Wednesday, 20 May 2020

Russians and Turks Afloat


Paddle steamers, ironclads, spar torpedoes and the Mesudiye in her original configuration - what’s not to love?

There is a tale behind this and it is one to tell your grandchildren (and mightily bored they will be). The Russo Turkish War is one of those conflicts that for me probably has more potential than was actually historically realised. It is a conflict in a long and depressing sequence (especially for Turkey) between two antagonists that routinely displayed bravery, heroism, stoicism and criminal incompetence depending on which day of the week it was.

I enjoy all these facets of a conflict and so having an insight to the naval dimensional well is all to the good in my opinion.

I bounced a fairly innocuous comment off of David Manley - my ‘go to’ oracle on matters naval related - about the war and he pointed me at the above book. This was duly ordered (courtesy of the balance of an Amazon gift card) and arrived today.

I was really surprised by a couple of points concerning this book. To begin with it is roughly A4 sized  - I don’t know why but I expected something akin to an Osprey campaign style title - and it is also around half an inch thick, albeit a soft back (which is a shame).

What an absolute treasure this is! Aside from details of the naval operations of the war there is a whole raft of information about the ships involved supported by numerous line drawings, maps and technical details.

I have been messing about with some scratch built models for the war and so this book is a really timely addition to the library - especially as the side profiles of the ships involved will help with the models.

Very highly  recommended and my thanks to David Manley for bringing it to my attention - cheers old chap!

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6 comments:

  1. Robert (Bob) Cordery20 May 2020 at 17:57

    David,

    This looks like a great book, and I’ve followed your example and bought a copy!

    All the best,

    Bob

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  2. Jim Jackaman20 May 2020 at 18:24

    The other books in the series are also excellent..especially the Russo Japanese ones.

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  3. Peter Douglas20 May 2020 at 21:29

    Not a title that I was aware of. Lots of good potential in the war, plus the Royal Navy forcing its way through the Dardanelles. Enjoy.
    What m Odell are available? What rules?

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  4. David Crook21 May 2020 at 09:27

    Hi Bob,

    You will certainly not be disappointed! I am using it in conjunction with the River Gunboat encyclopedia for the models I am planning.

    All the best,

    DC

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  5. David Crook21 May 2020 at 09:29

    Hi Jim,

    I have seen the others but am resisting for the time being. Having said that there is one in particular that caught my eye....

    All the best,

    DC

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  6. David Crook21 May 2020 at 09:32

    Hi Peter,

    Great to hear from you old chap and I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

    As far as I know there are no specific models available yet but I am looking at scratchbuilds or making use of some ACW types. For rules then there are some rules from the indefatigable Mr Manley or a variant of Bob Cordery’s Gridded Naval Wargames would also work.

    Take care and all the best,

    DC

    ReplyDelete