Customer Reviews

The Heavy Cruiser Takao (Anatomy of the Ship)

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Janusz Skulski is probably one of the foremost IJN experts outside of Japan and his books are known for their meticulous research and first class drawings. Skulski uses sources in Japan with ties to the IJN and this is reflected in his books. This effort on the cruiser Takao is probably his best effort, with more information than the Yamato book (of course, the Yamato was sunk and information on her is sparse-Takao survived the war, albeit in a damaged state) and none of the editing flaws which marred his latest book on the Fuso.

The drawings are worth the price of the book and contain enough information for the modeler to scratchbuild or improve the only Takao model on the market, which is a pretty bad one. A must for any ship modeler or historian, especially since the only other book comparable to this one is written in Japanese.

Janusz Skulski's second contributation to the "Anatomy of the Ship" series, I thought that this was a bit more polished than the "Yamato" volume. These two books together are one of the best English-language resources (that I am aware of) for WWII Japanese navy vessels. This book has everthing; from profiles of the ship as it appeared in its career, down to the rivet patterns used to assemble the hull, all in scaled drawings.