This is the second volume on Imperial Japanese Navy destroyers that has been produced. It follows the format used by the first edition, however, it does not go into detail on the weapons carried by these ships as those were fully covered on the first volume.

What is covered are those ships built from 1935 until the end of the war. These initial ships of the Asashio class were built on the same principles of the earlier ships with the concentration being on night torpedo attack. Like the earlier ships, they performed superbly in this role but were weak in anti-air and anti-submarine operations. Eventually surviving ships got more A-A guns and more in the way of depth charges to combat the submarine threat, but for many it was too late.

Attrition in Japanese destroyers was difficult to make up, but as the war progressed, the later class of ships were more attuned to anti-air and anti-submarine operations. This was done in two ways. One was a reduction in the number of torpedo tubes carried. Another was in making smaller and somewhat slower ships whose primary role was fleet and convoy protection. Not really destroyer escorts, but then not really full fledged destroyers as in the past. These ships also finally got a decent multipurpose main gun, something the US had since the start of the war with their 5 inch guns. In fact, the Japanese 3.8 inch multipurpose guns were superior in range and hitting power to the US guns, but as frequently happens, their appearance came too late to be truly effective.

The classes of ship covered are the Asashio class , Kagero class, Yugumo class, the Shimikaze (this was a one off ship that was a sort of 'super destroyer' which was very fast and quite heavily armed, but expensive and time consuming to build so was a one off), Akizuke class and Matsu/Tachibana class. This latter class of destroyer ended up providing the only WWII era destroyer used by the JMSDF. While most wartime build ships were sunk, those that survived were given to the US, Great Britain, Soviet Union, and Nationalist China. It was China that made the greatest use of them with the US and Great Britain, generally expending the ships as targets. Attempts to preserve the Yukikaze, a Kagero class destroyer that survived every major naval battle or campaign of the war and was given to the Chinese failed in 1970 and it was scrapped so none are extant.

Each section of destroyer classes provides information on the ships in terms of how it differed from the previous classes of ship. Individual ship histories are provided, including the battles in which they fought and their eventual fate. There are a goodly number of period photos of each ship class and some great cutaways and art work that further enhance the book. In all, it is a must have for the IJN enthusiast and a most welcome addition to this series.

October 2013

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