Alan Raven

Although there is a great deal of useful information in this work, it's hard for me to be very enthusiastic about it. What this essentially boils down to is that one can't forget that this is a fragment of what was going to be a larger book. Perhaps if it had been advertised straight-up as a chronology I might feel a little less judgemental. I'd also be less judgemental if a follow-on work giving an overview of RN cruisers during the rest of the war emerged. When one thinks about it, Alan show more Raven has to be a rather old man and one suspects that this product is a result of a ruthless assessment of what he was really capable of getting done in the time he had left. Read as an inter-library loan but, if I had the option to buy a remaindered copy, I'd take advantage of it. show less

The most exhaustive handbook, I have yet encountered. The classes covered range from the "Arethusa class" of 1912 to the "Tiger Class" of 1959. The Armaments, Machinery, armour and remote sensor arrays are all listed, with a good deal of supporting text about intention of the designs and the success achieved. There are appendices covering fates, and refits, and over 400 photographs, with a set of line drawings of at least one ship of every class. The book is quite large and is not easy to show more read casually, requiring a supporting table for ease of access. But is is a monument to be consulted rather than absorbed. show less

Among warships cruisers may lack the power of battleships and the mystery of submarines, but their combination of speed and firepower made them vital components of most major navies for much of the twentieth century. Though ostensibly about the Royal Navy's cruiser force during the Second World War, Alan Raven and John Roberts provide in this book a far more comprehensive compilation, one that begins with the pre-First World War Arethusa class and concludes with the postwar completions of show more wartime programs. Its coverage is encyclopedic, detailing their design histories, the construction and trials of the warships, and the modifications they underwent over the course of their service lives.

Supplemented by numerous tables and generously illustrated with photographs and line drawings, Raven and Roberts's book is an invaluable technical resource for anyone interested in the subject. Yet where the authors fall short is in detailing the war service of these vessels. Such coverage is actually provided in the early chapters, which describe the cruisers that served in the First World War. This makes the absence of similar coverage for their successors in the Second World War — the titular focus of the work — particularly glaring. Readers seeking a more comprehensive analysis would do well to supplement this book with Norman Friedman's more recent [b:British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After|10804709|British Cruisers Two World Wars and After|Norman Friedman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347417821s/10804709.jpg|15718119] which, while not as well supplemented with pictures, nonetheless provides a more useful narrative analysis of its subject. show less

This is THE definitive work on British battleships during WWII and head and shoulders above many other comparative volumes published by other experts. It offers excellent historical details about alterations to each ship, their careers, and includes a large number of photos and line drawings that are also essential for modellers. I have studied the subject of naval warfare for several decades now and can honestly say I have never come across a better work covering the ships of WWII. The only show more real drawback to this book is its rarity – and price too if you wish to own a copy.

If you only buy one book on British battleships in WWII, this should be it, for modeller and historian alike. show less