Casemate Publishers bring us a book from Polish editorial Kagero, covering the Vittorio Veneto class of battleships (Littorio/Italia, Vittorio Veneto, Roma and an unfished hull Imperio). The book was written by Andrzej Perepeczko and he has done a great research job in his book.

The book is broken down in the following sections.

• Origin
• Design and Equipment
• In Service

The first section covers the historical situation of the Italian Fleet in the interwar years and includes a high-level description of other contemporary battleships. That way you can understand better the relevance of this class within the Italian Fleet.

Brian Lane Herder is a WW2 naval enthusiast and legislative librarian for Kansas state government. Adam Hook did the illustrations and Martin Windrow is the Series Editor.

You get a 9.75 X 7.25 inches size paperback book with ten sections. You get 8 full-page, full color Plates (illustration by Adam Hook), 18 full color photos (most not seen before), 25 B&W photos (most not seen before), 7 tables/diagrams. The full color Plates visualize tactics of fleet deployment and attacks, and are the highlight and main reason for reading this book. Almost every page has a photograph or is an illustration, making this book an easy read with eye-catching visuals. Some of the photographs are in color and most have sharp detail. Most photos appear to be presented for the first time. The prose is easy to follow and efficient.

OKB Grigorov has provided super little set of 4 submarines which represent all the various produced of this class of British Submarine ordered at the end of WW1. They were the forerunner of the modern Attack submarine. They produced 12 of these small diesel electric submarines. All but 2 were scrapped by 1923. The remaining two until 1929 and 1934.

Included is:

• Four resin parts
• Four Photo Etch Sheets
• Four different resin submarines
• Instruction Sheet

The detail quality is great; The parts are very delicate parts that need careful removal from the resin bases.

The instruction sheet is very basic but enough to get them built. You just must ensure you use the correct Photo Etch sheet with the right resin submarine. Here is a quick list to help

The Author

David Doyle’s earliest published works appeared in periodicals aimed at the hobby of historic military vehicle restoration. By 1999 this included regular features in leading hobby publications, appearing regularly in US, English, and Polish magazines. Since 2003, over 100 of his books have been published. Broadening his horizons from his initial efforts concerning vehicles, he soon added aircraft and warships to his research objectives.

Contents

The book is divided into six chapters all covering the beginning construction to the final day of the ship.

Osprey Publishing just released a new book devoted to the Escort Carriers under British Flag during World War 2. Still this book has a few paragraphs devoted to the first two Escort Carriers under Dutch Flag. They had (Dutch) Fleet Air Arm Flights detached to them, under operational control of the British, so I think they count as ‘British’.

This book is relatively short at 48 pages but don’t let the relatively small thickness of the book fool you. The book is packed with information. It clearly describes the need for air cover for convoys and how out of necessity many merchant ships were converted to operate as a ‘proof of concept’. Once the value of the Escort Carrier was proven, the larger US industrial capacity provided the vast majority of the Escort Carriers under British Flag.

The book is broken down in the following sections.