Classic Warships has released the fourteenth book in its series of Naval Monographs of Warships. Book #14 covers the Heavy Cruiser CA-45 USS Wichita. The USS Wichita was built in 1935 and was the only ship in her class. 

This book focuses on a single ship in detail instead of one that covers an entire class of warships.  The book is in the same format of all of the previous books and is 56 pages long. There is a comprehensive narrative at the beginning of the book that describes the history of the USS Wichita. The rest of the book contains numerous photographs of USS Wichita interlaced with drawings of the ship and the weapons that she carried throughout her career. A table listing the ships characteristics can be found in the back of the book.

The type of photographs found in this are what you expect any of Steve Wipers books to carry.  The are many photos of the ship underway from many different angles as well as your photographs taken during yard periods and refits. All of the photographs are clear and crisp and will provide a wealth of detail. I really enjoy the dockside photos since they provide a wealth of info for modeling purposes.  These photos are the shots showing each ship undergoing refit at various times.   

There are two sets of drawings of USS Wichita included in the is book, one set is of her "as commissioned" and the other set of drawings shows her after the last refit in 1945. There are also drawings of USS Wichita's weapons that include the 8"/55 main gun, the unique 5"/38 single enclosed mount, 5"/38 Mk 30 open mount, 1.1"  Quad "Chicago Piano", 20mm and 40mm AA guns.

These books are designed to tell the story of the subject with pictures instead of words. Steve Wiper has become the master of this craft with his series of naval warship books. He is providing a source of information that few of us have access to and giving it to us at a reasonable cost. I would highly recommend this book, or any of Classic Warships publications, to anyone who has a love of ships.