Kelly K Lydon

An interesting topic handled in sadly inept fashion. Author Kelly K. Lydon seems to have undertaken a labor of love, unencumbered by editorial help with composition, organization, or grammar. The book is photo offset from a typewritten manuscript. He consistently and enthusiastically misuses punctuation; begins every other sentence with “Furthermore” or “Moreover” or “However”, even when that makes no sense and contributes no meaning; and has an awe-inspiring ability to make technical descriptions unintelligible. Consider, for example, this explanation of how a periscope works:

“The usage of the objective, connected to the upper portion to which the light lays [sic] of the object are sent, via a totally reflective prism; it gives a true picture of the object, which is, as usual, marked with an arrow. This picture is further enhanced by a collection lens, which is located in the middle of the pipe, which again develops a real picture, which is observed through the ocular.”

I suspect what’s going on here is Mr. Lydon acquired some German technical documents – he lists some in his bibliography – and translated them himself using an elementary German-English dictionary. Lydon does spend considerable space on U-boat technology; periscopes, radio equipment; gyrocompass; engines; torpedo and gun equipment; and minelaying. This could have been useful; most works on WW I U-boat warfare concentrate on naval warfare aspects – which crew sank which target when. Unfortunately all of Lydon’s explanations are like the quote above – or worse; at least when he says “real picture” I can figure out that he means “real image”, but what on earth (for example) does the “shoulder measurer” on a gun crew do?

The solitary redeeming feature is Lydon’s collection of photographs; numerous pictures of U-boats, including what must be rare ones of boats in action. The book appears to have become a collector’s item, with Amazon sellers asking prices far beyond what the contents are worth. Avoid unless you can find it really cheap and are interested in the photographs. A shame; I’ve always been interested in fringe aspects of WW I – submarine and air warfare, non-Western Front theaters, etc., and with even a modest amount of editing this could have been worthwhile. As it is it’s one of those rare books that leaves you knowing less than you did before you read it.… (más)