Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995 (Rev ed)

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Summary: Another complete reference library in one book.
Review: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995 is the fourth and final book in a series which, as the title suggests, lists all the worlds fighting ships built during the years in question. The beginning of this period marks the post-WW2 years and a time when the principle navies of the world were busy assimilating the many lessons learned and new technological discoveries made from the hard fought conflicts which had gone before. From now on, the Aircraft Carrier would reign supreme as "King of the Seas" - none more so than the mightiest of them all which are found in the US Navy.

Conway Maritime Press are well known for their factual books on ships - especially warships, in which they provide the finest technical documentation. "All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1995" is hard-back measuring 12½" x 8¾" and the largest book in a series of four with 675 pages of detailed and factual information. After a brief foreword and an explanation of abbreviations used, those countries of the world which possess a navy - however small, are then listed in strict alphabetical order. Each country then commences with an introduction to the naval situation surrounding that country and, for the sake of comparison, these vary from 6 lines for the Dominican Republic to 22½ pages for the USA. The country's ships are then displayed by "class" commencing with the largest capital ships and progressing all the way down to the smallest fast attack craft (or whatever) with the oldest vessels mentioned first. In almost every case, for each class there is one or more of those profile line drawings which have become Conway's trademark. These are followed by all the usual technical details such as; Displacement, dimensions, machinery, armour, armament and complement followed by the names of each ship within that class - it's builder, date laid down, date completed and fate. These are accompanied by a very "readable" text from which we learn of the political intrigue of the day, variations between vessels, refits, new equipment, whatever defects or other problems that may have beset either the class or a specific ship and a short résumé of the fate of each vessel.

Altogether, the book is well illustrated with an excellent selection of historic black and white original photographs throughout with at least one picture on almost every page.

In summary, this is an excellent technical work of reference and one which will continue to stand the test of time. Put another way, this is one of those books you will wish you had bought - after it becomes out of print.

NM

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Summary: Great Compendium of Post-WWII Navies of the World
Review: it is like a dictionary and you can find every ship you want to know in this book

Rating:
Summary: Great Compendium of Post-WWII Navies of the World
Review: This is an update of Conway's formerly 2-volumes (Western and Warsaw Pact navies), first published in 1982. This is now 1 volume, large format size of the other Conway's, 1860-1946. It is an impressive book, covering the cold-war era, describing in minor detail, the survivors of WWII, and in more detail, new construction from 1947. It's the only book of its type because it covers all types of vessels and all navies; each entry has a brief description (sometimes insightful) but usually just a recitation of public info (because very few of these vessels saw combat). They are accompanied by a medium-size photograph, and often a line drawing (but the drawings are of medium quality, and plainly "hand drawn"). The book is not a thorough treatment of any particular ship or type of vessel; for that, you will have to use other books such as Norman Friedman's (now dated) series on US Navy battleships, aircraft carriers, submarines, etc. It lacks the descriptive nature of H. Lenton's books on the British WWII navy, or the graphic intensity of the dedicated battleship, cruiser, etc. books. Nevertheless, no other book is as comprehensive as this one, and remains the seminal work on naval vessels in the cold war era; it's richly illustated and has sufficient text.

Rating:
Summary: A great reference of the post-war period
Review: This is the last (in chronological order) of a famous serie of four books dealing with the history of the steam and iron navies from the beginning (1861) to the present days. It's a very exhaustive book, which covers almost every nations that ever manned a naval ship, from the huge US Navy down to the smallest African or Pacific ones. In this way a reader can have a very good idea of the power and evolution of the world's navies through the desing of their ships, built or not (the book contains the description of a lot of projected ship classes that were never built, but that are interesting in order to better understand the evolution of some navies). As usual, for all the ships built before the period covered by the book, the reader is referred to the other similar books of this serie (mainly the third one, covering the 1922-1946 period). Every ship or class is described quite in detail (overall the main types, like battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers and submarines), with a description of the project evolution, a brief account on the modifications occurred during the ship's life and the final fate of each one. A lot of photographs and some drawings complete what can be considered one of the best purchase a naval enthusiast can ever do!