The Aircraft Carrier Victorious (Anatomy of the Ship)

Rating:
Summary: The detail personifies the series
Review: This book is magnificent. This vessel served nearly four decades. The detail shows lines drawings of every refit, every aircraft, how the arresting wires and catapaults worked, the life boats and all armaments. Wonderful. The most photographs of all this series that I have seen.

Rating:
Summary: Great Detail, Well Presented
Review: This is part of a series of books called Anatomy of the Ship. Like the others in the series it is a whole book describing one ship of the class in great detail.

HMS Victorious was one of a class of six carriers built by the British in the late 1930's. They were built in compliance with the Washington treaty of 1921 so were limited to 23,000 tons. Compared with American carriers of the time, the Victorious had an armored flight deck. This proved of considerable value when the ship was hit by Kamikaze planes while operating with the US 5th Fleet in the Pacific.

This book is largely a series of professional drawing of the ship (122 pages), combined with photographs (15 pages). In addition there is a narrative description of the construction, modifications, and action life of the ship which served for more than 30 years and went through numerous refits as the planes became heavier and faster.