The Japanese Aircraft Carriers Soryu and Hiryu (Hard Cover Series)

A very good book on these two ships. Chapter I on Initial Concept and Design Changes contains information I had never read before. There is a separate chapter on the design of the Hiryu describing the changes to the design and construction as a result of the Fourth Fleet Incident of July 1935. The book is a translation from the original Polish and there are several annoyances. There are quite a few English misspellings and grammatical oddities. For example, Rangun is the capital of Birma. In a couple of sentences it appears that the Polish word for "hull" got translated as "fuselage." Another annoyance is that a couple of photo or drawing captions don't really match the photos. For example, on page 17, the label for the drawing reads "Cross section ... showing the thickness of armor plating." There is no text in the drawing -- the deck levels are not called out and no armor thicknesses are indicated. These things are a bit irritating but the information in the book is still excellent.

This is a nicely illustrated, 100 page, large format hardbound book with attractive and glossy front and back covers. The content of the book is mostly B & W photos and detailed drawings, with an eight page color section with profiles of IJN and USN aircraft of the period, all nicely presented on semi-gloss paper. There is descriptive text of the design of the ships and their operational history, but that is not the book's strength. The bibliography is a scant 11 sources, but a few footnotes indicate other sources were consulted.As of now, all of the other reviews of this book give it 4 or 5 stars. I don't regard it that highly. As others have noted the translation is often awkward-never incomprehensible-but awkward. My main concerns are the lack of analysis and the sketchy research apparent in some areas. By lack of analysis, I mean the author describes features of the carriers' designs but says little about how effective they were, nor how they compared to other carriers. By sketchy research I noticed the author's description of the Battle of Midway seemed almost straight out of Fuchida's discredited account. He also has the Yorktown sunk solely by aircraft from the Hiryu, totally ignoring the I-168's role. And, admittedly a minor point, he has the Japanese tanker Akebono Maru as sunk by the Americans when it actually was only damaged.(Given that Parshall and Tully's book is cited in a footnote, it's odd these gaffe's were there.) There were other parts of the operational history of the carriers that erred as well, but these examples I hope give you the idea.

Excellent book about this pair of IJN aircraft carriers. Well written, good selection of photos. Development and operational histories are covered. It includes color depictions of Japanese aircraft and their USN opponents that are very well done. Would have liked to see Hiryu and Soryu depicted in color as well, particularly some of the flight deck schemes, but that's a minor quibble. Would recommend, my purchase of this volume led to my buying another of his books on the IJN carrier KAGA.

Any illustrated book with accurate captions is the most desired book!! This book meets these another expectations!! After over 70 years many rare pictures are starting to come out!! I hope to see such books on Japanese War Ships of the Forties!! Kudos!!

This book was a very good read and I gained knowledge of several points not previously know.

Its hard to find many good books concerning the history of Japan's aircraft carriers from WWII and this one is worth purchasing!

Love the information but better editing is needed. Please give us more IJN material!

Good research book,good explanation of the 1930`s treaties.

Probably the best coverage in English of the two carriers Soryu and Hiryu, but slightly marred by excessive use of well known photos of US and English ships and aircraft. We get five splendid full page colour profiles of aircraft from Soryu and Hiryu - but do we really need three equally splendid ones of American Dauntless's and Buffalo's ? Similarly the photos and other drawings split roughly 50% of the Soryu and Hiryu , the remainder being well known photos of other Japanese and Allied ships.Having got that grumble out of the way, what do you actually get ?An good introduction to early Japanese carrier development and the eventual design of Soryu and Hiryu . Much of it new to me and although sometimes slightly difficult to follow, quite fascinating. A good, although again a little hard to follow, account of the building and characteristics of these two ships . Some excellent, if occasionally inconsistent, plans of the two carriers. And of their aircraft. Virtually all of the well known photos of them, plus several excellent and interesting views new to me. A full account of the careers of the vessels, including Pearl Harbour and Darwin. Many clear photos of the weapons carried , albeit some from other ships . The best explanation of the reasoning behind the port side location of the island on Hiryu. A few gaffes, Tsurigizaki was never in a tanker configuration , she was completed as a submarine tender ,then converted to an aircraft carrier . But no book is perfect !It sounds as if I have perhaps stressed the negative points on this book.It is still however the best account I've seen and I recommend it .

There aren't any Canadian reviews so I'll be the first I suppose. Please check the American reviews as well.Background info: There aren't a lot of English literary sources on the Imperial Japanese Navy that are of a technical depth like this book, so this book stands out. It attempts to focus on the short-lived Soryu and Hiryu, and devotes a quarter of the book to their early conceptualization during the 1920s and 1930s. Of note is the early planning attempt to design and construct a hybrid carrier-cruiser, of which detailed specs are presented. The book also covers the decisions of the IJN regarding carrier construction and what carriers should be, including redesigns due to top-heaviness throughout the fleet.The real meat of the book is the ship specifications, armament, and operational histories of both carriers. Detailed text is augmented with illustrations of isometric views, cutaways showing the hangar decks, and full page, colour images of 3D-generated planes used by both the USN and IJN. Tables are found throughout these sections, ranging from full ship specifications at the time of each ship's launching, to the individual spacing of Soryu's transverse frames. Aerial photographs of both carriers, their aircraft, and major battles are also present. The technical depth is unparalleled. The book has lots of B&W photographs of both carriers as well as other carriers of the period from both the IJN and the USN.That being said, there are downsides to the book. As mentioned by other reviewers on Amazon.com, the book occasionally has translation and grammatical errors ("Ad" instead of "An", for example), although the book is mostly easy to read. The back cover is far worse and not representative of the content inside the book. Furthermore, I found it surprising that the book dedicates entire pages to colour 3D renderings of aircraft, but not of the carriers themselves. (Perhaps they want us to buy the Kagero 3D Superdrawings! ;-) )This is a great addition to an IJN enthusiasts' library. It lacks the visual content to be useful to most modelers, unless you are modeling the interior spaces. Readers that are comfortable with books of great technical depth will enjoy this book, and the illustrations help with comprehending the technical aspect.