Imperial Japanese Navy Destroyers 1919–45 (1)

Minekaze to Shiratsuyu Classes

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Author: Mark Stille
Illustrator: Paul Wright

This 48 page paperback is book 198 in the New Vanguard series of books available from Osprey Publishing.

This volume will detail the history, weapons and tactics of the Japanese destroyers built before the war. This includes the famous Fubuki class (called “Special Type” by the Japanese, which were, when completed in the late 1920’s, the most powerful class of destroyers in the world. This design forced all other major navies to follow suite and provided the basic design for the next many classes of Imperial Navy destroyers. This book will also cover the three classes built before the Special Type which were based on a German World War I design as well as two classes built after the advent of the Special Type. All of these ships had a rich history as they fought from the first battles of the Pacific War up until the very end when several accompanied the superbattleship Yamato on her death sortie. The final part of the book will be an analysis of the destroyer designs covered in the book which will include an examination of their strengths and weaknesses. The success (or lack of success) of these designs will be discussed and they will be compared to comparable Allied destroyer designs.

The contents of this book are;

  • Introduction
  • Japanese Naval Strategy and the Role of the Destroyer
  • Japanese Destroyer Design Principles
  • Japanese Destroyer Weapons
  • Minekaze Class
  • Kamikaze Class
  • Mutsuki Class
  • Fubuki Class
  • Akatsuki Class
  • Hatsuharu Class
  • Shiratsuyu Class
  • Analysis and Conclusion
  • Bibliography
  • Index

This is an excellent reference book for the ship modeler, wargamer or historian who has an interest in Japanese World War II destroyers. Within the pages of this book the reader will find full color artwork, illustrations, cutaway artwork, and photographs of the destroyer classes covered.

This book is available from Osprey Publications

Paperback    $19.00

eBook ePub $15.20

eBook PDF   $15.20

 

MSRP UK £9.99/ US $17.95/ CAN $18.95

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