Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II: Amazon.ca: William Garzke, Robert O. Dulin, Alan Raven: Books

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Recently updated to provide new information on the German battleship Bismarck, including details of her condition before capsizing and how she was scuttled and evidence revealed by Ballard's discovery of the wreck.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

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2.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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1.0 out of 5 stars disappointed, Aug 26 2000

By

mmlangen@t-online.de (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II (Hardcover)

I'm not a full time literary critic, just someone who bought this book and is disappointed. I will not list the positive sides of a book that sets you back 76 bucks. They should be obvious, and one is easily impressed by the onslought of information. But Garzke and Dulin are not the gods of battleship information which I learned in the first 10 minutes of going thru the pages without reading much. There were four major disappointments for me and had I been in a bookstore, I would have put the book down and not bought it, thinking it's not worth the money. Here is what put me off:

1.) The line drawings look like twice xeroxed before they were printed. Large parts of thin lines (e.g. antenna lines) are missing. I can live with this in a paperback, but not here.

2.) Photos in general are of poor quality. A book of that price should provide glossy paper for photo pages.

3.) The photo on page 216 is the wrong way round.

4.) The text with the photo on page 269 is totally misleading. It refers to the battleship Tirpitz and shows the snow covered scenery of a Norwegian fjord. In the upper left hand corner you see a mid-sized ship, the bow facing you. It is the only major ship in the picture and it has two support boats moored on either side. The caption says: "... The German battleship is moored to the right, off the island of Aaroy..." Now, what does that mean ? Does it mean the ship depicted is Tirpitz, and there is an island Aaroy to the left outside the frame? Or does it mean the ship that the full page photo refers to (Tirpitz) is not even in the picture, but somewhere off to the right, and nobody seems to know (or be willing to mention) who the only big ship in the picture is? The ship shown is either Admiral Hipper or Prinz Eugen, both heavy cruisers, both stationed in Norwegian fjords, both operating with and without Tirpitz. It is not the battleship Tirpitz, as Garzke and Dulin make believe. Poor work.

I quit reading the book after that.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely valuable, Nov 14 2001

By

Richard Worth (MO, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II (Hardcover)

The G&D books cover a lot of territory. Each section begins with a short design history followed by an overview of the design, broken down into categories (armament, protection, propulsion plant, etc). When it comes to understanding a ship's armor scheme, there's no substitute for seeing a series of drawings; stats-in-a-vacuum like those in a Conway's are less than useless, and a token cross section gives only a glimpse. G&D provide a fully realized picture. The chapter on the Bismarck class is blemished by a lack of definitive information; only now is the extent of the 80mm weather deck generally becoming known, and G&D label it as 50mm throughout. In fact, plenty of questions remain on Bismarck and Tirpitz and their differences, so it's hard to fault G&D for this.
Another weakness is the reference to gun penetration data based on USN calculations; the formula for these calculations was actually intended to predict performance against homogenous armor, and its most common application has been for face-hardened armor. Thus they serve to be indicative only in the most general sense--in other words, why bother?
I find it easier to pick out the nits than to try to elaborate on the battery of qualities in the three books. They sit on the shelf within easy reach, and I refer to them regularly.

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3.0 out of 5 stars How NOT To Do a History of Warship Design, Aug 15 2001

By

Melvin J. Burmaster (Braithwaite, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II (Hardcover)

I have had a long time interest as a historian and having had personal connections with the sea, I have built up a library for about 30 years which includes the significant texts on naval construction. I have all three of the Dulin/Garzke books, and of the three books the tome on Axis/Neutral ships is by far the best production. I suspect, though, that the tome on Axis/Neutral ships is better only because the authors have had to learn something about writing in their two prior attempts. The "strengths" of Dulin & Garzke are in assessing engineering, and in condensing text for a supposed "average adult" to follow the history of a ship. Unfortunately, Dulin & Garzke miss the point: the average reader with an interest in naval architecture is most likely to have technical experience with, or possesses graduate-school background, which calls for a greater depth of writing (and dedication to subject) by the author. For example, we get tantalizing hints of strategic considerations in discusing the German "Z" program, but the reader would walk away from the book not understanding that there was a Japanese "super battleship" concept in mind which produced the Yamatos. The discussions about armour and gunnery are acceptable, but again the reader with a greater interest in nautical history walks away unsatisfied. Tabular material is decently presented, and the faults of prior texts (such as an incomprehensible armour key) are avoided. On the other hand, the reader is given pictures which are all-too common in the literature; the most interesting presentations are on the B-65 class and the proposed Italian and Spanish designs. Here again, when one expects Dulin & Garzke to go "deeper" into the material, the trail ends abruptly. At least in this book Dulin & Garke avoid the farce of presenting the same picture 5 times (!) as in the treatment of the Montana class. I have considered this book "acceptable" but I hold forth that Dulin & Garzke would have brought forth a trio of superlative books if the authors had done more digging and possessed greater dedication to the material.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointed
I'm not a full time literary critic, just someone who bought this book and is disappointed. I will not list the positive sides of a book that sets you back 76 bucks. Read more

Published on Aug 25 2000

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointed
I'm not a full time literary critic, just someone who bought this book and is disappointed. I will not list the positive sides of a book that sets you back 76 $. Read more

Published on Aug 25 2000