David Doyle Books Review - USS CALIFORNIA BB-44

Legends of Warfare
USS California (BB-44)
by David Doyle

Reviewed by Martin J Quinn
November 2025

David Doyle Books has released another new title in the "Legends of Warfare" series. This one covers the USS California, BB-44, a Tennessee-class battleship, which served from 1921 to 1945. This book is 176 pages long, and includes a history of the California, from her keel laying at Mare Island Navy Yard in October 1916, through her ordeal at Pearl Harbor, her rebuild and subsequent return to service with the Pacific Fleet. The book has over 400 photos, several line drawings and color profiles.

This book is laid out with an introduction and nine subsequent chapters.

- Chapter 1 - West Coast Battleship
- Chapter 2 - California is Christened
- Chapter 3 - To Sea!
- Chapter 4 - The Pearl Harbor Attack
- Chapter 5 - Salvage and Repair Operations
- Chapter 6 - Return to the Pacific
- Chapter 7 - Collision with USS Tennessee
- Chapter 8 - Return to Action
- Chapter 9 - Going Home!

The first 40+ pages of the book deal with California's origins - from design to slipway to launch, while the next 40 pages cover her pre-Pearl Harbor attack career. The section of the book covering the Pearl Harbor attack is quite short, but California's salvage and repair gets extensive coverage. The rest of the book deals with her service in the Pacific post-rebuild, through the end of her career through to her scrapping in 1959.

The book is full of great archival photographs from California's entire career, many of them showing interesting details. The photos of her under construction and fitting out are especially interesting. One of my favorites is the worker standing on the top of one of the spotting tops. For modelers, there are a lot of detail shots for those building this famous Tennessee-class battleship in either her original or re-built configuration.

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Conclusions:

David Doyle's latest entry into the "Legends of Warfare" series is another winner. It has lots of good info, over 400 pictures, along with line drawings and color profiles. This will appeal to both naval history buffs and modelers alike. It might even inspire some folks build a model of the last battleship built on the West Coast. Highly recommended.

This is USS California CV-10 - Legends of Warfare, by David Doyle. Published by Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7643-7085-4. The book retails for $29.99, and will soon be available to order directly from David's website. Thanks to David Doyle Books for the review sample.