At the start of WWII, the U-boat packs operated with impunity in the North Atlantic and while their torpedoes sunk a lot of ships, their deck guns did a lot of damage also. This ended with the advent or air patrols and small carriers. Eduard has produced an excellent resin and photoetch kit of the 8.8cm gun used on the Type VII U-boats. My only recommendation is to check references in that on the later Type VII's, the gun was removed due to its ineffectiveness due to the threat of aircraft.

Eduard kit consists of 14 perfect resin parts and 15 photoetch parts on a single fret. The first dozen of these parts actually forms the gun sight alone. Fit is excellent but the parts are small with some being 2mm long and requiring bends. The rest of the gun assembly is smooth with the resin parts coming off the pour stubs easily and fitting perfectly. Add the adjustment wheels and tampion (gun plug) and its clamp and the gun can be set aside.

The Ship

Heavily armed, shallow draft ships are known as monitors, named after the USS Monitor from the American Civil War. The USS Monitor carried two large guns in a rotating turret and had a flat hull with low freeboard. A later series of US ships that were designed for coast and harbor defense had a similar design and were generically called monitors. The term came to be applied to a ship that had main armament far beyond what would have been normal for a ship of its size and shallow draft to allow it to operate close inshore for bombardments. Monitors were used by the British during the First World War at Gallipoli and along the coast of occupied France and Belgium. A monitor was even used to shell the German light cruiser SMS Koenigsberg while she was laid up in the Rufiji River in Africa. No other ship type had a shallow enough draft or had heavy enough armament to deal with German cruiser.

While most people know of the Gray Wolves and the story of the U-Boat packs, not many know of the war waged by the Axis by the midget submarines. Osprey's latest book can correct that fact. Axis Midget Submarines covers just what the title says, midget submarines from Italy, Germany and Japan.

Each section follows a similar format. First, the history and countries doctrine of war are covered. Next, there is a section covering the development and types of midget subs used. The war time service record is then covered and also their prototypes and concept ideas. Each part is then summarized by an analysis and conclusion for each type.

Osprey has put out book # 57 in their Duel series. It is about the British Q Boats or decoy boats, as they were also known, versus the German U-boats. This book is another interesting book about World War 1 to go along with the wars 100 year anniversary.

The Imperial German U-boats were preying on the merchant ships that were supplying the British war effort. The U-boats were doing such a good job of this that Britain had to think of something that would make the submarines surface. Once surfaced, the U-boat became more vulnerable and the ship would have a better chance to fight. Enter the Q ship, a ship that appears to be a lone merchant ship and easy target. Once the U-boat surfaces the Q ship’s hidden guns appear and open fire.

The book is divided into eleven sections:

Highlights from Osprey’s website: “Designed and produced under the regulations of the Washington Naval Treaty, the heavy cruisers of the Pensacola, Northampton, Portland, New Orleans and Wichita classes were exercises in compromise. While they possessed very heavy armament – the Pensacolas, for example, carrying a main battery of ten 8” guns – this came at the cost of protection – armor was the same thickness as a gun cruiser, and incapable of protecting the vessels from enemy 8” fire. As the classes evolved, these flaws began to be corrected, with the main battery being reduced, and increased protection being added to the vital areas of the ship. Despite these drawbacks, the pre-war heavy cruiser classes served with distinction throughout World War II.”

This volume does a good job of informing the largely uninitiated (that would be this reviewer) about the difficulties of designing these large warships and the consequences of the decisions made.