Books on Ship Modeling
Reference Books on Warships
Warship Videos
Music to build Warships By!
Tools and Books on Tools
Other fun things that Kurt really likes - an admittedly eclectic gathering of odds and ends


The vast majority of these books are in my own library!

US Warships

coverThe Yard - Follows the building of an Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer from first metal to delivery.  A fantastic book that gives a lot of insight into how a modern warship is created.  The chapter launching a ship from the building ways is particularly interesting. Very readable and highly recommended.

Warship Boneyards by Kit Bonner - a look at the reserve fleets and naval storage yards around the US

Battlestations: American Warships of WWII by Nicholas A. Veronico, Armand H. Veronico, Nick Veronico


The Friedman Books

U.S. Battleships : An Illustrated Design History A very technical and informative description of the design process, with fantastic illustrations and clear, useful photographs.  See the author, Norman Friedman, other books below

U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History

U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History

U.S. Aircraft Carriers :An Illustrated Design History

U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History

U.S. Submarines Since 1945 : An Illustrated Design History

U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History - the latest in Friedman's books, very well received.

U.S. Small Combatants, Including Pt-Boats, Subchasers, and the Brown-Water Navy: An Illustrated Design History

All are probably the definitive design histories of the subjects, covering the earliest origins to late developments.


US Battleships

Battleships : United States Battleships - a great technical history of US Battleship design.

Iowa Class Battleships: Their Design, Weapons and Equipment by Robert F. Sumrall, Tom Walkowiak.  Invaluable  resource to the modeler of this class

Battleship Missouri: An Illustrated History by Paul Stillwell

Battleship Arizona: An Illustrated History by Paul Stillwell

Battleships by Paul Stillwell - an overview of mostly US Battleships with some very nice photos

US Cruisers

American Cruisers of World War II: A Pictorial Encyclopedia by Steve Ewing - a nice softbound volume on all cruisers that saw action during the war.

US Destroyers

Electronic Greyhounds: The Spruance-Class Destroyers by Michael C., Capt. Potter - a very good reference for Spruance and Ticonderoga class ships of the US Navy.

Modern U.S. Navy Destroyers - a nice softbound picture book with lots of views of an Arleigh Burke class destroyer

Sumner-Gearing-Class Destroyers: Their Design, Weapons, and Equipment by Robert F. Sumrall An outstanding reference, but availability might be limited

Fletcher Class DDs in Action (Warships, No 8) by Jerry Scutts One of the Squadron in Action Series

U.S. Navy Destroyers of World War II by John C. Jr. Reilly  A truly excellent overview of the various classes of Destroyers that the US used during the war.  Want to tell a Sumner from a Sommers?  Here is a great reference.

The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts by Bruce Hampton Franklin - a great reference for this common class of Destroyer Escorts, which included the famous England (DE-635).  Photos of every ship in the class, and a nice design history, along with useful detail photos.

Flush Decks and Four Pipes by John D. Alden - the best reference for the War Emergency destroyers built during World War I that served as the backbone of the US Navy destroyer fleet until well into the 30's; indeed many served throughout World War II as well.  

US Submarines

Run Silent by Philip Kaplan - Oversized coffee table book which covers the history of submarines as well as the modern US sub fleet.

Cold War Submarines: Us & Soviet Design & Construction by Norman Polmar, Kenneth J. Moore

The Compete Idiot's Guide to Submarines by Michael DiMercurio, Michael Benson - what a great book, so much detail on the operation of a submarine in a highly readable format.  Very highly recommended.


German Warships

German Capital Ships of World War Two by M. J. Whitley

Battleships of the Bismarck Class: Bismarck and Tirpitz, Culmination and Finale of German Battleship Construction by Gerhard Koop

The Battleship Tirpitz by Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke

Battleships of the Scharnhorst class  Excellent English language translation of the German Original, highly recommended for those with an interest in the class.

Battleship Scharnhorst (Conway Maritime Modellers)

Pocket Battleships of the Deutschland Class by Gerhard Koop

Heavy Cruisers of the Admiral Hipper Class: The Admiral Hipper, Blucher, Prince Eugen, Seydlitz and Lutzow by Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke

German Light Cruisers of World War II: Emden, Konigsberg, Karlsruhe, Koln, Leipzig, Nurnberg by Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke

Battleships : Axis and Neutral  Another great battleship reference series.  This book covers the Axis battleships built just before and used during World War II.  Other volumes in the series cover Battleships : United States Battleships and Battleships : Allied Battleships.  The trio makes a very useful study on fast battleship design.

German Destroyers of World War II by Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke


Japanese Warships

Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War by Eric Lacroix A big, expensive reference, worthwhile if you are a serious IJN researcher or modeler

The Heavy Cruiser Takao (Anatomy of the Ship) by Janusz Skulski One of the excellent Anatomy of the Ship Series.

The Battleship Yamato by Janusz Skulski Another of the Anatomy of the Ship

The Battleship Fuso: Fuso (Anatomy of the Ship Series) by Janusz Skulski


General Books on Warships

The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 2002-2003: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems - serious about warships?  Really, really serious about warships?  This is the reference you need to plan your next move against NATO, or simply to assess maritime strength in your neighborhood.  Definitely not pocket sized at over 1100 pages, and still a fraction of the cost of Jane's Fighting Ships.

The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet (Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 17th Ed) by Norman Polmar

The Eclipse of the Big Gun: The Warship, 1906-45 (Conway's History of the Ship) by Robert Gardiner

Navies in the Nuclear Age: Warships Since 1945 (Conway's History of the Ship) by Robert Gardiner

Fleets of World War II by Richard Worth

Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia by M. J. Whitley - A nice survey of World War II destroyers.


Naval Weapons

Destroyer Weapons of World War Two by Peter Hodges- a nice book that covers US and British DD weapons.  Out of print, but you might get lucky and find a used copy here.

Naval Weapons of World War Two by John Campbell - don't buy a collector priced version of this book, it is being reissued by the US Naval Insttitute at $ 65.00 list, so if you see a higher price, check back later


Useful searches on Amazon for warships:

Battleship Cruiser Destroyer Submarine each of these will generate a lot of hits

Anatomy of the Ship - this will get you hits on the excellent series by Conway and US Naval Institute

Navy destroyer

US Naval Institute Books - large publisher of naval books

USS - gets books with "USS" in the name

Search Now:

In Association with Amazon.com


Back to Bookstore main page

Thank you very much for taking the time to view my store!

Kurt Greiner, Owner

Back to SeaPhoto

Back to Warship Photos Underway

 Questions?  Please email me here.

428

Version 1.1  06/17