Brown’s German Destroyers masterfully presents the Kriegsmarine’s destroyer classes in a coherent and thorough manner with a plethora of photographs, line drawings, ship model images and camouflage scheme examples. In particular, German Destroyers offers a stunning visual reference, which augments other works about the Kriegsmarine in a rewarding manner. His attention to detail matches the superlative claim from the back cover, providing an “unparalleled level of visual information.” This effort of the impressive ShipCraft series is a one-stop reference for not only modelers, but also historians and general naval enthusiasts who appreciate the varied methods to gain a deeper insight into the German destroyers that bore the brunt of the April 1940 bitter fighting in Narvik and served until the end of the war.

Read the full review here

Naval Historical Foundation

As featured on FineScale Modeler

FineScale Modeler

The closing sections are probably of most use to builders as they provide information on configuration, camouflage, vessel modifications and upgrades (including weapons - notably anti-aircraft guns), plus scale drawings of all German destroyer types.

Airfix Model World October 2019

German Destroyers is a well edited, beautifully presented book that’s calling out to all warship modellers to be added to their reference library.

Read the full review here

Vintage Airfix

Featured in

Ton Class Assc

reviewed by John Deamer for

Model Boats, June 2019

Well written and informative, if you have any interest in modelling German World War Two destroyers, or the Kriegsmarine in general, you will not be disappointed in this book.

Recommended!

Neil Robinson, IPMS, 2019

Brown’s survey of German destroyers is quite thorough for the size of this book, and he adds a little bibliography if readers want to dig further. The models steal the show, but the colour plates, photographs, and diagrams all add to the quality of this work. German Destroyers is therefore a very useful book for modellers, naval wargamers, and anyone interested in how the kriegsmarine operated in practice.

See the full review here

Wargames Illustrated, Neil Smith, 2019, German Destroyers

A practical and very interesting volume for modern ship modelers and subject-to-the-top ship lovers.

Read the full Spanish review here

Miniaturas JM

Throughout the book there are excellent photographs used to illustrate the ships and their details, and these are extremely well reproduced on the high quality gloss finish pages.
All the known kits from in scales 1/1250 to 1/250 are reviewed, including those that are no longer in production, along with a wide range of aftermarket detail sets. The detailing of mistakes in some of the kits is very useful to anybody thinking about building one. Inspiration for modellers can be found in the example models used to illustrate how the destroyers can be modelled, including some interesting ideas for conversions. This is where the many photographs are very supportive as they show the variations that emerged as the classes developed, and as ships refitted during their lives. To assist there are three pages of colour schemes, four pages of line drawings and most ships have a listing of changes made. Further references are given in the bibliography.
This is another terrific, inexpensive and handy book for anybody wishing o build models of these ships, and also for those who just want quick and easy to read reference book.

IPMS Battleship Group

Well written and informative, if you have any interest in modelling German World War Two destroyers, or the Kriegsmarine in general, you will not be disappointed in this book.
Recommended.

IPMS Magazine March-April 2019

A fine reference with plenty of inspiration for modellers in particular, and a history reference that is very good value for money.

Read the full review here

Military Model Scene, Robin Buckland

There are high quality plans of German destroyers and side views in camouflage. The amount of information on the subject is considerable and well-presented.

Read the full review here

Firetrench

This book has some exceptional work which appears almost to be photographs while actually are models, it’s quite brilliant. Robert Brown is his text German Destroyers covers the full run of production ships in the early and late German destroyer line while simply nailing the modelers view of what available and new and pushes the boundaries of model building and display. It is a start to finish winner insomuch as it details the line of little explored vessels with great historical detail and showing off some stellar skill work and display ideas.

For the Kriegsmarine enthusiast or general modeler the book is I strongly feel a must have as it really nails both the background and accuracy of these ships. The models add a layer of depth which I found to be stunning in their sheer display brilliance while showing off superb paint and detail aspects.

The lengthy construction and service period is explored in a concise review as well as each ships finishing status and is very solid scholarship. This book creates a substantial quality of information versus invested time of reading commitment. While jumping into the scale modeling set I found a great deal of depth using the book material over and over again to create better detailed aspects of a ship’s build.

Fantastic book for the serious student, the casual historical reader or those who recreate history via scale modeling. I would highly recommend German Destroyers as a fantastic study of the vessels or in getting right down to the nuts and bolts of an actual build and how to expertly present it. This book will vastly improve your work with its many levels of tips and suggestions. It is a great addition to the German Naval enthusiast’s library as well as a great historical study of the Axis Naval Destroyers.

Richard Wade, Military Historian

I found this book great for the amount of information in both the text, and captions, on a subject I knew little. Of The Kriegsmarine usually we are accustomed to hear about the U-Boats or the big armoured ships like the Bismarck. It was very interesting to read about these small ships with small big flaws.

Read the full Italian review here

Old Barbed Wire Blog

A very attractive and useful publication.

Read the full review here

A Question Of Scale, Seb Palmer

Excellent for all sorts of reasons...

Watch the full video review here

Scale Modelling Now

These ships were the largest destroyers of their day and Robert Brown's 'German Destroyers' is a must for model makers. A book packed with nuggets of information, illustrations, photographs and a description of each fighting ship and weapons. Giving model makers an unparalleled level of visual information with paint schemes , models, line drawings and photographs.

Richard Gough, Military Author and Historian