I found this today in a second hand charity bookshop for only three quid. On first impressions, it didn't look like much and I just assumed it was one of those typical 1980's style re-hash books, all dodgy exploded diagrams and not much substance.
After a closer look, however, it turned out to be not too bad. All in all, there's a pretty comprehensive coverage of destroyer development and usage from 1900 to the 1970's, with particular emphasis on the Second World War. A decent reference book for modelling and wargaming, if not for the specialist.
It makes me think of what could be done with all those old 1/700 plastic waterline destroyer kits by Fujimi, Tamiya, Skywave, Matchbox and Hasegawa, perhaps with a naval 'skirmish' approach and some simple, fast play destroyer action rules of some sort.
I quite like the idea of a Narvik style scenario or perhaps some night action off Guadalcanal, all in a scale where the destroyer models are big enough to look impressive but small enough to still have realistic engagement distances.
Useful stuff. I found two books on the US Navy in WW2 at our local library's surplus books sale. It was the end of the sale when they offload the books at 'a buck a bag,' so I got a bargain. Of course after getting them it meant I had visions of running a full-on Pacific naval campaign, but I'm better now. ;)
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean...I now have to resist the inevitable temptation to start collecting old 1/700 Matchbox kits on eBay!
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