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U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History (Illustrated Design Histories) Hardcover – January 1, 1995
This series offers detailed descriptions of the evolution of all classes of the principal U.S. combatant types. Each volume is fully illustrated with deck plans, outboard profiles, sketches from major design studies, and numerous detailed photographs. The appendixes contain a wealth of information on ship characteristics and equipment.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNaval Institute Press
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1995
- Dimensions8.75 x 1 x 11.25 inches
- ISBN-101557502633
- ISBN-13978-1557502636
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Product details
- Publisher : Naval Institute Press (January 1, 1995)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1557502633
- ISBN-13 : 978-1557502636
- Item Weight : 2.98 pounds
- Dimensions : 8.75 x 1 x 11.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,043,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,251 in History of Technology
- #4,740 in Naval Military History
- #18,936 in World War II History (Books)
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Expect to spend a lot of time referring back and forth between chapters in order to gain a complete understanding of not only what these boats were like, but why they were built the way they were.
Like the other books in the series, this one delves deep into previously classified, or extremely obscure, official documents to produce an unprecedentedly detailed study of the design and development of American submarines in the first half of the 20th century. On a technical level, it goes far beyond John Alden's "The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy." Every submarine designed during the period is described in some detail, as are torpedoes, sonars, periscopes, diesel engines, batteries, fire control equipment, and sonar decoys. The lessons of both world wars are also described, as is American exposure to foreign submarines, particularly German U-boats after World War I. It's also one of the few books to describe Simon Lake's submarines in detail, and also explains how Lake's "gold-plated" designs, poor finances, slow building times, and Electric Boat's patents, all contributed to his demise as designer and builder.
Beyond the boats that were actually built, there's also quite a bit on unbuilt designs. Although many are merely stepping stones on the way to the finished product, there are some truly unique concepts, including steam-powered fleet submarines, an improved Balao with a topside rudder and six tubes for anti-escort homing torpedoes, and a massive 20,000-ton cruiser with battleship guns, 14 torpedo tubes, and six inches of armor. There are dozens of profile and cross-section diagrams by Jim Christley, and Norman Friedman also provided numerous sketches of unbuilt designs. There's also plenty of photographs, including many dockyard images with wartime alterations and improvements circled. Keep in mind, though, being a mid-90s Naval Institute title, the photo quality sometimes leaves something to be desired.
The main problem with this book is, as kids today might say, it's a bit of a hot mess. There's simply so much information thrown at the reader, sometimes in a clunky manner, that processing it all can be a chore. The main text, by itself, doesn't do a particularly great job of explaining the nitty-gritty details of the subject. I found myself reading a chapter at a time, then going back and reading all of the photo and diagram captions in that chapter, going over the tables, reading both appendixes, and FINALLY, skimming through the 54 pages of footnotes. The footnotes by themselves are an absolute treasure trove, with enough detail for a fairly substantial book. Maybe in the future, there'll be a revised edition that incorporates some of the "juicy bits" from the footnotes and captions into the main text. It'd certainly make it a less jittery, caffeinated read.
Still, this book is definitely worth buying if you're a hardcore submarine enthusiast. It's not an easy read, but you're unlikely to find a more in-depth study of the subject out there. If you can find them at a reasonable price, I'd recommend reading Alden's book and Friedman's "Submarine Design and Development" before tackling this one.
*Me? I'm just a nerd.