In this day of satellite reconnaissance and radar early-warning aircraft...

...it seems all but inconceivable, only 65 years ago, ships plied the world's oceans, totally dependent on the Human Eyeball Mk I for locating objects on the sea or in the sky. A raider could prey in the sea lanes, invisible at night or beyond visual range, as did the pirates of wood and sail days.

That however, is the  world for which the fledgling Deutsche Kriesgsmarine formulated the Pocket Battleship.

Whomever coined the phrase "Pocket Battleship" must have been a Marketing major.

"Pocket Battleship"...it has an ominous sound, something which certainly rings better than "Slow Heavy Cruiser with 11 inch guns." Osprey's New Vanguard Number 75, German Pocket Battleships 1939-45, explores the type in some detail.

When the infant Deutsche Kriegsmarine (DKM, German Navy) designed their first heavy units, German naval architects were praised in the press for boldly striking out in a new direction. "Designed to outgun any ship they cannot outrun!" was the dramatic (but not entirely accurate) terminology often used to describe the Panzerschiffe (Armoured Ships, the Germans never called them pocket battleships). Were the Panzerschiffe revolutionary, or hakening back to the heriitage of the previous century's Armoured Cruisers?

Interestingly, no other nation copied the Panzerschiff design and the Germans limited the class to three units. This advantage is seized by author Gordon Williamson, who provides good, detailed short histories of Deutschland  (later renamed Lutzow), Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee in the 48-page format. The surviving two were reclassified as heavy cruisers in 1941.

Illustrator Ian Palmer skillfully and artfully uses the standard Osprey format of 8 pages of colour in the middle of the book to good advantage. The artwork is really, really good. As this reviewer has said in other places, one wishes the centrespread cutaway view of the ship was larger, even a foldout.

As with many naval subjects, the Deutschland class "Pocket Battleships" are practically never seen on film . The only movie "about" a pocket battleship was the 1956 British "Battle Of The River Plate," also known as "Pursuit Of The Graf Spee" in the USA. Regrettably, the film uses a USN Salem class heavy cruiser (NO RESEMBLANCE, and even with the bow number showing!) as Graf Spee and does not show the German point of view. (Remember though, the movie was made only 11 years after the war ended; that's less time  than from Desert Storm to now!) Sad, as Captain Hans Langsdorf of Admiral Graf Spee would have been an interesting point of view.... That's why you need this book. By the way, on page 41, HMS Exeter had only 6, not 8-8 inch guns.

Veddy interesting, eh? You vant to build models of Panzerschiffe? You vant kits? You got kits! Plastic ones are available in 1/720, 1/700, 1/600 and 1/400, and there is a resin 1/350 as well, plus a 1/250 card model. 'Understand there is even a (relatively new) book on building models of the type. (The Heller 1/400 kits are the best; even having hulls and superstructures unique to Lutzow, Scheer and Spee!)

In summary, Williamson and Palmer have co-produced a winner. Osprey New Vanguard 75 is highly recommended, good value for the $14.95 purchase price, especially since the Meisterwerk on the subject, by Gerhard Koop & Klaus-Peter Schmolke, is out of print.

Review copy courtesy of the reviewer's chequebook, purchased at Prosek's Greenhouse and Military Hobby Shop, Winfield, IL, USA.

For Scott Van Aken's Modeling Madness review of James Hood's novel,
 Adventure--Into The Neverland, go to:  http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm

March 2005

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