198 Imperial Japanese Navy Destroyers 1919-45 (1) -- Minekaze to Shiratsuyu Classes

1-995198

This volume details the history, weapons, and tactics of the Japanese destroyers, including the famous Fubuki class (called 'Special Type' by the Japanese) -- the most powerful class of destroyers in the world. This design forced all other major navies to follow suit and provided the basic design for the next many classes of Imperial Navy destroyers.

This book also covers 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.