chain hanging from the bow as an anchor chain. Certain captions could have been more complete to add interest. For example, one photograph of New Jersey shows the aft superstructure, but no mention is given of what is actually happening there: an inclining experiment is taking place as evidenced by the transverse deck tracks and weights used to determine the center of gravity of the ship. Another photograph is of the “Truman Line”, a cafeteria-style counter in the crew’s galley. No mention is made of the two personalities seen in the line with their trays: Mrs. Bess Truman and President Harry Truman himself. Last, an aerial photograph of New Jerseymoored at Camden, New Jersey, could have mentioned that across the Delaware River may be seen the Independence Seaport with the Spanish-American War protected cruiser Olympia, the submarine Becuna, and the sailing ship Moshulu.
Despite these minor irritants, this book is a “keeper” and comes highly recommended.
