M. J. Whitley

Mr Whitley is one of my favourite writers in the world of naval architecture. This is a worthy addition to his body of work, where he adds to his book on the Battleships and Cruisers of WWI. There is an adequate set of deck plan and the ship photos are well chosen. This is not a book for fans of the mystique of German super ships. It seems that the light cruiser designs had been overloaded with armament, and suffered from engineering problems and very large turning circles. The protection was not well designed and the radius of operations was quite low. The Heavy cruisers were better protected but had the other faults of the Lights. So, the ships, which were good looking had little else to recommend them.… (mehr)