Military Model Scene

Title: British Naval Weapons of WW2, The John Lambert Collection Vol2

Author: John Lambert & Norman Friedman

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-5267-5047-1

 

With the release of this second volume, a project planned by the late John Lambert has been brought to life. Well known for his contributions to a number of modelling magazines over the years, John Lambert had a plan to do a series of scale drawings to illustrate the many types of weapons used on Royal Navy ships during WW2.  While many drawings were completed, with informative notes, sadly he passed away before he was able to complete the text which would tie them all together. Fortunately, Seaforth publishing have acquired all his drawings, and with the help of historian Norman Friedman, that original plan has finally seen the light of day, and I feel confident he would have been pleased with the end result.

As well as the publishers' introduction to explain the background to the books, it opens with a section of explanatory text that gives the basis of the story, including a fine selection of archive photos which then leads into the assembled sections which hold John's superb scale drawings.  The first section holds plans of complete ships, the smaller classes of vessels, including Frigates, Corvettes (such as thef famous 'Flower' class), sloops and minesweeping trawlers. Then a series of Weapons systems, including 4in gun mountings, rockets & projectors (including parachute & cable apparatus), various Depth Charge rails and throwers, Hedgehog anti-submarine bomb thrower, search radars and more. An Equipment section holds plans for such as searchlights and minesweeping gear. Finall, an additional Appendix that holds some additional drawing which John had done, covering a number of weapons that were carried on larger warships of the time, and these include the 8[barrelled pom-pom mount.

Modeller or just with a fascination with Royal Navy warships and weaponry from the WW2 period, then I am confident you will enjoy adding this second volume to your own reference shelf. I am so glad that Seaforth have been able to bring these marvellous plans to a wide audience by these new publications. Excellent.

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Thanks to Pen and Sword for this review copy.

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Robin