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.

• Chapter 1 Construction
• Chapter 2 Launching, Fitting Out and Commissioning
• Chapter 3 To War
• Chapter 4 Reconstruction
• Chapter 5 To War Again
• Chapter 6 The Atomic Age

In the Book

The book is hardbound with 6 chapters and 112 pages. It didn’t take long for me to read all the book in one night, I was intrigued by all of the facts about the ship being presented. All the information on the ship and the photographs that the book contained were a joy to look at and read. Most of the photos were black and white but still had a lot of clarity.

Some of the items described in the book were the ship’s initial World War 1 tour, the unplanned running over of a German submarine, dealing with a broken propeller shaft, the ships use at the end of World War 2 as a target during Nuclear bomb testing, and her sinking as a result of the testing.

A photo in the book shows one of the ships turrets covered with floatation devices that would self-deploy if the ship were to sink. These items were stored on the top of the turret all the time. More photos were of life aboard the ship.

After the ship had been in the direct vicinity of the first bomb blast during nuclear testing, a crew was put aboard to assess the damage. It was determined that the damage was not a fatal blow to the ship, so it was scheduled for another nuclear blast test. The ship was reoccupied after the second test but due to radiation contamination men could only work a few hours on the ship. On March 5, 1947 the USS New York was towed back to Pearl Harbor where it was determined that the ship was so contaminated that not even the linens used by the work crew could be removed. On July 6, 1948 the ship was towed forty miles out to sea and was sunk via naval bombardment.

The final photo in the book shows the USS New York just after capsizing from a Navy bombardment to sink her after Atomic tests were concluded.

Summary

I had a limited knowledge of the USS New York previously and thus the reason to review this book. The subject was very well covered with history of the ship construction, missions, and of the different upgrades throughout its service.

I recommend this book as a reference If you are preparing to build a model of the USS New York Battleship, or if you just have an interest in the New York.

One thing I thought would have been nice addition would have been a three-page fold out of a drawing of the ship from the side showing the decks and internals. Maybe in the next ship book.

I want to thank David Doyle and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to read and review the book.