this book is pretty much what one wants when buying handbooks of warships of WWII or earlier. There are a good number of photographs and plenty of deck plans. It is well written for the genre and I'd like to have one for my home. Anything by the author is worth the investment. ( )

This book offers a great introductory reference on the battleships in service during WWII. The figures stated for each class are almost always accurate, photos are included, and line drawings too, There are career details for individual ships, as well as a summar of the origins of each design and its evolution into the finished product. The book does not include everything, but then it can hardly be faulted for that as its purpose is not to detail each ship in minute detail, there are plenty of other books that will do that for the reader.

Well worth getting if you seek a relieable quick reference or want to know the basics about all the ships. ( )