The Battleship Yamato (Anatomy of the Ship) [Hardcover]

Janusz Skulski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1989 | ISBN-10: 087021019X | ISBN-13: 978-0870210198

This richly detailed tribute to the legendary Yamato is now back in print by popular demand. Equipped with the largest guns and heaviest armor and having the greatest displacement of any ship ever built, the Yamato proved to be a formidable opponent to the U.S. Pacific Fleet in World War II. This classic in the Anatomy of the Ship series contains a full description of the design and construction of the battleship including wartime modifications, and a career history. This is followed by a substantial pictorial section with rare onboard views of Yamato and her sister ship, a comprehensive portfolio of more than 600 perspective and three-view drawings, and 30 photographs. Such a handsome and thorough work is guaranteed to impress modelmakers, ship enthusiasts, and naval historians.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Janusz Skulski is the author of The Heavy Cruiser Takao.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press (April 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087021019X
• ISBN-13: 978-0870210198
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #482,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lavishly illustrated book about a gigantic battleship, October 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Battleship Yamato (Anatomy of the Ship) (Hardcover)

The Yamato class battleships of the IJN were the largest battleships ever built, and this book examines the Yamato piece by piece. The book was copyrighted in 1988. The author, Janusz Skulski, has obviously put years of detailed research into this book. This is not a story. The different sections of the book (A-L) focus on the different aspects of the ship. For example, section C is "superstructure." The use of the term "scale" shows readers how big components of the ships were. For example, the barbette for the 18" guns is 4" in diameter in the book with a 1/150 scale. A side profile of the ship fills two 9" square pages and the scale marker says 1/600 scale. There are only a few pages of text at the beginning, and a good photo section. The text is entirely factual and deals with the ship rather than the human side of IJN battleship operations. The ship is "taken apart" in a most thorough level of detail. It is just like you have gone back in time and place and are reviewing the construction blueprints for approval! Unfortunately, the author could not obtain much machinery information, but that wasn't his fault. There was no research information available about machinery, but the other areas (general arrangement, superstructure, armament, fittings, rig, aircraft, ship's boats, and condition of the wreck) made up for this. I give the author and the book 5 stars because the level of detail is extremely high. Interlibrary loan is your best bet to read this book, as the title is out of print. This is a must have book for all serious battleship fans.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DEFINITIVE book available on this vessel, September 19, 2003

By 

Kevon Huntley (Southington, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Battleship Yamato (Anatomy of the Ship) (Hardcover)

If you are interested in the Yamato from a historical, engineering or modeling perspective this book is a MUST for your reference materials. While only having a limited number of photos (Very few exist), the bulk of the information here is in line drawings and specifications. A top notch job of reconstructing the engineering of this mighty ship. The author has assembled about as much information as could be expected given the lack of material available.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Painstakingly reverse-engineered drawings, July 29, 2004

By 

Jeremy (Madison, AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Battleship Yamato (Anatomy of the Ship) (Hardcover)

The Anatomy series will be very familiar with naval history enthusiasts. What makes this special is that all drawings and pictures of these huge ships were ordered destroyed just before the Japanese surrender. Thus the pictorial section is understandably a little briefer than usual, while the drawings section contains many that were painstakingly reverse engineered from the study of photos.

In summary, a notch below the Anatomy of the Dreadnought, but a super effort given the lack of source materials.