‘Twas a cosmic inevitability…

 …one part of this reviewer’s brain said to another part of this reviewer’s brain…

 …as his hand reached out, grasping, droolingly clutching, placing the book atop Venture Hobbies’ counter, not even bothering to look inside.

 No defense, no contest, the subject was SO intriguing, SO specific, it made NO sense to even pretend normal life could continue without this book.

 Military history books do not come much dryer than this…no wonder ‘tis so exciting!

 First, take heart in these words of comfort; unlike many previous AJ Press offerings, this book is entirely bilingual Polish / English.

 Ooooh, yeah!

 If you are a naval or artillery history nerd, here comes the good part! Tape your glasses, load your pocket protector, hike up your trousers around your sternum and stand by for excitement! If you are neither a naval history nor artillery nerd, stop reading!

 Warning; this book puts one at severe risk of becoming severely over-geeked on the subject of Teutonic ballistic tubes and requiring medication, if not hospitalization with all those wires coming out of you and machines with flashing numbers and medical people saying it won’t hurt much when they insert…

 …and adding , “huh-huh” to more of your daily vocabulary.

 Author Miroslaw Skwiot is a thorough scholar, make no mistake, thereon. In German Naval Artillery Vol. 1, a nice-to-hold thick and really professionally-printed tome, he addresses three types of WW II-era Deutsches Kriegsmarine (DKM) heavy weapons:

• 38 cm (15”) used in KM Bismarck and Tirpitz
• 28.3 cm (11”) in KM Scharnhorst, Gneisnau, Deitschland /Lützow, Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee
• 20.3 cm (8”) in  KM Admiral Hipper, Blucher and Prinz Eugen (and not-completed Seydlitz and Lützow)
• (with added goodies of:)
• Colour illustration of projectiles and charges
• Configurations of turret-top 2 cm AA mounts
• Colour schemes for turrets (the infamous red and yellow turret crowns)

 That’s it, geek-Bros, a whole book devoted to three types of turrets and their tubes and munitions. To all like-minded units:Yum, repeating message, yum!

 Illustration in this book is incredibly prolific, featuring a tasty mix of period photos, plans and many, many pieces of outstanding computer-rendered colour art.

 Highest recommendation, for students of and modelers of major DKM units and artillery enthusiasts in this and neighbouring arms of the galactic spiral. Good dollar-per-ounce of weight book.

 Modelers of the DKM’s ‘big ships’ will find this volume a source of much useful detail and background information. Furthermore, the larger the scale you build in, the more useful the level of detail contained in this book will be to you.

 Review copy courtesy of the reviewer's chequebook, purchased at Venture Hobbies, Wheeling, Illinois, USA.

Reviewed by James Hood

 see Scott Van Aken's m2 and other reviews of James Hood's novel Adventure--Into The Neverland, of exploring a parallel, Alternate world (concept based on the Superstring theory of physics) using WW II surplus ships, aircraft and vehicles at:)    <http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm>

Book can be ordered at <http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/SearchCatalog.aspx>  or from your local bookstore (ISBN 0-7596-9062-6 Hardbound or ISBN-0-7596-2646-4 Softcover

August 2005

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