Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946

Rating:
Summary: All the World's Statistics
Review: I use my Conway's a lot because it covers a wide scope, but it continues to irk me. As I see it, the book pretends to describe ships by laying out statistics and dates whatever else can be quantified in numbers; but in the end it fails to present a real-world assessment of anything. I understand that no book can be all things to all readers, but Conway's becomes a generator of misunderstanding when it spits out, for example, measurements of armor thickness, tempting the reader to think this is what determines how well a ship is protected. Such superficiality does more harm than good. But once the reader understands that Conway's is merely a starting point for research, it becomes a useful (if expensive) tool.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent reference
Review: This is an excellent summary reference on all the navies existing in the period covered by the book. Every nation is dealt with in detail as regard all its ships built in this period, with an historical and technical introduction to the navy itself and a summary description of all the warship classes; this description comprises a summary of the characteristics of every class, a list (only for capital ships and cruisers) of the class' ships with the dates of building and the final fate, and a brief text description of some interesting aspects and of the operation life. Almost every class is provided with a photograph or a drawing. The book is ideal for giving a quite detailed overview of the situation of every navy in the twenty five years period covered by this work. The only weakness I can find is that the ships built preceding the year 1922 are not described in full detail, but the reader is referred to the other books of this serie (the whole serie is composed by four book covering different periods): maybe a way to sell some more copies of the other books.

Rating:
Summary: Excellant source for text data on the somwhat obscure.
Review: What I appreciate the most about this book is the extensive and well researched text data on such vessel types as seaplane tenders, and the like, which have been virtualy ignored in the naval history press prior to this book. Vessel linage of more obscure types as are included and explained. If like myself, you have read most of what there is on the major combatants, which are included, and yet you want further information on the lesser known, yet vital 'other types' that were just as important in the scheme of the navies of the second world war. Then this is your book.