The Imperial Japanese Navy of World War II surpassed the Allied and Axis fleets in innovation and technology. This title covers the 12 Japanese battleships that saw service between 1941 and 1945, including the mighty Yamato. Each class is considered in light of its design and construction, its armament and wartime modifications. The author, Mark Stille, uses primary sources and dramatic photographs to tell the story of these mighty battleships at war, including their major engagements during the raid at Pearl Harbor and the battle of Midway. The first English language book to include photographs from the prestigious Fukui Collection, this investigation will fascinate any naval enthusiast.
The battleships of the Kongō class were the oldest, smallest, and fastest battleships in the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII. Initially classified as battle cruisers, the lead ship in the class, Kongō, was built in England just prior to WWI. The remaining three ships in the class--Haruna, Kirishima, and Hiei--were all built and completed in Japan by 1915. All four ships were highly reconfigured in the 1920s, and they were reclassified as battleships in the 1930s. The four Kongō-class ships were the most active among the 12 WWII-era Japanese battleships and saw heavy combat throughout the war in such major campaigns as Pearl Harbor, Midway, Guadalcanal, and Leyte. All four ships were sunk by Allied forces by war's end. This book features rare Japanese primary source material, including numerous photos, line schemes, and detailed charts.
This photographic archive contains some 125 stunning images of the battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, many unfamiliar, some very rare. They constitute an archive that is pretty much without equal in publications in the West. The period covered is from the launch of Japan's first real contemporary battleship, Yashima, built by Armstrong's on the Tyne, up the final destruction of her fleet in the Pacific in 1945. During that time Japan built up the third largest navy in the world and, before the First World War, it was Britain that armed her at sea. All her dreadnoughts saw action the the Second World War, and of all these numerous ships only Nagato survived the conflict. She was to become a target in the Bikini A-bomb tests in 1946 Just as the ships were lost, so were the majority of photographic records, and relatively few images have come down to us. This selection from R A Burt's archive, represents therefore a remarkable portrayal of these ships, and the large format of the book combined with the quality of many of the images ensures that it offers the reader maximum detail and visual impact. Extended captions and ship specifications enhance its reference value and it is destined to become a 'must-have' volume for enthusiasts and modellers and for all those with an interest in the Second World.
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 62. Chapters: Battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Russo-Japanese War battleships of Japan, World War II battleships of Japan, World War I battleships of Japan, Japanese battleship Yamato, Kong class battlecruiser, Japanese battleship Haruna, Japanese battleship Kong, Japanese battleship Kirishima, Japanese battleship Hiei, Russian battleship Retvizan, Japanese battleship Mutsu, Japanese battleship Musashi, Japanese battleship Ise, Japanese battleship Mikasa, Japanese battleship Nagato, Kii class battleship, Design A-150 battleship, Japanese battleship Asahi, Number 13 class battleship, Japanese battleship Fus, Japanese battleship Fuji, Peresvet class battleship, Japanese battleship Hatsuse, Japanese battleship Hy ga, Japanese battleship Satsuma, Japanese battleship Shikishima, Japanese battleship Settsu, Japanese battleship Yashima, Japanese battleship Katori, Japanese ironclad warship Fus, Japanese battleship Kashima, Japanese battleship Aki, Japanese battleship Iwami, Japanese battleship Kawachi, Ise class battleship, List of battleships of Japan, Japanese battleship Sagami, Japanese battleship Tango, Japanese battleship Yamashiro, Chinese turret ship Zhenyuan, List of Japanese early battleships. Excerpt: Yamato ( ), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was the lead ship of the Yamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) main guns. Neither, however, survived the war. Laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941, Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States, Japan's main...
Japan entered World War II with the third-largest navy in the world, after those of Great Britain and the United States. The 18 heavy cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy were a combined force of large and powerful ships designed for attack rather than defense. Long, low to the water, heavy, and fast, they looked like no other nation's cruisers, with their flush decks and curved hulls, topped off with large, pagoda-like tower bridges. Designers of the heavy cruisers gave them a highly original arrangement of curved funnels, turrets, and masts. They were at once beautiful and deadly as they sliced through the waves on their way to Pacific battles. Packed with more than 90 black-and-white photos, six color profiles, and line drawings.
An highly illustrated examination of the key ships, tactics and operations of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the War in the Pacific in World War II. The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was the third most powerful navy in the world at the start of World War II, and came to dominate the Pacific in the early months of the war. This was a remarkable turnaround for a navy that only began to modernize in 1868, although defeats inflicted on the Russians and Chinese in successive wars at the turn of the century gave a sense of the threat the IJN was to pose. Bringing together for the first time material previously published in Osprey series books, and with the addition of new writing making use of the most recent research, this book details the Japanese ships which fought in the Pacific and examines the principles on which they were designed, how they were armed, when and where they were deployed and how effective they were in battle. The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War provides a history of the IJN's deployment and engagements, analysis of the evolution of strategy and tactics, and finally addresses the question of whether it truly was a modern navy, fully prepared for the rigors of combat in the Pacific. Illustrated throughout with photographs and detailed colour artworks, this is a valuable reference source for Pacific War enthusiasts and historians alike.
The idea of creating such an album dedicated to the battleships of World War Two had been born in the last dozen or so years. During this period, various concepts appeared in print, which were meant to present those beautiful ships in the form of a "condensed pill." Most of the contributions have been made by foreign authors who had had greater access to photographic references. It was not easy, because it was difficult to choose several photos illustrating the entire history of the battleship, starting from the moment of the keel laying and ending with its sinking. Then, in some cases it has a further history as a wreck resting on the seabed until today. Initially, we selected over 1,000 photos, which we had to give up because of the size of such an album. In the end, it was divided into two volumes, thanks to which the number of photos remained only slightly reduced. In the case of vessels with a large or interesting combat history, we tried to put more photos illustrating their operational activities. Some ships have a very limited number of photos included. The best example of this is the Japanese battleship "Musashi", of which only few photographs exist. Most of them come from private collections and it was very difficult to get permission to publish them. Despite these difficulties, it was possible to gather unique photographic material enriched with the brief combat records of individual battleships, which will hopefully allow the reader to trace their story. In the first volume, the author describes all the most important battleships from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Greece, Spain, Japan, France, and Germany.
