History

In the Summer of 1944, things were not going well for the Japanese. The Americans were approaching Japan, and from the Japanese viewpoint, an invasion of the homeland was not too far away. Conventional weaponry seemed to be ineffective. Due to the fact that Japan was far behind the U.S. in industrial development, existing air and naval forces were being used up far beyond Japan’s ability to replace equipment and personnel. The leaders still thought they could win, but it was obvious to many military and naval people that something radical was needed.

Thank you Osprey Publishing for providing a review copy of their new ship’s annual! I first thought that Osprey was publishing a new series, but in fact, Osprey is continuing the Conway imprint of naval and military books, which is excellent news. As always, I truly appreciate all those in the IPMS Reviewer Corps, whose work is critical to sharing new and exciting modeling and historical products with the world.

Overview

Warship 2018 is part of an annual series and follows historical event anniversaries, new analysis of naval engagements, intriguing operations, and more general ship topics. Each of the 11 chapters is a stand-alone study, accompanied by abundant images, drawings and data. All writing styles are slightly different, but each is appropriate and engaging for the chapter topic.

Content Coverage

Brief highlights of each chapter are included here. Short engaging descriptions of chapter content following chapter titles.

The T-60 was a light tank designed for scout and reconnaissance missions that was rushed into production a month after the start of Operation Barbarossa. Over a two-year period, approximately 7,000 of these vehicles were built. The T-60 scout tank was lightly armored, lightly armed with a 20mm canon a a machine gun, that was roundly hated by the two-man crews who operated it. The light armor, less than effective gun and poor engine performance lead to its operators naming it the “brother’s grave for two”. Although it was intended to be a support or reconnaissance vehicle, it often matched up against more superior German armor where it fared very poorly. Until factories could be equipped to produce the T-34, Soviet production continued and efforts were made to upgrade the firepower to a 37mm cannon, but these plans were scraped due to a lack in ammunition, and eventually, the armament upgrades were incorporated into the T-70.