Battleships

• Main Author: Preston, Antony (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: London Bison 1982
• Subjects: Battleships
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 Giving Preston three stars is a bit of gift, and it is only being done because I know how difficult writing a book like this can be. In fact, the author frequently misconstrues why design choices were made in the various classes of battleships, and seldome presents anything that goes even a step beyound the yadda-yadda research that seems to be passed down from one writer to another without any of them taking so much as a breath to consider going into an archive. Preston is clearly biased in some areas, as in his criticism of the Bismarck Class. These ships had plenty of warts, but he misses many and restates others that are of dubious nature. I could go on, but these are not the kind of books I like having the library. Granted, I have several Preston texts, but I cannot advise most of them. Preston and D. K. Brown were great friends, but one was a scholar...and the other could have stood to practice more scholarship. Nonetheless, there is some sound info on various British ships, and that makes the text useful from that perspective. Like I said, it isn't easy to write a book like this.