Military Model Scene

Title: US Navy Pacific Fleet 1941
Author: Mark Lardas
Publisher: Osprey
ISBN: 978-1-4728-5950-1

America's mighty last battleship fleet, number 7 in the Fleet series from Osprey. An 80-page soft-cover book and another one from naval author Mark Lardas.
The US Pacific Fleet in 1945, when the war ended, was very different to the same fleet in 1941, when the war started. The book opens by looking at the fleet's purpose, as guided by various pre-war exercises before considering the Fleet Fighting Power, the different types of ships from aircraft carriers and battleships, and down through cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and the varied fleet auxiliaries that gave them vital logistics support to cover the huge distances involved in fighting across the Pacific from the West Coast of the USA. It also looks at the Technical Factors, such as the good/bad qualities of the guns, torpedoes, radar, aircraft, and of course the quality and training of the men who served the fleet. Then it moves on to How the Fleet Operated, covering Doctrine & Command, Intelligence, Deception & Communication, Logistics & Facilities. The commander in this period was Admiral Husband Kimmel. The final part of the book looks at Combat & Analysis. There was limited combat of course, with the attack on Pearl Harbour in December of that year, and included in that is the question of the cancellation of the 3rd wave and failure to destroy the vital fuel storage facilities may have made a significant different to the following course of events. With the end of the year came a change of command, as Husband Kimmel was replaced by Rear Admiral Chester A. Nimitz, and with the battleships largely gone, it was the aircraft carrier which took centre stage as the war came to a close.
Well illustrated as usual with this Osprey series, archive photos, and some first class artwork. I found this gave me a rather different view of the US Pacific Fleet in 1941, and I enjoyed reading this one. Good value for money as ever and a good addition to the Fleet series.
Thanks to Osprey for the review copy.

Robin