Review by Felix Bustelo

The Royal Navy used camouflage extensively during World War II, and by 1942 some semblance of standardization was beginning to materialize. This was in contrast with the earlier years of the war, when there were many unofficial schemes mixed in the Admiralty approved patterns. Alan Raven has spent nearly 35 years researching and documenting Royal Navy camouflage using a variety of sources. The Warship Perspectives title Camouflage Volume Two: Royal Navy 1942 is the second of four proposed volumes that will be the end result of his efforts. Over 90% of the material presented in this volume have never been published before and, like the previous title, is a wellspring of information for modelers of World War II Royal Navy ships.

This soft cover 56-page book is crammed with over 170 original pieces of artwork and 16 photos depicting camouflage pattern used on various ships during 1942. For the ships that had different schemes on port and starboard sides, images are provided for both when the information was available. An eight-page section in the middle of the book contains 32 schemes in color and some additional color artwork appears on the front and back covers. When possible, dates when the schemes were utilized are provided as well as colors used on horizontal surfaces.

Nearly identical in layout with the first volume, this book goes through an almost chronological study of the different design classes starting to appear during 1942. The book covers Admiralty Class Disruptive Designs, Admiralty Disruptive Designs for Individual Vessels, Special Emergency Fleet Schemes, Western Approaches Schemes and Variants and some Unofficial Designs.

The book concentrates on patterns worn by cruisers, destroyers and corvettes with a smattering of aircraft carriers and battleships. Of special note are the fascinating deck camouflage schemes worn by the HMAS Hobart at the Battle of Coral Sea and the U.S. built escort carrier HMS Avenger. Also noteworthy is the unique 5 color Western Approaches scheme worn by the HMS Honeysuckle for only four months in 1942.

The book also contains a Volume 1 errata section, which includes starboard pattern artwork for HMS Sheffield and HMS Formidable and the port pattern artwork for HMS London that were omitted inadvertently in Volume 1. The errata section also has corrections to two captions from the first volume.

This book is an excellent resource for modelers wishing to accurately paint your Royal Navy World War Two ship models. I am looking forward to the additional volumes that will complete this set because they will be one of the more valuable references in my library. My thanks go to WR Press for providing this review sample.