First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Osprey Publishing,

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© 2012 Osprey Publishing Ltd

OSPREY PUBLISHING IS PART OF THE OSPREY GROUP.

All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978 1 84908 605 9

E-book ISBN: 978 1 84908 606 6

E-pub ISBN: 978 1 78096 896 4

Editorial by Ilios Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK (www.iliospublishing.com)

Page layout by The Black Spot

Index by Fionbar Lyons

Typeset in Myriad Pro and Sabon

Maps by Bounford.com

3D bird’s-eye view by Ian Palmer

Battlescene illustrations by Howard Gerrard

Originated by PDQ Media, Bungay, UK

Printed in China through Worldprint Ltd

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is indebted to John Lundstrom who graciously reviewed the text and provided numerous clarifications. The author would also like to thank Robert Hanshew at the Navy History and Heritage Command Photographic Section and the Yamato Museum for their generous assistance in procuring the photographs used in the book.

ARTIST’S NOTE

Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the color plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale. The Publishers retain all reproduction copyright whatsoever. All enquiries should be addressed to:

Howard Gerrard, 11 Oaks Road, Tenterden, Kent, TN30 6RD, UK

The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this matter.

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Osprey Publishing are supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, by funding the dedication of trees.

Conversion table
1 inch 2.54cm
1 foot 0.3048m
1 yard 0.9144m
1 mile 1.609km
1 pound 0.4536kg
1 ounce 28.3495231g

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