Hans Mehl

This is a difficult book to characterize. Published by the Naval Institute Press in English in 2002 after a 2001 printing in German, "Naval Guns" was written by a former officer in the German Democratic Republic Navy who evidently was able to travel far and wide over a number of years to gather information and photographs for this book. In the introduction, the author states that his efforts were to "give a representative insight into the history of ship and coastal artillery in the past 500 years." Herr Mehl certainly chose an ambitious goal; whether his efforts resulted in a good book is a different question I'll attempt to answer.

This is a large format book of 216 pages that has two parts: Ships' Guns and Coast Defense Guns, of which the shipboard guns part is by far the largest. Each part progresses chronologically, subdivided into sub parts such as carronades and mortars and light and heavy anti-aircraft guns. Outside of the forward and the introduction, the only text is found in the captions for the many photographs that make up this book. The author also provides appendices for abbreviations and historical weights and measures, a bibliography, and a well subdivided index.

The heart of this book aree the photographs that Herr Mehl traveled around the world visiting various displays and museums to gather. The oldest weapons are almost all found in museums, suitably identified in most photos. However, starting with late nineteenth century weapons the author inserts contemporary images to document weapons he thought important to the development of naval and coast artillery ordnance. The photograph captions are limited in the information they present, much like the information placards found in museums. The translations from German to English is fairly good so that the English-speaking reader can readily understand what each photograph displays.

In the end does the book fulfill what the author intended. If Herr Mehl wanted to publish a museum guide for naval and coast artillery ordnance around the world, then I think this volume is quite a good start for that kind of work. If Herr Mehl was documenting the development of naval and coast artillery ordnance through museum and contemporary photographs, then this book falls far short of that ambition. To follow the ordnance development storyline, the various artifacts, both museum and contemporary, must be connected to each other along with the text that provides context to the developments, similar to what British ordnance expert Ian Hogg used to do--only this time with photographs illustrating the development. Herr Mehl alas did not make this development catalog anywhere near complete. If the reader of this book was looking for a development history of naval and coast artillery ordnance, keep looking for this book is not what you seek. As a museum guide, either as an inspiration of future travel or a momento of place one cannot visit, this book is a fair attempt.… (más)