The Battleship TIRPITZ. Vol.01 - The "beast" is born. (Oct.1936 / May.1941)

This first volume of a series addresses both building and fitting-out of the largest and most powerful European battleship of WWII. For this purpose, hitherto unpublished photographic material in high quality and quantity illustrates the life of this once proud and mighty warship.
After years of research and the evaluation of historic documents - such as the numerous war diaries of ships and other administrative bodies involved - nearly the entire range of photos could be associated to certain locations and their frames. Therefore the photos are chronologically arranged as if viewed in a time-lapse; from the ship's launch in Wilhelmshaven, its fitting-out and transfer to the Baltic Sea via the narrow Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal (Kiel Canal) and Hitler's visit and inspection of the ship in Gdynia (renamed Gotenhafen by the occupying Germans).
The photos are supplemented by detailed technical information and perspective illustrations depicting individual stages of fitting-out and camouflage scheme, plus maps showing the Wilhelmshaven and Gotenhafen port facilities and transfer routes in between. Furthermore, photos of past and present are shown side-by-side for comparison purposes in order to identify the individual berths and anchorages of the largest German battleship in service.
Despite having been a German warship, the battleship TIRPITZ - and of course her famous sistership BISMARCK - still receives worldwide attention today. For this reason German text and captions are accompanied by their respective English translations to make this historic period of German Kriegsmarine linguistically applicable to non-German readers.
274 b/w pictures, 11 original color pictures, 27 color pictures of today, maps of the port facilities as well as 12 pages with renders/computer-animated color drawings.