Kelly K LydonReseñas

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.½