This is another book in this series, each concerning itself with one particular type or class of ship. This one is about British Anti-/Aircraft Cruisers and includes ships specifically built for this mission or converted to it. As usual for this series, it is not so much a history of the ships, although brief accounts of their careers are included, as it is a description of the various specific modifications made to them that made them anti-aircraft ships. Included are the “C” class cruisers that were converted for this work, merchant vessels that were requisitioned and converted and the more-or-less purpose build Dido Class ships.

To cover this topic the book starts with describing the specific work done to each “C” class cruiser in detail. There are many photos illustrating this and they are crisp and clear. There are also sections with line drawings of each type of ship, the various camouflage paint schemes applied, charts with the specifics of the various gun systems used and color photos of scale models of some of the ships. The book then goes into the building and characteristics of the more purpose build Dido and Bellona class cruisers. A section in all the books of this series is on the available kits and aftermarket detail sets available to the modeler. Combined with all the information and examples provided, this make constructing an accurate replica much easier.

The book itself is done on heavy high gloss stock that makes photos and line drawings crisp and clear and the color on the photos nicely rendered.

While the books in this series are not military history per se, they are very valuable sources of information on their subjects and well recommended to the modeler or the history buff that is looking for a little more detailed information.

I want to thank IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this book and Casemate Publications for providing the review copy.