Imperial Japanese Navy Destroyers 1919–45 (1)

A detailed, illustrated look at the earliest seven classes of destroyer fielded by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

Several classes of Japanese destroyer were built before the war, including the famous Fubuki class. Known as the “Special Type” by the Japanese, these destroyers were, upon their completion in the late 1920s, the most powerful class of destroyers in the world. This design pressured all other major navies to follow suit and served as the blueprint for many ensuing classes of Imperial Navy destroyers. The book also investigates the three classes built before the "Special Type", based on a German World War I design, and two classes constructed afterward.

In Imperial Japanese Navy Destroyers 1919–45 (1), Pacific War expert Mark Stille evaluates the success of these designs—from the initial battles of the Pacific War up until the death sortie of the superbattleship Yamato—and compares them to similar Allied destroyer designs.