THE YAMATO CLASS: Yamato, Musashi and Shinano

By virtue of their firepower, their dimensions and their overall appearance, very few other vessels have ever inspired as much interest or fascination.

Designed for surface combat and conceived to outclass every existing or future battleship, the three Yamato vessels were intended to tip the balance of power in the Pacific. Admiral Yamamoto himself regarded these giants of the seas as "the height of folly", and their brief operational careers do indeed illustrate how tragic their fate proved to be.

A true specialist on the subject, the author traces, across three major sections, the design, technical specifications and operational careers of the vessels of this legendary class. He presents, details and explains the origins of the three ships, the challenge of their construction, their distinctive features, their strengths and their weaknesses. To illustrate this definitive "bible", we have selected dozens of period photographs, colour maps, numerous wireframe plans detailing onboard equipment, and some fifty exceptional 3D views of the two battleships and the aircraft carrier. With this new reference work in the French language, you will know everything there is to know about the Yamato, Musashi and Shinano!

Biography of Pascal Colombier

A recognised specialist in naval and air-naval history, Pascal Colombier has already published a great many articles on the Pacific War, one of his favourite subjects. He is today a regular contributor to the magazine LOS! published by Caraktère. For this work, he drew on his own extensive personal documentation as well as on the reports of the US Navy technical mission to Japan (1945–1946), never previously translated into French.