The Battleship Scharnhorst (Anatomy of The Ship)

The best reference material I have ever purchased

The "Anatomy of the Ship" series is dead. Long live the "Anatomy of the Ship" series! Once the domain of naval geeks like myself who really WOULD spend hours studying shell expansion plans and steam pipe arrangements, it has lately moved onto a more modern-day-audience-friendly format, with lots of slick 3D color renderings and less emphasis on "nerdy stuff." Unfortunately, I'm still not convinced it's a move in the right direction.Although I gave the revised "Bismarck" "AOTS" five stars, that final star was largely due to it being such a huge improvement over the 2005 edition. "Scharnhorst" doesn't have that extra wiggle room; although it's better than the "Iowa" anatomy, in a way, it's still a beautiful "Super Drawings in 3D" grafted onto a fairly decent, if somewhat clinically presented, "Anatomy of the Ship." Presentation-wise, it's extremely similar to Draminski's two other Anatomies. After a text introduction to the ship's design, armor, machinery, armament, fire control, etc., we get a fairly detailed breakdown of her history, from keel laying to the discovery of the wreck. Next up is 29 pages of "primary views," showing color views of "Scharnhorst" as she appeared at multiple points in her life. The next 257 pages represent the bread-and-butter of this series, combining black and white line drawings and 3D renderings of "General Arrangements," "Hull Structure" (a bit of a misnomer, as we'll discover), "Superstructure," "Armament," and so on.Although there's some inevitable overlap with the "Bismarck" anatomy, this one holds up fairly well in comparison. Rather than present the ship as if it were frozen in time, Draminski depicts it as a constantly changing entity. We see her as originally commissioned with a straight bow, after her first refit, during the invasion of Norway and the commerce raiding operations of March 1941, as modified for the Channel dash, and as sunk. The 3D models look pretty good for the most part but aren't quite as sharp and detailed as those in the "Bismarck" volume. Again, the drawings and renderings of general arrangements, armament, fire control devices, deck fittings, and aircraft are extremely good, the multiple sectional views of the 11" and 5.9" turrets being a highlight.It's here where things get a little sketchy. There's very little on the hull structure and machinery outside of what's described in the introduction, a fact which essentially ruined the Iowa AOTS. I know the Germans probably destroyed a large number of blueprints before the war ended, but surely the Polish government kept SOME information on the "Gneisenau" after scrapping her in the 50s? If you're expecting anything like the works of John Lambert, Ross Watton, or John Roberts regarding machinery and structure, you're going to be disappointed.Part of me wants to be sarcastic and say that if I wanted a glossy book of color photographs of superior German engineering, I'd pull my copy of Claudia Schiffer's self-titled photo book off the shelf instead. Griping aside, this book still does a fine job being a visual companion to this famous warship, although you'll still need a copy of the Koop/Schmolke book to put a lot of the material here in context. Unfortunately, I can't see this series ever returning to its roots.

Great Service books arrived in perfect condition fair prices still after all these years

I liked all of the illustrations.

this is a very detailed book with pic's and drawings plus text for anyone interested in ship warfare. this is a solid 10 book!!!

Though the price of these series are increasing their contents are much greater with 3D views....still consider it a small price to pay....Now we need one on the pocket battleships....

Terrific details and written history of the ship. Learned more from this book than any other about the Scharnhorst.

I received this magnificent tome in record time and was superbly impressed with the 3D color renditions throughout the book and its thoroughness with all the informantion that was avaiable to the author.I would have LOVED to have also seen the detailed drawings of its armor arrangement - close ups of the joins and how they were mounted and I hope they will be able to provide these for their 2nd print when it's due.This book will be paramount to model makers, as the color specs over time and supserstructure buildups are fabulousIn fact, some schematics I was able to get from Google, but I'm not sure how reliable they are.In short - if Skulski managed to provide highly detailed reference of much of the Yamato's armor joints and their reinforcement - from a ship lying on the bottom of the sea and of which nearly all of the drawings were destroyed by the Japanese at the end of the war, I'm sure following authors can proved the same for ships which are still about and of which drawings are readily available.

