Customer Reviews

Imperial Japanese Navy Submarines 1941-45 (New Vanguard)

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Mark Stille's Imperial Japanese Navy Submarines 1941-45, No. 135 in Osprey's New Vanguard series, nicely summarizes the role of those oft-neglected submarines in the Second World War. Up front, the author defines his focus, concentrating on the I-boats and RO-boats that carried the main effort in the war. While this volume might have had just a tad bit more analysis, it is quite a bit better than the earlier Osprey volume on U.S. submarines and is well worth the cost. Furthermore, the excellent artwork provides a nice value-added dimension to this volume.

Imperial Japanese Navy Submarines 1941-45 starts with a brief 2-page introduction on the origins of the Japanese submarine force, then discusses how they were designed to support Japan's `decisive battle' strategy against the United States. Unlike other navies, the Japanese submarine doctrine oriented their submarines toward long-range anti-surface warfare missions, rather than anti-commerce. Even before the war, as the author notes, Japanese exercises indicated that this doctrine just didn't work, but the Japanese Navy stuck with it and essentially wasted much of their submarine effort in the war. The heart of this volume is about 30 pages that provide capsule details on each class of Japanese submarine, including technical characteristics, numbers built and wartime career. These are short, but very good and enhance the reference value of this volume. The author also provides a short 2-page post-mortem on why Japan's submarine force was a failure.

The color plates in this volume include Japanese fleet submarines (I-53, I-68 and I-176); cruiser submarines (I-1, I-8, I-9); "monster" submarines I-14 and I-401; a cutaway of the B-1 type submarine I-35; RO-type submarines RO-61, RO-46 and RO-106; I-25 launching its floatplane to attack the Oregon coast and Kaiten carriers. This volume could have used a summary table listing the top-scoring Japanese submarines in the war, detailing the sub's captain and number of ships/tonnage sunk (which is generally provided for the U.S. and German submarine top-scorers in World War 2), as well as more information on submarine commanders. A summary of total boats built during war and losses per year would also have been nice. Obviously space constraints were tight, but the author succeeded in packing a good amount of information into this short volume.

While there is a lot of information that has been written or otherwise produced about American submarines in World War 2, there is a surprising lack of information about Japanese submarines. For instance, the first shots of WW2 were fired by an American destroyer at a Japanese mini-sub in Hawaiian waters just prior to the Japanese attack; Japanese submarines were engaging in coastal attacks on the US' west coast; and the Japanese and Germans were exchanging war materials and research items via submarine (this was how the Germans were helping the Japanese get their atomic bomb information).

This book is an excellent source of information to fill that gap. It describes the various classes and unique submarines of the Japanese navy, with excellent illustrations (both photographs and paintings) throughout the book. The strategy that the Japanese navy used when employing them is also mentioned, along with the weapons the submarines used.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in either World War Two or submarines in general.

This booklet is a quick guide to the major IJN submarine types of WW2. Nice color plates and basic information. I definitely recommend it.

This book presents a little know facet of world war two naval operations with the thoroughness that readers of New Vanguard books have come to expect.

To be fair it is mostly a technical account of the development and design of Japanese submarines so the tactical use of this force is not as prevalent in the accounts aside from the losses and successes. Imperial Japanese submarines had little to show in terms of success so this may account for the lack of operational details in the book.

The combination of the narrative, pictures and artwork make this book a great value for the cost and will enable the purchaser to fill in a little known aspect of the Pacific Naval War quite effectively.

In WW2 Japan had some of the largest submarines with well tested technologies and a doctrine that was completely impractical. Even when the German and american navies showed how submarines should be used, the Japanese lagged far behind, resulting on one of the least effective submarine forces in the war.

In a few pages Stille explained the development and doctrine of the Imperial navy's submarine force and why these were fatally flawed. He then proceesed to document the different fleet submarines, their design and fate.

There is no grand sweeping vision of the war but considering how japan misused their submarines, that makes sense. you probably can find larger, more detailed books but for a quick refference and overview, this does the job.

Good info, but not quite enough of it. There needed to be more on the pros and cons of the Japanese designs and how they were used. Still worth the read.

IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY SUBMARINES, 1941-1945

MARK STILLE

OSPREY PUBLISHING, 2007

QUALITY SOFTCOVER, $15.95, 48 PAGES, ILLUSTRATIONS, PHOTOGRAPHS

Imperial Japanese Navy submarines originated with the purchase of five Holland type submarines from the United States in 1905. Japanese submarine forces progressively built up strength and expertise; becoming by the start of World War II, one of the most varied and powerful fleets of submarines of the war.

The submarine fleet included manned torpedoes (Kaiten), midget submarines (Kohyoteki, Kairyu), medium-range submarines, purpose-built supply submarines (many for use by the Imperial Army), long-range fleet submarines (many of which carried an aircraft), submarines with the highest submerged speeds of the conflict (Senkou-I200), and submarines able to carry multiple bombers (World War II's largest submarine, the Sentoku I-400). These submarines were also equipped with the most advanced torpedo of the war, the oxygen-fuelled Type 95. A plane from one such long-range submarine, I-25, conducted what is still the only bombing attack on the Continental United States, when Warrant Flying Officer Nobu Fujita attempted to ignite massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest outside the town of Brookings, Oregon on September 9, 1942.

Overall, despite their technical innovation, Japanese submarines were relatively unsuccessful. Due to the Imperial Japanese Navy's adherence to a flawed Mahanian doctrine, they were used in offensive roles against warships, which were fast, maneuverable, and well-defended compared to merchant ships. In 1942, Japanese submarines managed to sink two fleet carriers, one cruiser, and a few destroyers and other warships, and damaged several others. They weren't able to sustain these results afterwards, as Allied fleets were reinforced and became better organized. For the rest of the war, submarines were instead often used to transport supplies to island garrisons. During the war, Japan managed to sink about 1 million tons of merchant shipping (184 ships), compared to 1.5 million tons for Great Britain (493 ships), 4.65 million tons for the United States (1,079 ships), and 14.3 million tons for Germny (2,840 ships).

Early models weren't very maneuverable under water, couldn't dive very deep, and lacked radar (later models that were fitted with radar were in some instances sunk due to the ability of U.S. radar sets to detect their emissions). For example, Barfish (SS-310) sank three such equipped submarines in the span of four days. After the end of the war, several of Japan's most original submarines were sent to Hawaii for inspection in Operation ROAD'S END (I-400, I-401, I-201, and I-203). All four submarines were later scuttled by the U.S. Navy in 1946 to prevent the former Soviet Union any access to them.

In IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY SUBMARINES, 1941-1945, author and retired U.S. Navy Commander Mark Stille clearly states that the Japanese submarine fleet should have been an awe-inspiring force but, despite playing a critical scouting role and enjoying several notable successes, it was surprisingly ineffective. Using unique color plates, Stille describes the astounding technical advances of this range of vessels, and the wartime tactics responsible for their failure.

Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard

Orlando, Florida

This book provides basic information on Imperial Japan's submarine force and is well-illustrated by artwork and some photographs. During World War II Japan's submarines performed some exceptional roles which other navies did not even attempt: cargo and troop delivery, extreme long-range liaison, minisub mothership and aircraft carrier. The large size of many of the subs made this possible, providing extra space for aircraft, cargo or parasite subs or allowing a few subs to sail all the way to occupied Europe. Unfortunately for the Japanese their submarine force had little success in the conventional role of merchant marine interception. While many of the specialized missions of the Imperial Navy's subs capture the imagination of some historians the failure of Japan's submarines to cause significant damage to the naval forces arrayed against it is a far more relevent lesson, and one that the author explores. If improvements were to be made I would like to see more maps, particularly of the routes taken by the I-boats sent to meet the Nazis.

The book has comprehensive histories, but lacks reference photos/images - do not purchase this as a reference for modeling.

Mark Stille's IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY SUBMARINES 1941-45 analyzes the Japanese submarine fleet from 1941-45 for specialty military collections strong in military equipment surveys. The Japanese force should have been effective, but failed in many ways: color plates and analysis describes the technical advances fostered by the Imperial Japanese Navy - and why they failed against all odds.