Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II

Rating:
Summary: An extensive and comprehensive review of over 1,000 ships.
Review:


"Jane's" is possibly the world's leading authority on ships especially, though not exclusively, naval ships of the world. In this special edition of those warships which existed during WW2 we find the full specifications of each vessel, it's machinery and armament. Any changes to those specifications plus ant difference between ships of the same class are also included.

As the reader might expect, each chapter is a different country and we commence with a waterline profile of that country's entire fleet followed by individual classes of ships from more or less from the biggest ships to the smallest. For the vast majority of entries we have a detailed profile and deck view of each class of ship with all parts numbered and named. Additionally, in most cases the publishers have been able to include at least one photograph (often more than one) of each type of ship. However, the publishers do point out that some of these pictures are of an inferior quality but are included in the interests of completeness because no other pictures are available.

Various engineering and gunnery notes are also found in addition to more general information explaining the specific differences between various ships of the same class.

Altogether, typical 5 star material from an established publisher of high quality material.

NM



Rating:
Summary: Jane's Fighting Ships Of W.W.ll
Review: As a youngster I lived in Hawaii during the war.With all the navy ships that we saw, all my friends were proud of the way that we could identify all naval ships. After the war ,in our school library came the most wonderfull book. JANE'S SHIPS OF THE WORLD. It answerd so many questions that we could only ask ourselves because of the era. Maybe I was looking to "go home again",with the help of this book. But the pictures looked like photo copies, and many of the latter ships from all countries were left out of the book. I still believe this is the diffinitive work that covers this subject, and it's the best reference book of it's time.

Rating:
Summary: Below the Jane's standard!!
Review: I was searching for a reference book about ALL the warships involved in the Second World War and belonging to EVERY nation (a too ambitious demand?); I saw the title "Jane's...", read a customer's comment and decided to buy this book. When I received it I felt a little disappointed, because the book wasn't exactly what it seemed to be. Maybe it can have a value as an historical document, being the reprint of past Jane's editions (of wartime); but as such it cannot have what I instead expected to find, such as data about the war losses, the war construction (some navies are almost complete, some other expecially the Axis ones are not), and so on. It seems to be more an editorial operation than a true historical book about the argument; surely below the usual standard of the other Jane's books. BTW: about one year after I bought the "Conway's all the world's fighting ships 1922-1946", and there I found what I was looking for.

Rating:
Summary: A good Book
Review: I was searching for a reference book about ALL the warships involved in the Second World War and belonging to EVERY nation (a too ambitious demand?); I saw the title "Jane's...", read a customer's comment and decided to buy this book. When I received it I felt a little disappointed, because the book wasn't exactly what it seemed to be. Maybe it can have a value as an historical document, being the reprint of past Jane's editions (of wartime); but as such it cannot have what I instead expected to find, such as data about the war losses, the war construction (some navies are almost complete, some other expecially the Axis ones are not), and so on. It seems to be more an editorial operation than a true historical book about the argument; surely below the usual standard of the other Jane's books. BTW: about one year after I bought the "Conway's all the world's fighting ships 1922-1946", and there I found what I was looking for.

Rating:
Summary: Much am I interested in this book
Review: Janes Fighting Ships of World War II is a good informant on the majority of naval forces from around the world. However I was a little dissatisfied when I found out that some of the warships I know of were not in the book. So stands my four star review.

Rating:
Summary: More is not better
Review: Like Conway's Ships of the World (different war eras), Jane's Fighting Ships tries to cover much too much ground with obsolete data. Jane's was formerly published by the English Fred T. Jane on an annual basis and as an annual was only as accurate as its contributing editors from each nation could be, i. e. they depended on official data released by the individual countries which tried to cover up as much as possible. Even in 1947, little was published on YAMATO and accurate information on the Axis navies was still rare. The author fails in his attempt to produce a compendium of WWII naval strength. Subsequent naval writing with more current information has rendered his book worse than useless.

Rating:
Summary: A poor choice for reference material
Review: This book covers many ships from around the world, but unfortunately it is neither complete nor accurate. The bulk of the data comes from information first published in 1947 or earlier, and few (if any) corrections have been made to eliminate errors that have been known for many years. The photographs are of poor quality, whilst the line drawings are very small and difficult to interpret. There is little accompanying text, and much of the information is presented in small type below a bad (very dark) photograph.

If your need is for correct information then this book is not for you. If you are looking for a book that will give you an impression for the ships of the time then again I would not recommend it is presented as a data book and not a descriptive work. If you are looking for a book that contains a photograph of almost every ship type that existed during the Second World War then it might suit you, although many details are obscured in the overly dark photos.

Rating:
Summary: A poor choice for reference material
Review: This book covers many ships from around the world, but unfortunately it is neither complete nor accurate. The bulk of the data comes from information first published in 1947 or earlier, and few (if any) corrections have been made to eliminate errors that have been known for many years. The photographs are of poor quality, whilst the line drawings are very small and difficult to interpret. There is little accompanying text, and much of the information is presented in small type below a bad (very dark) photograph.

If your need is for correct information then this book is not for you. If you are looking for a book that will give you an impression for the ships of the time then again I would not recommend it is presented as a data book and not a descriptive work. If you are looking for a book that contains a photograph of almost every ship type that existed during the Second World War then it might suit you, although many details are obscured in the overly dark photos.

Rating:
Summary: A good Book
Review: This was my 1st Jane's book purchase. I found the book full of information. It covers many countries including Britian, France, United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, & Russia. It also includes smaller countries like Brail, China, Sweeden, etc. There are several more. In my option it is a good reference. A word of warning; If you want all Ships that were in WWII you will have to purchase Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I also. One example of this is if you look for information on the USS Arizona; you'll need the WWI book since the battleship was built in June of 1915 (during WWI). There are no color pictures except for the dust jacket. Another aspect of the book that I enjoyed is the Recognition Silhouettes which show a side view of the ship which will be grouped by class and number of funnels. I would recommend this book and the Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I; since they go hand and hand.