Stefan Draminski is to be congratulated on an excellent visual and technical study on the Third Reich’s ill-fated battleship Scharnhorst. The depth of detail is exemplary, not only in terms of the two-dimensional line drawings, but also the computer-generated full-colour perspective views. This is arguably the most detailed study of the Scharnhorst to be published. The quality of the drawings and three-dimensional illustrations are supported by a much deserved quality production - in terms of both paper and printing.The format follows the now well-established Anatomy of the Ship series, started by Conway Maritime Press, and now under the auspices of Osprey Publishing. The most significant difference between the original series and those now published by Osprey is the inclusion of full-colour three-dimensional illustrations. These add substantially to the reader’s understanding of the design and layout of the ship. Furthermore, these three-dimensional illustrations will help those less familiar with the reading of two-dimensional ship plans.The book starts with a summary history of the ship, her technical details and a chronological summary of her service career. This section is supported by numerous black-and-white photographs, some of which have not been widely published in the past. The opening section is followed by the general arrangement drawings, measured drawings of all fittings, and the colour illustrations. This is the major and most important part of the book.What is missing are details of the actual structure of the ship. Whilst the building of the Scharnhorst did not introduce any innovative building techniques, it would have made the book even more complete if structural drawings and illustrations had been included. However, this is a relatively minor omission, and probably of more interest to those studying naval architecture, even from an historical perspective. Unlike some books in the Anatomy series, there are also no large scale perspective illustrations of compartments such as the crew’s accommodation, and how they were fitted out. However, it could be that such detailed shipbulider’s draughts may not have survived the intensive RAF bombing campaign during the Second World War, when, for obvious reasons, German shipyards were a prime target.Also missing are detailed measured drawings and illustrations of the ship’s engines and auxiliary machinery. Some readers, particularly those who have the Conway Anatomy books by Ross Watton, will find this omission makes the Osprey books incomplete, and therefore not deserving of five stars. However, whilst the omission of machinery details does mean this new series is indeed less than complete, this does not of itself detract from the overall value of the new series, and the book under review in particular.The use of three-dimensional, full-colour illustrations covers every compartment and fitting, with extensive detail on the ship’s armament. In many cases the same section or fitting is shown from different viewpoints, making this an invaluable reference source for model makers and marine artists. An example of the level of detail may be found in the illustrations of the Arado AR196 floatplane. In addition to detailed and traditional line drawings, showing profile, plan, sections, etc, etc, including the catapult, there are no less than eleven three-dimensional illustrations of the aircraft!If there is one minor criticism about the three-dimensional, full-colour illustrations is that some are on the dark side, making it slightly difficult to differentiate details. This is particularly evident on the illustrations of the superstructure when the ship was camouflaged in 1942. This might be something the author could address in the future if he writes any further studies on individual ships. Obviously reading the book in good light is a solution!This book is highly recommended! It is, in one word, outstanding! And this reviewer hopes that the author, Stefan Draminski, will eventually turn his attention to a comparable study of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen! Or even a combined study on the Royal Navy’s C and D-class destroyers from the 1930s!

I have a couple of books in this series already so l knew what to expect; and I wasn't disappointed. The meticulous detail of these books is astounding, it must be a boon to model makers. If there is any one thing that's slightly disappointing it's the historical data and background history. There's an informative timeline but the rest of the ship's history is a bit brief. If I have one moan about this book it's the condition it arrived in. It had obviously been mishandled during the dispatch and delivery process. There was damage to the packaging and corresponding damage to the book cover. Annoying but not severe enough to warrant a return for replacement .

This book provides a good construction view of the Scharnhorst via period photos and a decent text but the meat of the book is the very detailed colour plan views of the ship from its construction, interior, and views of its component parts.The sectional views are all pc generated and are the main strength of the book , it is an exceptionally well put together work and presents very good value for money.

Fantastic book, well written, well printed and well illustrated.Worth every penny of my money and a delight to read and look at.Loads of information, loads of great pictures and 3D drawings, perfect model making referrence.

Good reference book. Part of a great series for those with a technical interest or modelling interest in the ships features.