ISBN 1-55750-280-3
210 pages

Preface; photos; maps; tables; diagrams; Sources; Acknowledgments; Index

Appendices: Number of DEs by Class and Disposition; Statistical Data of Buckley-Class Ships; Monthly Totals of Buckley-Class Production and Service Deployment; German and Japanese Submarines Credited to Buckley-Class Ships; Buckley-Class Ships that Sustained Heavy Damage or Were Lost; U.S. Navy Escort Divisions and Royal Navy Escort Groups Containing Buckley-Class Ships

   More than one-hundred-fifty Buckley-class Destroyer Escorts were constructed during World War II, making it the most numerous of all DE classes. They served with four different Navies during the war, fought on the Atlantic and Pacific, some saw service in Korea, and in the post-war years individual vessels ended up in the possession of Chile, Taiwan, Ecuador, Mexico, Columbia, and other nations.
   Bruce Franklin has assembled a wonderful, extremely informative book about the Buckley-class DEs. This is a perfect blend of scholarly research, careful analysis, telling commentary from wartime sailors in sidebars, well-chosen photos, ships' histories, and statistical data.
   The book opens with the story of the historical background that necessitated the development of DEs for convoy escort and anti-submarine warfare duties in the Atlantic and how the Buckleys were developed, authorized, funded, and constructed. The second chapter carefully reviews the design and armament of the warships, with excellent detail (and photographic illustrations) on the shipyards and weapons systems. This chapter also includes deck plans and quite a bit of information on radar systems. Various conversion programs -- notably re-fitting numbers of DEs as high-speed transports (APDs) -- are covered in chapter three along with weapons upgrades; British conversion programs and post-war developments are also included.
   The lengthy fourth chapter provides an overview of the WWII service history of the class. The first Buckleys were delivered for service in April 1943 and the first one arrived at New Caledonia in the Pacific at the end of the year. While the first U-boat sinking by a Buckley -- and it was DE 51, the Buckley itself, that made the kill -- didn't occur until May 1944, in the meantime sister ships began participating in escort duties and ASW hunter-killer groups in increasing numbers. Buckleys also supported the Anzio beachhead (with electronic countermeasures equipment for jamming German radio-controlled glide bombs), took part in the invasions of Normandy and southern France, assaulted the Philippines, and in the last months of the war suffered numerous kamikaze hits plus a single kaiten, or human-piloted suicide torpedo, strike which sank the Underhill.
   As with the earlier sections, the service history chapter also includes a judicious sprinkling of brief, often poignant sidebars featuring recollections of wartime experiences as gathered from sailors by the author. Especially notable are the diary entries of Donald Tillotson aboard the Bowers when it is hit by a kamikaze in April 1945. His entries end at Pearl Harbor in May: "Got our first fresh milk in over a year. Nothing ever tasted so good."
   The next seventy-five pages provide a ship-by-ship look at the Buckley class with name and hull number (plus later names and British pennant numbers where applicable), who the ship was named for and why, a paragraph of information about service, conversions, and interesting facts, and -- without exception -- a photograph.
   In addition to all this text and all these photos, Franklin has assembled an impressive array of statistics in several tabular appendices. Perhaps most impressive of all is the ship-by-ship listing which shows -- as appropriate -- hull number as DE, hull number as APD, USN name, RN name, RN pennant number, yard where built, dates laid, launched, and commissioned, date converted to APD, theater(s) served, date of decommissioning and date struck, and abbreviated remarks noting, for example, special weapons, special duties, transfers to foreign navies, Korean War service, etc.
   Very well done and highly recommended to anyone with an interest in warships or the war at sea.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Naval Institute Press.
   Thanks to NIP for providing this review copy.