- Chapter  1 - Pre-War Years
- Chapter  2 - World War II and Loss

The book begins with a brief introduction, which described Lexington's aborted start as a battlecruiser, one of six planned ships.   The class were to be heavily armed, fast and lightly armored.   However, the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 ended those dreams.  When the treaty was signed, there was a provision that allowed two unfinished capital ships to be converted into aircraft carriers.   The navy chose Saratoga, which was 28% complete, and Lexington, which was 24% complete, for the conversions.  Constellation was 22% complete, but scrapped along with the other ships in the class. 

While there is text and history in various spots throughout the book, the bread and butter of these Legends of Warfare books are the photographs, and this has lots of them - over 200.   The bulk of the book focuses on Lex's pre-World War II (pre-war from the American point of view) service, when she, Sister Sara and Langley helped develop US carrier doctrine and tactics.  The last, shorter, chapter deals with Lex's service from Pearl Harbor to Coral Sea. 

The book is full of great photographs,  including some that I have not seen before.   There are also line drawings and a good number of color profiles of the different aircraft Lexington carrier in her career, including a Martin T4M, Curtiss F6C-3 Hawk, Martin BM-1 torpedo bomber, Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator, among others.   The book also includes a few photos of the wreck, which was discovered in March, 2018 by the late Paul Allen's team of explorers.   Among the artifacts found in the wreckage were seven Douglas TBD-1 Devastators - none of which are known to exist above the ocean's depths. 

Another  great, high-quality book from David Doyle, which is an expansion of the authors previous publication on Lexington.  It has lots of interesting info - did you know that Japanese aircraft entered the Lex's landing pattern on the evening of May 7, 1942, mistaking her and Yorktown for Zuikaku and Shokaku? - and many of fine pictures.  Fans of the legendary Lady Lex, and naval history fans in general, will both like this book.  For modelers, there are lots of detail shots for those wishing to build a model of a pre-war Lexington.  It will also be a good companion to the author's recent book on Lexington's sister ship, Saratoga.  Highly recommended!

This is USS Lexington, CV-2 - Legends of Warfare, by David Doyle.   Published by Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7643-6490-7.   The book retails for $24.99, and is available to order directly from David's website.   Thanks to David Doyle Books for the review sample.