USS Lexington, Squadron Publications at Sea

[Shar2]

USS Lexington
Squadron At Sea book

This book, another in the series of Squadron at Sea, this time concentrating on the life, and death of the carrier USS Lexington. Originally designed, and in fact construction had started, as a battlecruiser armed with eight sixteen inch guns and fitted with engines that produced 180,000hp giving her a speed of 35 knots. Her keel was laid down in 1921at the Fore River shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts. Unfortunately due the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 the plans for the four battlecruisers of the class were cancelled. As the Treaty stated, two ships currently under construction were allowed to be converted to aircraft carriers. Thus, the Lexington and Saratoga were saved and conversion started almost immediately whilst the Constellation and Ranger were scrapped on the stocks. Lexington was launched on 3rd October 1925, once completed she was commissioned on 14th December 1927.

As is the format of these series of books there is a potted history as the introduction with annotated photographs showing the construction as both a battlecruiser and the conversion to an aircraft carrier. The rest of the book is filled with 235 annotated photographs covering the whole career of the Lady Lex, through her refit of 1937, the removal of her four 8” gun turrets in March 1942, and her demise in May 1942. Whilst all the photographs are in black and white, there are still very evocative of the times with some excellent detail shots that would prove very useful for the maritime modeller. There are also fourteen colour plates of the ships air compliment throughout her career and of the ship itself, with descriptive text telling of how the Naval paint schemes varied and were made up.

Conclusion

This is another great book from Squadron publications. Whilst the text is mainly made of notes under each photograph, there is a lot of information, a lot of which was new to me. There are one or two typographic errors, but they are very minor. If building either Trumpeter 1:350 or 1:700 kits, this book will be invaluable. The information given about the differences between the Lexington and the Saratoga, means that it would be possible to build either ship at almost any point in their careers through the transfer of parts. I can recommend this book whole heartedly.

[Antoine]

Thanks for the review.

I'll get the book AND the kit!!!

By the way, I know that they're quite old, but did you already review those trumpeter kits?

[Shar2]

Hi Antoine. No I'm afraid they haven't been reviewed on here to my knowledge. I do have both kits plus all the add-ons and will probably be building one of them for the USN GB.

[Antoine]

Have booth kits?

So now it´s time for a new review!

Just joking.

IIRW, both kits were released well before BM started to do reviews.

[Shar2]

Yes they were Antoine, but if you'd like and I get some time I could do a quick in-box review.

[Antoine]

That would be kind of you.

But take your time.

About the book, to get an inside look of some of the different camo options?

At least if there are more than one, I'm not so sure due to the ship´s short career.