Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921–45 (New Vanguard Book 109) Kindle Edition

This is a concise overview of Japanese aircraft carriers during World War II. As such, it does an excellent job of considering their shortcomings and strengths, noting for instance that no Japanese carrier started the war with its own radar.Also, while all Osprey New Vanguard books tend to have great illustrations, the artwork here is fabulous even buy those high standards.

Osprey New Vanguard #109, Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921-45, zeroes in on the carriers of the Japanese Navy before and during WWII. As such it does a very good job of giving the reader an overview of Japanese naval warfare in WWII.I thought Mark Stille has given us a good account of Japanese carriers as the evolved from the first attempts in the 1920's through wartime carriers. The author gives the reader a good idea of some of the philosophies that drove Japanese carrier design. Some of their carriers were, like the US carriers USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, originally laid down as battleships or battle cruisers and converted to carriers as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty.Their construction gives the reader some insight into why the IJN carriers suffered mortal wounds a US-made carrier could have survived, such as the construction of their aviation fuel tanks and fuel lines. I think the author did a good job of showing how IJN carrier design changed over time. He also showed the poor anti-aircraft armament these carriers were equipped with.The author gives a brief operational history of the Japanese carrier force from the war in China through the early war in the Pacific through their complete destruction as the industrial might of the US out-produced Japan in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Although Osprey books cannot give the reader a really in-depth treatment of any subject, they do a good job of giving a reader the essentials.I thought this was a good book which gave me a good, basic understanding of Japanese carrier design and operational history. I recommend this book with four stars.

Very good summary of Japanese aircraft carrier design and approach to aircraft carrier operations and ship and aircraft handling on board. The book doesn't goive much more detail on the ships than is provided in A. J. Watts and B. G.Gordon's book The Imperial Japanese Navy. For the best account of Japanese ship handling and airplane handling on board their aircraft carriers, you must read Shattered Sword by Jonathon Parshall and Anthony Tully. If you already have those two books, then you probably don't need to get this one. Still, it gives a good summary for 48 pages. It also contains quite a few photos of the Japanese aircraft carriers that I had never seen before. It also gives a nice discussion of the conversion of the seven passenger liners and five seaplane tenders / auxiliaries to aircraft carriers.

"Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921-1945", by Mark Stille and illustrated by Tony Bryan, is a short (48 page) overview of the Japanese Fleet Carriers, Light Carriers, and Escort Carriers used by the Japanese Navy from the early 20's until the end of World War II. As the author notes in his introduction, it does not cover the Japanese seaplane carriers or hybrid carriers, which were not really carriers in the traditional sense, so I can agree with their not being included in this short book.The author provides a short summary of every carrier class (and individual carriers within that class) for all 25 Japanese carriers. He notes when they were built, how they were used operationally, what upgrades were made to them, and what each ship's eventual fate was. He also provides a brief analysis of which classes were successful and which weren't. The book also includes many black and white pictures of the carriers, as well as some eye-popping illustrations.My only complaint is that Osprey Publishing's New Vanguard format for "weapons" is limited to 48 pages, and that really isn't long enough for this topic, in my opinion. This isn't the author's fault, of course, and he does a very good job of providing a relevant overview and offering a lot of detailed information in such a small package. However, this format is too small to allow much in the way of describing of actual operations of the carriers, for example, so the book comes off a bit "dry", again through no fault of the author. IMHO, if Osprey allowed another 20 or 30 pages of content, it would have made an excellent book into an outstanding one.I strongly recommend this book if you're looking for a good technical overview of the Japanese Carriers from the World War II era, or for actual carrier photographs and great illustrations if you're a modeler. Four stars

Good engineering overview of Jap carriers. Was hoping for some more stories of combat operations and campaigns these ships were involved in. As it was these were only touched on to illustrate the vulnerability of the individual ship designs. Color plates were helpful to supplement the grainy photographs.

I have been doing research on IJN carriers and wanted a source of information to answer some questions I had. This book is not a large book, but it does cover information and specific things about these carriers that I had no idea of. There are some interesting pictures to view and I think this is a great book of reference should you be interested in these mighty but flawed warships

A detailed, concise summary of Japanese carrier forces during the entire war. A worthy addition to any historical library and a model for other technical books of its class.

In reading various books about the Japanese Navy in World War II I was confused concerning the structure of the carriers.Thhis book answered all my questions and cleared up all my confusion.

In common with the New Vanguard format, the book distills the topic - IJN carriers from 1921 to 1945 in this case - down to 48 pages. And while this is really not a lot of space to cover so extensive and important a topic, the book works really well. From the early co-operation and learning from the British Navy in WW1, the first indigenous carrier in 1921 and all the way to surrender, the book manages to cover all the fleet as well as auxiliary cariers.Before the author launches into individual ship descriptions a useful introductionto the topic is given, with all the history, context, and development / operational difficulties. Aspects such as a lack of experienced pilot reserves, dreadful AA guns, poor damage control procedures, an initial lack of radar, etc. are all covered.In terms of class descriptions, each class gets a brief section on its history (many were converted from hulls initially planned for something else), upgrades and modifications, armament, air component and evolution, operational history, colour plates, a handful of photos per type...Even though the IJN started WW2 with the largest and most modern carrier force, the book does an excellent job of explaining why the situation changed and the end pretty predictable. And while the 48 pages are not much, the balance is very good. And for those whose interested to explore the topic in more depth, a comprehensive bibliography and further reading section is provided, too.

A decent and informative book but more simply a detailed list with basic stats of of IJN carriers.The author does a good job in describing the evolutions in design of the carriers. It also give some insight on the the "tricks" used by the Japanese to get around the pre-war treaty that limited the tonnage allowed (e.g. constructing fast oil tankers during peace time that could in future be refitted and armed as carriers).The photographs are good enough but perhaps a bit repetitive (you get a shot for each carrier). I would have liked to see different shots showing anti-aicraft armament from close angles, etc.This book is doing what its meant to do but for aircraft carrier tactics, procedures, etc you will have too look elsewhere. Do not expect to grasp the whole concept of WWII Pacific warfare with this title. This is purely a description of the IJN carriers and nothing more.

great book very well written

Good book not the thickest but great illustrations and easy to read

Nicht mehr alle japanischen Flugzeugträger kamen bis zum Kriegsende zum Einsatz, aber sie wurden sämtlich, soweit verfügbar, bis zur Vernichtung rücksichtslos eingesetzt! Im August 1945 waren von 19 leichten, mittleren, und großen Trägern, die in Dienst gestellt worden waren, und weiteren 5 Geleitträgern nur 2 überwiegend wracke Schiffe übriggeblieben. Alle anderen waren durch entweder durch U-Boote, die meisten aber durch Luftangriffe versenkt worden!Sie wurden auch im Vergleich zu ihren amerikanischen Gegenparts unter Wert geschlagen, weil die Vorliebe der japanischen Marineführung für komplizierte Schlachtpläne ein Übriges dazu tat. Die Flugzeugträger der Japaner waren ihren amerikanischen Gegenstücken mindestens ebenbürtig, zumindest was die ersten 2,5 Kriegsjahre bis Mitte 1943 angeht. Das gleiche gilt für die mitgeführten Bordflugzeuge, die ihren amerikanischen Counterparts oftmals einen 1:1 Schlagabtausch lieferten!Erst die mächtigen Flugzeugträger der Essex- Klasse verschoben das Pendel nach und nach in die andere Richtung!Ein Superbuch aus dem Osprey- Verlag mit vielen Bildern, Zeichnungen, und Durchdringungen im 3-D Format, das seinen Preis absolut wert ist!