US Heavy Cruisers
in action - part 2

by Al Adcock
Color by Don Greer

Squadron/Signal Publications

US Heavy Cruisers in action part 2 is available online at Squadron.com

Reviewed by Brett Green

US Heavy Cruisers in action Part 2 will be an essential companion to the first book in this short series (reviewed elsewhere on HyperScale).

Part 2 focuses on the Wichita, Baltimore, Oregon and Alaska Class Cruisers. These vessels are covered in text, photos and line drawings. 

This title includes over 100 photos including some larger pictures showing good detail of the ships. Captions are self-contained and descriptive. Almost 50 line drawings are scattered across the 50 pages too. These include drawings of the Scout Aircraft associated with these Heavy Cruisers between 1939 and 1950. 

The post-1950 guided missile conversions resulting in the Boston, Albany and Northampton Class are also covered very briefly in six pages of text and pictures.

Six ship profiles appear as a centrefold. Three of these profiles include a smaller profile showing the camouflage pattern on the opposite side of the vessel.  In common with the profiles in Part 1, these colour pages give a good impression of the variety of schemes carried by these important ships. Two excellent colour plates on the back cover round out the book. These plates depict the Alaska in Measure 321/D camouflage in early 1945 and the Chicago in 1972.

Ship colours are not listed in this volume, but an excellent table is available in Part 1. This table includes the official designation of the colour and quotes FS number equivalents.

This book is an inexpensive and useful reference for the Wichita, Baltimore, Oregon and Alaska Class Heavy Cruisers.

Recommended.

Thanks to Squadron for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2001 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 05 November, 2001
Last updated 22 July, 2003

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