Review by Felix Bustelo

Fletcher, Gearing and Sumner class destroyers were design and built to meet the United States Navy's need for newer, faster and more powerful destroyers. The Fletcher class became the backbone for the US Navy during World War II and the Gearings and Sumners were further advancements of the basic Fletcher design.

This 80 soft cover book can be thought of as a very good introduction to these three very important classes of destroyers. There is an excellent collection of photographs and illustrations (drawn by Jeff Herne and Alan Raven) that appear to have been selected with the modeler in mind. Each class has its own section in the book and these sections are broken down into basically the same format. Each section opens up with an introduction to the class and provides a brief discussion of the design and developmental history and table of specifications. Next, there is a section on camouflage schemes with black and white photos and captions explaining the measures shown. The following sections focus on ship details working from the bow to the stern. There are plenty of close-up photos and detailed line drawings of armament, radars and other components. Each section is wrapped up with a series of very crisp general arrangement plan and profile drawings that will surely assist the modeler with construction and super-detailing.

The Sumner portion has a section on minelayer conversions that were made to 12 ships in this class, with photos and plans showing details of what was done. A similar treatment is done for radar picket conversions to Gearing class destroyers. Photos and illustrations of details such as torpedo tubes, anti-aircraft guns and radars that are common to all three classes are presented only in the Fletcher section to eliminate redundancy.

The center eight pages of the book are in color and depict plan and profile drawings of various camouflage schemes. This color section is a great idea and certainly a bonus for a ship modeler.

The "appendices" to the book include a table listing all Fletcher, Gearing and Sumner ships built in hull number order and containing such data elements as name, commissioning date, camouflage scheme, wartime fate and general comments. The Fletcher table provides bridge type (round/square) for each ship and minelayer/radar picket conversion dates for the Sumners and Gearings respectively. It is not clear if the camouflage schemes listed in the tables are as of commissioning or the last measure used. There are two pages dedicated to stack emblems and an additional 11 pages of camouflage schemes in gray scales to finish the book.

Each class of destroyer could easily fill a book of this size, so my only criticism, and it is a minor one, is that the three classes can only be covered very broadly. However, Jeffrey Herne makes it quite clear in the forward to the book that a comprehensive study was not his intention. With this in mind, this volume make for a very good modelers reference and a starting point for anyone wishing to examine a specific class more thoroughly. The photographs are generally excellent, which makes it a good visual reference, but a few of the photos are distorted. These appear to be digital images that were enlarged but lost resolution in the process. In conclusion, this book is worth buying and would make a nice addition to your library. My thanks to WR Press for providing me this review copy.