HJMS Fuso was designed in 1911, the first Japanese super-dreadnought within the "8 x 8" program. She was the first of four twin battleships with her sister ship, Yamashiro and the "improved Fuso-class" Ise and Hyuga. Commissioned in 1915, Fuso, with 30,600 tons trial displacement and twelve 356mm guns in her main armament, was the biggest and most powerful battleship in the world.
In twenty-nine years of service, Fuso underwent two major reconstructions and modernizations. Her distinctive silhouette with the highest pagoda tower in the Imperial Navy, was visible in many operations of the Imperial Japanese Grand Fleet during the Pacific War. This book compares Fuso with Yamashiro showing the differences in the way that the two ships were designed and equipped. Both ships met their demise during the battle of Leyte Gulf when they went down in the Surigao Strait, targeted by torpedoes and gunfire from US battleships and cruisers.
Janusz Skulski's anatomies of three renowned ships of the 20th century Japanese navy are among the most comprehensive of the Anatomy series with hundreds of meticulously researched drawings of the ships. This new edition is a genuine "Super Anatomy" containing the most detailed renditions of these ships ever seen.
