Military Model Scene

Title: British Lend-Lease Warships 1940-45
Author: Angus Konstam
Publisher: Osprey
ISBN: 978-1-4728-6128-3

'The Royal Navy's American-built destroyers and frigates', number 330 in the New Vanguard series from Osprey. A 48-page soft-cover book from author Angus Konstam and with illustrations by Adam Tooby.
The subject of the US built Lend-Lease destroyers and frigates is full of interest. Many will know of the 50 old flush-deck destroyers that the US gave to the Royal Navy, early in WW2. The book gives us more information on their earlier history, and how so many were kept in storage through to the early years of WW2. At the time, while these were old ships, the Royal Navy found itself in a perilous position, and despite their shortcomings, these old boats were desperately needed in the early stages of the war, to protect the vital sea lanes which kept Britain supplied. As the book makes clear though, they were not the end to the lend-lease boats, as additional vessels were supplied, including a number of new builds. As well as listing them all, including both their USN names and classes, we also get some background to them before being handed over to the UK, and does include some others provided to other allied nations. Once they got to the UK they needed some adaptations, being fitted with British equipment, such as radios, asdic etc. There are also a couple of examples of the escorts in action. One of the most famous of those early 4-stack destroyers is HMS Campbeltown, known for its' role in the St Nazaire raid, but the story of which is not repeated as that is covered in a separate title.
As well as those early destroyers, other included what the Americans described as destroyer escorts, but which the Royal Navy classified as frigates as they were slower than the British destroyer escorts, and were more anti-submarine escorts. Plenty of tables throughout the book, listing the many ships along with both the USN and RN classes, names and their eventual fates. A final section on Specifications gives yet more detail of each class, with numbers built, numbers supplied under lend-lease, armament fits, displacement, powerplants etc. Add plenty of archive images and the excellent profiles, cutaway and battlescenes of Adam Tooby, I think this is a great addition to the New Vanguard series, with lots of great information packed into a small book.
Thanks to Osprey for the review copy.

Robin