Warship Perspective has released another new book in their Warship perspectives series.  This book is covers U.S. Navy Essex Class Aircraft Carriers during World War II. 

Warship perspectives has taken on one of the most interesting class of ships to serve with the US Navy during WWII. The Essex Class was the first USN Aircraft Carrier to be designed and built without the limitations imposed by  the Washington Naval Treaty. This Class of Carrier was the largest class of CV ever built by any Navy. 26 Ships were ordered by the US Navy during WWII with 24 Ships completed (2 cancelled). 

The Book

The book is presented in the same XxX format as all their other books. There are 80 pages packed with photographs and drawings.  The book is divided into three sections: One section is devoted to the ships from CV-9 (Essex) through CV-21 (Boxer) describing the wartime service and the airwings carried.  The next section of the book is devoted to camouflage of the ships. This section includes drawings, text,  and photographs of various measures of camouflage these ships carried. The third and last section is devoted to the types of Aircraft Carried by this class of ship. Of note is text describing camouflage and markings of aicraft carried from 1943 - 1945. Each type of aircraft is covered in detail and includes such aircraft as F4-U Corsair, F6F Hellcat, SB2C Helldiver, and TBF Avenger. Attached to the inside back cover is a nicely drawn top-down, port and starboard view of CV-9 USS Essex as she appeared during 1943-1944.

The photographic quality of this books is very good and includes some excellent detail shots of various items such as radars and the island superstructure.  The drawings are well-done and are dispersed throughout the book. The only down-side is that the camouflage patterns are Black & White and not in color.  I do understand that, in order to keep the book costs down, there is no color work with the exception of the cover.

This book will become an excellent source of information and data when trumpeter releases their Essex Class Carrier in 1:350th scale. As with all of WR Press books, they provide a wealth of information at a moderate cost. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs info on this class of ship.