Warship Pictorial 43 - Alaska Class Cruisers
by Steve Wiper


 
 Reviewed by Martin J Quinn
November 2014

Classic Warship Publishing has released a new book, the 43rd in it's Warship Pictorial line.   This one focuses on the Alaska Class Cruisers - the United States Navy's Large Cruisers of World War II. 
This book features 72 pages with over 65 images - including six in color - of these handsome ships. 

The book is laid out familiar Classic Warship fashion, with a short section on the history of the class followed by the photographs.   There are less photos in this book than some of the other CW Pictorials, but the photos within are large, high quality photos showing lots of details.  These will be of great interest to fans of these ships, and a great help to modelers.     The photos of Alaska and Guam - the only two ships of the class to be completed and see service - take up the majority of the book.  In the back of the book, there are a few photos of the never completed Hawaii being fitted out at the NY Shipbuilding Yard in Camden NJ, along with a photo of her in the reserve basin and being towed off to be scrapped. 

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While the author lists a variety of sources, it looks like most of the photos are sourced from the National Archives.   I do wish that the book contained some profiles and drawings like Steve's earlier books.   A nice color profile of Guam in camouflage would be nice. 
Conclusions:

Since I can remember, I have loved the handsome lines of these ships.   For anyone who is a fan of this graceful looking class of warships, this is another must have book from Classic Warships Publishing.  With the high quality close up photos, this is will be a great addition to the reference library for both naval enthusiasts and scale-modelers alike.  This is Warship Pictorial 43 - Alaska Class Cruisers. Published by Classic Warships Publishing ISBN 978-0-9857149-8-7. Price is $18.00 US retail and it is available direct of from one of their vendors listed on the Classic Warships website. Grab your copy now before this one sells out. 
 

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