Draminski, Stefan Nagato-class Battleships 1920–46

The Imperial Japanese Navy's super-dreadnoughts

Illustrated with the author's highly acclaimed 3D reconstructions, naval researcher Stefan Draminski offers a technical and operational study of Nagato and Mutsu, Japan's most powerful battleships of the Dreadnought era. They were the world's first battleships to be equipped with 16-inch guns, signalling Japan's determination to build a fleet that would surpass the world's leading naval forces in terms of quality. After entering service in the 1920s, they underwent extensive modernisation before the outbreak of the Pacific War. The Nagato began the war as Yamamoto's flagship during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both ships were involved in the Battle of Midway, and although the Mutsu was sunk by an ammunition explosion in 1943, the Nagato continued to fight in the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf before being converted again and laid up in Yokosuka as an anti-aircraft battery. The Nagato, the last Japanese battleship still afloat on the day of Japan's surrender, was sunk in 1946 as part of the Crossroads atomic tests in the Bikini Atoll. Based on Japanese sources and original documents, this book offers a concise and detailed account of these impressive battleships, superbly illustrated with archive photos and artwork showing the ships throughout their careers and in action.