Imperial Japanese Navy Battleships 1941-45

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Imperial Japanese Navy Battleships 1941-45
Author: Mark Stille
Softcover - 96 pages
Publisher: Osprey
Series: New Vanguard 146
Price: £9.99
ISBN: 9781846032806

Introduction

The latest instalment in Osprey's rapidly expanding New Vanguard covers a truly wonderful maritime subject matter - the Japanese battleship. This subject matter needs no introduction. Almost all modellers will be familiar with the mighty super-dreadnoughts, the HIJMS Yamato and Musashi; scale model examples of which regularly appear at model shows around the world. However, how many modellers are familiar with the four other classes of dreadnought battleship that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy? Not many outside of Japan I wager. This concise study provides a welcome, single volume overview on this subject. It certainly demystified the subject for me - I had always assumed that the Imperial Japanese Navy enjoyed a numerical superiority in battleships, which turns out to be far from the truth.

The study's author is retired US Navy Commander Mark Stille, who has written a number of maritime related studies for the New Vanguard series, including titles on Imperial Japanese Navy carriers and submarines. Whilst the author clearly has considerable knowledge on nautical matters and writes in a highly readable style, which I like, he display a bias towards his parent service, the US Navy. This occasionally gets in the reader's way. Commander Stille's text is ably supported by artwork from Tony Bryan, who is another old hand from the New Vanguard fleet.

Contents

This study follows the standard format for New Vanguard maritime studies, with a selection of chapters/ discreet sections devoted to each class of warship. These appear in chronological order of commissioning - so far, so good. The added value of this study is the contextual overview of Japanese maritime history, doctrine, warship development and military psychology all of which are provided within the introduction. One of the big questions, which had always troubled me, was why did the Japanese build such huge battleships in parallel to their innovative development of aircraft carrier technologies?

Commander Stille eloquently explains the historical importance of the battleship within Japanese culture; something that dates back to the early part of the Twentieth century when Japan was an emerging Imperial power challenging the might of Imperial Russia. The twin fears of letting go of history (namely, the dependence on the battleship as a symbol of Imperial might), and the apparent threat posed by the US Navy's numerically superior battleship fleet, effectively drove the Imperial Japanese Navy to an ironic arms race, which saw the perverse development of both the world's greatest battleship and carrier forces.

The development of Japan's super-dreadnoughts, the Yamato and Musashi, was the Imperial Navy's logical response to the US Navy's larger battleship fleet. Japan, a much smaller nation than the USA, could never compete in a simple numbers game.

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Consequently, their logic was that quality, in terms of larger heavily armed and armoured super-battleships, would undo the quantity of the opposing US Navy. Reading between the lines, Commander Stille acknowledges the battleship superiority that resulted from this doctrine. However, history clearly demonstrates that the Imperial Japanese Navy should have concentrated its production efforts on a stronger carrier force. The first battleship class, the Kongo Class (originally commissioned as battlecruisers), examined by this study, displays further irony, in that the lead ship of the class (the Kongo) was actually designed and built by the British shipbuilder Vickers at Barrow.

The Japanese built three further ships in this class and progressively updated and up-armoured them throughout the 1920s and 1930s, turning them from relative weak battlecruisers to full battleships. The development of this class by the Imperial Navy makes an interesting comparison to Royal Navy's surviving battlecruiser force; HMS Hood, Renown and Repulse, which readers will know suffered horrifically due to their lack of heavy armour plate.

The next chapter covers, for me, the true iconoclast Japanese battleship class - the Fuso. At the time of their completion, in 1915, the Fuso and her sister the Yamashiro were the largest and most warships in the world, carrying an extremely heavy armament of twelve 14in. main guns and a secondary armament of sixteen 6in. guns. Both ships underwent significant refits during the 1930s, which raised their armour and displacement 42 percent of their original tonnage. Their appearance also changed with the addition of the characteristically Japanese 'pagoda-style' tower, which gave them an extremely intimidating appearance. Both of these great ships were lost, with horrific loss of life, during the Battle for Leyte Gulf (October 1944).

The following chapter addresses the uniquely Japanese Ise Class. Dimensionally similar to earlier Fuso Class, the Ise and Hyuga have the distinction of being the world's only battleship-carriers. Heavily modified during wartime, the two ships were transformed from their conventional super-dreadnought configuration to provide the Imperial Japanese Navy with fast, heavily armed and armoured carriers, capable of carrying a useful complement of 22 aircraft. The wartime history of these two ships makes particularly insightful reading. One would assume that the misguided modifications to the class would have made them sitting ducks for marauding US Navy. Whilst the two ships ultimately did suffer at the hands of the US Navy's submarine and aircraft forces, the huge amount of effort and expended ordnance needed to sink these two giants makes an interesting comparison to the US Navy battleships sunk at Pearl Harbour.

The penultimate chapter covers the Nagato Class, comprised of the twin sisters Nagato and Mutsu. These two ships, commissioned in 1920, again upped the battleship ante by being the first battleship class to mount 16in. main guns. As with the classes, the two Nagato ships underwent significant modifications during the 1930s. As with the previous two classes, the most noticeable change being the addition of the tall pagoda-like tower to the main forward superstructure. The purpose of these pagoda towers were to increase the spotting and sighting range of the main armament - a vain attempt to provide the Imperial Navy with the ability to shoot first when confronted by the shorter-ranged US Navy battleships. The irony is that the Imperial Navy's gunnery deficiency effectively cancelled out any long-range advantage that may have been provided by their warships heavier armament and long distance ranging.

The study's final chapter deals with the Yamato Class, which needs no introduction. Arguably, the mightiest warships the world has ever seen. The raw statistics speak for themselves. The ships' total weight of armour was 22,534 tons or 33.1 percentage of their total displacement. Their awesome 18in. main armament was encased in turrets weighing in at a simply staggering 2,774 tons - the equivalent weight of a fleet destroyer! Whilst neither ship saw the level of action experienced by the Imperial Navy's other battleships, when they finally saw action the amount of punishment that they absorbed is almost unbelievable. Reading between the lines, the author is clearly impressed - in order to sink the Yamato the US Navy launched over 400 carrier aircraft. Not one single US Navy (dive) bomb penetrated the Yamato's armour. The Yamato's fate was finally sealed after receiving below waterline hits from between 11 to 13 aerial torpedoes - undone by the technology originally perfected by the Imperial Navy.

Conclusion

This is a wonderful book. It sets out clearly and concisely the development of the Japanese battleship from the initial Vickers designed Kongo battlecruiser, through to the uniquely Japanese super-dreadnaughts that are symbolic of the sea war in the Pacific. Although this study has modeller written all over, it best serves as a primer to the subject - there are specific and detailed studies available on the individual ship classes.

However, if you're new to model ship building and looking for an introduction to the battleships of the Imperial Navy then this is a must buy book. Salty seadogs will also find much of interest; it does provide a useful one- stop-shop service for facts and figures. It also has the added advantage of being in English - useful, as many of the established texts on this subject are either in Japanese, or curiously in Polish.

My thanks to Osprey for providing the review sample.

For full information on all Osprey Publishing titles, please see their website: Osprey Publishing