It is always a delight to receive a book from Stratus. They choose interesting subjects and the books are well researched. This one is no exception and happens to be part of a series of which I was quite unaware. The series covers USN ships and this is the second part of volume 4. It continues where volume 1 left off and puts its efforts into destroyers. Those covered are DD-186 to DD-393.

All of these ships were comissioned prior to WWII and many of them saw action with some of them sunk in combat. A fair number of the flush deck four-stackers covered were either scrapped early in life due to lack of funds to keep them operational or as part of the various treaties of the 1920s and 1930s. A number of these same ships were provided to the British as part of lend-lease. One thing I found interesting was how many were converted to other uses such as minesweeper or fast transport.

The author has divided each book into the various classes of ship and provides us, where possible, with at least one decent period photo of each vessel. Heading each ship is a name/hull number, builder, date the keel was laid, date of launch and date of commission. There then follows a brief history of the ship that includes its fate. At the end of each class of ship are statistics that include size, complement, speed, engines, armament and so on. Classes covered are Clemson, Farragut, Porter, Mahan, and Gridley

A most welcome section for modelers is that which contains information on the various camouflage schemes and patterns used on these vessels. This section includes official USN pattern drawings as some of these Measure camo schemes were quite varied and only used on a few ships.  In all, it is an outstanding reference on the type and one that any naval enthusiast should seek.

May 2024

Review book courtesy ofwww.casematepublishers.com. You can get your now at this link. 

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