Military Model Scene

Title: Yamato
Author: Daniel Knowles
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN: 978-1-78155-814-0

Sub-titled 'Flagship of the Japanese Imperial Navy', the life and death of this huge battleship of WW2. A new 192-page hardback book from author Daniel Knowles and publisher Fonthill Media.
One of the most famous vessels of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) of WW2, this tells us the detailed story of the ship, from design, service career and her final sacrifice in what was intended to be a suicide mission against the US invasion fleet at Okinawa. It takes us through the political background to the decision to build this huge new battleship, along with her sister ship the Musashi. A huge ship, fast despite her size, and armed with the heaviest main guns to be found on any battleship. Even the efforts to keep the size of the main guns secret are explained, and they were quite extreme. The Yamato was equipped with 9x 18.1in guns, bigger than the 16in guns seen on both US and Royal Navy ships. The anatomy of the Yamato is detailed, covering armament, armour protection, engines and more. Then there is the service history, which despite other tasks it carried out, only once did it actually engage enemy warships with her main guns, at the Battle of Leyte Gulf and poor command choices contributed to that not being as decisive as it might have been. Damaged, it was repaired and in 1945 was to be used in what was planned to be a one-way trip to disrupt the US landings on Okinawa. On the way there, she was attacked by some 280 US carrier aircraft. Along with the the many archive images that illustrate the book throughout, there are a couple of colour profiles which show just how many torpedo hits she took, let along bomb hits, before exploding with the loss of over 3,000 of her crew. The final elements of the book sets out the special place the ship has in the Japanese memory of WW2, with details of the efforts made to locate the wreck and the memorial museum that has been built which houses a huge 1/10 model of the vessel.
I found this a well detailed and very readable account of the life of one of the world's largest ever battleships. Her design was amazing, though ultimately she succumbed to air power, the lesson that Japan had taught the Royal Navy in 1941 with the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, came home and cost them the flagship of the IJN. Definitely recommended.
Thanks to Fonthill Media for our review copy.

Robin