The Mighty Kido Butai

The Mighty Kido Butai

by | Sep 13, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku

Mark Stille, Japanese Combined Fleet 1941-42 (Osprey, 2023)
When Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, they revealed to an astonished world Japan’s naval supremacy in the Pacific. But a tide that came in fast, went out just as quickly when, within six months of that infamous day, the US Navy extracted its revenge at Midway. In this, the first of Osprey’s Fleet series, Mark Stille surveys the Imperial Japanese Navy in its prime.
Stille begins with the rapid rise of the Imperial Japanese Navy and its strategic considerations for a potential future war with the United States in the Pacific. At the heart of that lay the concept of winning a decisive battle based around capital ships, though Stille notes that this never happened in WWII. When war appeared inevitable, the Japanese opted for neutralising the US Navy. That meant a devastating blow at Pearl Harbor with the subsequent capture of Midway Island acting as a lure to bring the Americans into a decisive battle. Unfortunately for the Japanese, their plan backfired.
A survey of the major ships in the IJN follows, including their aircraft carriers, battleships, heavy and light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. Stille then examines Japanese weaponry, including their far superior torpedoes, before moving onto how the IJN fought: their organisation, command and control, doctrine, intelligence and deception, logistics and facilities, and their shipbuilding capability that proved inadequate when competing with the industrial might of the United States. All that settled, Stille sets out to sea, considering the IJN in combat, including the Pearl Harbor raid and combined fleet operations in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. But then came the defeats, first at Coral Sea then the disaster at Midway; the IJN’s superiority was over. Stille argues that the IJN was tactically better than their opponents but made crucial errors, the biggest of which was their failure to understand the all-encompassing nature of modern warfare for which they were ultimately unprepared.
Mark Stille has written an excellent introduction to the IJN in the early engagements of World War II. He covers all the bases in his descriptions of what this fleet was and how it worked, and his overall analysis will have you diving into his Further Reading list to find out more. Stille is ably supported by Osprey’s usual high quality colour illustrations. If you are looking for a starting point into understanding the Imperial Japanese Navy, Stille’s book will do the job and then some. For Osprey, this is an excellent opening volume for a promising new series

Italy’s African Lions

Italy’s African Lions

by | Sep 8, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku

Paolo Morisi, Steel Centurions, (Helion & Company, 2023)
(Reviewed by Dom Sore)
The latest book on my extensive Italian army reading list is Paolo Morisi’s Steel Centurions, which looks at the Italian armoured formations of World War II. Beginning with the initial thoughts within the Regio Esercito after the introduction of tanks and ending around the surrender of the Italian Government on 8 September 1943, this is a story of hidebound thinking, lack of preparation, and logistical nightmares. Morisi conducts an in-depth analysis of the armoured formations, how they came about, where they were deployed, and how they performed, all presented chronologically in a softback 439 page book, consisting of ten chapters, five appendices and a bibliography.
This book is heavy on detail and analysis but written in an accessible manner. The failings of the Regio Esercito are laid bare, but at no point does the author fall into the ‘lions led by donkeys’ trap or imply they were all just rubbish. There is balance in the writing that highlights where those failings lay: the lack of preparation, the unsuitability of the armour and the economy, and tactical and strategic errors. But Morisi also gives credit where it is due: the improvement brought about by training, the esprit de corps in the face of overwhelming odds, and what they managed to do even in the face of their failings. You will also learn most of what you might need to know about where the armour fought and how it performed.
There are some editing issues in the book that stand out but don’t detract from; it looks like ‘Has’ has been used in place of ‘As’ in some parts, which hints at a cut-and-paste error, and there is also the strange appearance of the word “irrupted”. Four maps are included, but they are not enough to help position the forces, especially in the open desert of North Africa where deployments are often difficult to visualise. An index would have been useful too. However, the bibliography is extensive, so I can forgive a missing index.
Morisi’s book pulls no punches in exposing the failings of the Italian armour of World War II, but he also gives them credit when they do well. You will learn a lot from this book particularly with regards to Rommel and his performance even if that isn’t what the book is about. A few more maps would be nice but that doesn’t take anything away from the book. If you have any interest in North Africa during World War II, then this book is a must have. Buy it, you won’t be disappointed.