Deep within the dictionary, beyond the halfway point, resides the word, “nonesuch,” or “nonsuch.”

 “Nonesuch’s” definition is conceptual, ‘a person or thing that no other approaches in likeness, especially, a paragon; a model or type of perfection.’

 Isolated, beleaguered and besieged by Hitler’s Germany in that fateful summer of 1940, Great Britain’s immortal wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill said, “If the British people and its Empire survives for a thousand years, men will look at these times and say, ‘This…was their finest hour.”

 Great Britain’s “nonesuch.”

 This historian not only shares Sir Winston’s feelings, but believes they apply equally to the United States of America, from Pearl Harbor through the Berlin Wall coming down.

 In particular, however, ‘tis this writer’s sincerest belief, the United States Navy had its “nonesuch” during the World War II years.

 ‘Only’ 165 years old in 1941, the USN came a long way in a short time. When WW II ended in August of 1945, the US Navy was the largest, most powerful nautical force the world, indeed, in recorded history. Its nautical enemies all but ceased to exist. In August of 1945, the USN exceeded in strength, without nuclear weapons, all of the navies in the world, combined.

 Literally thousands of books deal with the USN in WW II. What makes one more volume, Osprey’s Elite 63, author Mark Henry’s The US Navy In World War II worth buying, then?

 People.

 Gobs, swabbies, CPOs, shellbacks, WAVES, pollywogs, corpsmen, ninety-day wonders, Seabees, bosuns, SPs, ‘phibs, brown-shoes, red-shirts, coxswains…this book is one of very, very few which highlights the USN sailor.

 Author Mark Henry provides the briefest of USN WW II operational histories and another fast bit on ship types. Then he gratifyingly devotes the bulk of the volume’s text to sections on Uniforms, Service and Insignia. Many tasty, not-common, period photos of the men and women of the WW II USN fill out the pages.  Sadly, a few of the book’s photos are ‘tired,’ dirt-familiar reproductions of reproductions familiar to even the ‘litest’ student of the WW II USN. Happily, a large number of others show USN gobs frozen in time.

 Illustrator Ramiro Bujeiro was HOT when he did the uniform plates for this book, which in this reviewer’s opinion, make it worth buying, even if nothing else was included. He gives the reader a little bit of everything; dress whites, landing party, early war, PT Boat officer, aviator, Shore Patrol, small boat rig, talker’s helmet and flotation vest, working fatigue blues, officers’ khakis. Thumbs up!

 Hey modelers! Ship and naval craft modelers of USN WW II subjects are relatively well served by kit manufacturers, and the situation there is improving. Happily, new issues seem to be arriving in common constant 1/700, 1/350, 1/72 and 1/35 scales, quite welcome after five decades of “box scale” ships and boats. One can easily make a modeling-life’s work of available kits (plastic and resin) and conversions of USN ship and boat subjects, from fleet carriers to PT boats. Regrettably, many types are not yet available as kits and may never be…oilers, netlayers, submarine, seaplane and destroyer tenders, gunboats, yard craft, various cargo and amphibious types come to mind.

 Figure modelers who wish to do US Navy subjects are in downright dire straits. Though one could easily plan a hundred or more subjects, from arctic to tropical dress, fleet admiral to seaman apprentice, most regrettably, there are almost no commercial figures available of US sailors of the World War II era.

 This however is “perfectly understandable,” as the US Navy comprised only 3.3 million men,  6 Marine divisions, 41,000 aircraft, 99 aircraft carriers, 20+ battleships, 70+ cruisers, 2,000+ destroyers / escorts / frigates / corvettes gunboats, 200+ submarines, 3,000+ auxiliaries and 30,000+ landing ships and craft…

 …but had no Panzergrenadiers, Tiger tanks or Waffen SS…so the subject is ignored by figure manufacturers…

 …therefore, veritably no figures are available of sailors of the greatest nautical force in world history.

 Bitter? Bitter…? Moi…?

 Honestly, yes.

 Highly recommended, especially as a fine source of uniform information, inspiration for USN figure conversions, great period photos and a welcome break from ‘muddy boots’ subjects. 

Review copy courtesy of the reviewer’s chequebook from Prosek’s Greenhouse and Military Model Shop, Winfield, Illinois, USA, Charles Prosek, USMC (retd), Prop.

 Reviewed by James Hood

 (author site updated August 2005) 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)

 M2 Book review #33 (20050908)