A fascinating insight into how the Allies learned about the capabilities and limitations of the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force and Japanese Army Air Force through flight testing and evaluation of enemy equipment.In the Pacific War's early years, Japanese air power was dominant. The only way for the Allies to defeat their enemy was to know it. This made the task of maintaining productive intelligence gathering efforts on Japan imperative.Establishing Tech...

In 1938, the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal, acting under the requirements issued by the Kaigun Koku Hombu for a Navy Experimental 13-Shi Carrier Borne specification for a dive-bomber to replace the venerable 'Val' aboard carriers.The resulting D4Y Suisei ('Comet'), codenamed 'Judy' by the Allies, was initially powered by a licence-built German Daimler-Benz DB 601 inline engine as used in the Bf 109E. Despite making an inauspicious combat debut durin...

Entering service during the Sino-Japanese War, the Nakajima B5N (code-named 'Kate') excelled and went on to achieve surprising and dramatic successes in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.It also contributed to the sinking of the US aircraft carriers USS Lexington at the Battle of the Coral Sea, USS Yorktown at the Battle of Midway, and USS Hornet at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Its replacement, the Nakajima B6N 'Jill', while a ...

A New York Times Best Seller!Pulitzer-Prize-winner and bestselling author C. Vann Woodward recreates the gripping account of the battle for Leyte Gulf-the greatest naval battle of World War II and the largest engagement ever fought on the high seas. For the Japanese, it represented their supreme effort; they committed to action virtually every operational fighting ship on the lists of the Imperial Navy, including two powerful new battleships of the Yamato ...

Winner of the 2011 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, The Twilight Warriors is the engrossing, page-turning saga of a tightly knit band of naval aviators who are thrust into the final—and most brutal—battle of the Pacific war during World War II: Okinawa.April 1945. The end of World War II finally appears to be nearing. The Third Reich is collapsing in Europe, and the Americans are overpowering the once-mighty Japanese Empire in the Pacific. ...

CARRIER CLASHThe Invasion of Guadalcanal &the Battle of the Eastern SolomonsAugust 1942Eric HammelThe Battle of the Eastern Solomons was historys third carrier clash. A collision of U.S. Navy and Imperial Navy carriers in the wake of the invasion of Guadalcanalwhose airfield the United States desperately needed and the Japanese desperately wanted backthe battle was waged at sea and over Guadalcanals besieged Marine-held Lunga Perimeter on August 24, 1942. Based upon the first half of Eric Ha...

The Battle of Midway is traditionally held as the point when Allied forces gained advantage over the Japanese. In Islands of Destiny, acclaimed historian and military intelligence expert John Prados points out that the Japanese forces quickly regained strength after Midway and continued their assault undaunted.Taking this surprising fact as the start of his inquiry, he began to investigate how and when the Pacific tide turned in the Allies’ favor. Using ar...

“The story of Sergeant Major Maurice Jacques is the story of a true warrior. With close to fifty months’ combat in Korea and Vietnam, he’s one of that rare breed, men who have looked the Devil in the eye—for a long time—and never blinked!”**—**LtCol. Oliver North, USMC (Ret.)COMBAT AND DEATH, SACRIFICE AND HONORMaurice Jacques served for thirty years with the U.S. Marine Corps, nearly six of them in combat. As an accomplished infantryman, parachutist, recon...

CARRIER STRIKEThe Battle of the Santa Cruz IslandsOctober 1942By Eric HammelThe Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, a strategic naval action in the bitter Guadalcanal Campaign, was historys fourth carrier-versus-carrier naval battle. Though technically a Japanese victory, the battle proved to be the Empire of Japans last serious attempt to win the Pacific War by means of an all-out carrier confrontation. Only one other carrier battle occurred in the Pacific War, in June 1944, in the Philippine ...

Here, one of America’s most popular military historians re-creates, using their own moving and powerful voices, the true stories of the U.S. Marine pilots who flew the Allies to victory in World War II. These riveting accounts recreate conflicts ranging from the Marines’ gallant defense of Wake Island, where Captain Henry “Baron” Elrod destroyed two enemy planes before joining the fight on the ground, earning a posthumous Medal of Honor in the last-ditch attempt to stave off the Japanese, ...

The Imperial Japanese Navy of World War II surpassed the Allied and Axis fleets in innovation and technology.This illustrated guide covers the 12 Japanese battleships that saw service between 1941 and 1945, including the mighty Yamato. Each class is considered in light of its design and construction, its armament and wartime modifications. Mark Stille uses primary sources and dramatic photographs to tell the story of these mighty battleships at war, including their...

This award–winning "powerful narrative history" presents a vividly detailed chronicle of grueling combat operations in Fallujah during the Iraq War ( Midwest Book Review).Few places are as closely associated with blood, sacrifice, and valor as the ancient city Fallujah, forty miles west of Baghdad. This sprawling concrete jungle was the scene of two major U.S. combat operations in 2004. The first, Operation Vigilant Resolve, was an aborted effort by U.S. Ma...