Classic Warships Books
reviewed by Timothy Dike
Classic Warships is back with another Warship Pictorial. This one by Steve Wiper features the photo research of Ron Smith of AA-Military-Research.com and covers the Gato class and later Balao and Tench classes in great detail. 
Like the other books in the Warship Pictorial series, this one includes a bit of history, and follows up with some stunning photos. These photos many before never appearing in print,  show the Gato class from it's original construction to the final modifications. The close up views show a considerable amount of detail, and shed light on many things I never noticed about the Gato class boats. There are quite a few color photographs that are very high quality. I should point out that they are much higher resolution than what can be displayed on your computer screen. The photos are all well captioned and the items of interest are pointed out. I had a hard time picking out the photos to show in this review. There are so many good ones, but you will just have to buy the book as I am not posting them all! click to
enlarge images

Weapons drawings show the various deck guns that were used on the subs. A camo design sheet shows the Ms-32 paint scheme applied to many of these subs. A complete list of the Gato class is included with commission dates and their fates. A comparison of the Gato and Balao and Tench variants is included with the specifications of each type.

Conclusions:

Another excellent book for anyone interested in these Submarines. This book is 72 pages  with about 110 photographs, 24 of those in color. There are 7 drawings of the weapons and 1 camo design sheet. in a  8-1/4" x 11" soft book format. With a retail price of $18.00 US this book is an excellent value and a great addition to your Warship reference library. 

Warship Pictorial #28 Gato Type Fleet Submarines ISBN 0-9745687-7-5

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