John Jordan, ed., Warship 2026 (Osprey, 2026)
Warship is an annual wide-ranging collection of articles written by notable experts in the field of maritime history. In this year’s edition, the subjects covered are an eclectic group: Russian Novik class destroyers; battle damage on RN fleet carriers during WWII; the inter-wars Imperial Japanese fleet; Imperial German torpedo boats; Allied escort forces in World War II; French 450-tonne destroyers; Royal Danish minesweepers; the capture of World War I German codebooks; Royal Navy training ships; the story of the Italian aircraft carrier Falco; and there is a useful and sometimes robust review section of the past year’s naval history books.
All of the articles take deep dives into their topics, making this a book primarily for the committed naval military history reader. However, they are well written and supplemented with a cornucopia of photographs, ship diagrams, and technical tables. The diversity of articles makes some more interesting than others, but there is something for everyone interested in this field. Warship is not an easy read, but it is a worthwhile one.
