If any of you build IJN ships to any serious extent, among your references will surely be at least some of the Gakken series of references, a series that covers aircraft, ships and armour of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army during BM2. The naval books have as their central focus large-scale models of the subject(s), with short historical and technical essays accompanying them. Usually some related articles featuring Allied vessels or other ships are included to make up space, bringing the number of pages to around 180. Until now, these books have proved themselves to be of extreme value to modelers due to the many detailed photographs of consistently well-made models, especially for modelers who do not read Japanese.
The Matsu class book is No. 43 (!) in the series, and covers these last IJN destroyers, really destroyer escorts in terms of their size, of the Mattu and improved-Matsu or Tachibana classes. A 1/300 scale model of the Matsu-class ship `Keyaki' and a 1/200 scale model of the Tachibana-class ship `Hatsuzakura' form the subjects of the fine 32 pages of photographs.
Following this are anopther 32 pages showing photos of the real ships and details of their construction, fittings, and equipment. Matsu and Tachibana are not shown since no published photos of the first of the classes are known to have survived (or rather, none of publicly available), but most of the others have one picture allocated to them. Special treatment is given to the Nashi, a Tachibana-class ship which was raised after the war and saw long service in the JMSDF as the Wakaba.
Fold-out plans for both classes of ships are provided in the centre of the book, and following this a 14-page article on the construction program of these ships, with some nice line drawings showing modifications (Take and Tachibana on page 81), and timelines of the ships.
13 pages are dedicated to actions these ships participated in, notably the Battle of Cape Engano and the bitter naval actions around the Philippines during the failed Japanese counter-offensive in late-1944. (See my other post on translations from this section, hopefully of interest to readers on these newsgroups, since much of the IJN details are not published in English).A short `memorandum' on the ships, their difference to other IJN designs and modifications to carry Kaiten follows, and then photos of blueprints of the specificatiosn of the Matsu-class ship Tsubaki.
8 color pages showing the single 40-cal Type 89 12.7cm DP gun and quad 24-inch torpedo tubes of the Nashi are included. This equipment is located at Etajima. 9 pages on the Type 89 gun and its operation follow.A 4-page article with photos and drawings on an unrelated ship, the Kuri, is of interest since it shows this ship with an 8-cm high-angle mounting, usually only associated with the Akizuki and Matsu/Tachibana classes. What an interesting model subject!
A 6-page `research report' on the modifications and weapons upgrades to Take follows, with numerous side and top views.
9 pages are devoted to the history and operations of Wakaba in JMSDF service, with several photos, including some of the radar antennas.The last article on the Matsu/Tachibana classes is a 12-page essay on the ships' war history (forming the bulk of the 31st DesRon), with a large portion devoted to the Battle of Cape Engano (now if ever there was an appropriate name for a battle this has got to be it!).
The remainder of the book (22 pages) deals with British Hunt class vessels, and US DEs, modifications to old RN DDs to keep them useful for escort work, as well as 4-stackers.
All in all, an excellent short reference for modelers, with a host of excellent photographs, and if you can read Japanese some jolly exciting articles. BM2, indeed.
Regards, Gernot PS List price is 2000 Yen