I bought this book at a cheapie sale- got it for $20 and it is 300 pages, hard cover.
Has some interesting photographs, but also a number of mistakes and obvious errors.
At one stage, describing the action between the Bismark and the Hood and Prince of Wales it says what direction the British ships are heading. The next sentence describes the prince of Wales avoiding wreckage. It completely omits the action between the two forces.
It also describes HMS Renown as a “battleship” when it was a battlecruiser- a significant difference.
I run across errors pretty frequently in history books.
The Penguin History of the Second World War gives a similarly short shrift to battles, focusing more on policy. I found it dull, but I also found a stinker: the authors describe Nagumo transferring his flag at the battle of Midway because his carrier was torpedoed.
Now, it may have been torpedoed by the Japanese, to scuttle it, but it was destroyed solely by American dive bombers; no American torpedoes hit.
This isn’t a minor semantic point. The incredible bravery and sacrifice of the American torpedo bomber squadrons makes the poor performance of their flawed weapons one of the most poignant things about the battle. American tactics and equipment were changed as a result. This is also one of the best-known elements of the encounter at Midway; it instantly gave me a “WTH?” moment when I read the book.