The current rise of Chinese naval power stands in stark contrast to the period from 1900 – 1940 when China had no real Navy and lay prostrate before powerful nations which had unfettered access to its ports and inland waterways. A weak and fading dynasty and competing warlords (including the Communists) did nothing to reassure foreign interests, which led to additional intervention. Like other places in the world, the waterways of China were the highways on which goods moved in and out of the interior of the country. One river stood out in its size and importance – the Yangtze (a western interpretation of the river’s many names). Western business interests and missionaries took advantage of the Yangtze to penetrate far into the interior and the river was the principal line of communication back out to rest of the world.

Thanks as usual to Eduard for providing us the latest upgrades for our AMS builds. Eduard’s photoetch is world-class; so here’s a simple upgrade opportunity for the ship builders… the elusive railings for stairways!

During my recent IPMS build of the new Academy “HMS Warspite”, I used a section of this railing for one of the stair sections to the upper fighting top area. Simple as can be; measure, cut, superglue in place. Worth every penny… Railing is always difficult to find, and I appreciate Eduard developing this set. 10 of 10!

Model Art No. 41 Autumn 2011 is devoted to several classes of more obscure Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) warships in WW2. Specifically, Katori class light/training cruisers, Hatsuharu class destroyers, and Fuso class battleships. For each class, you get to see builds of the most recent kits, drawings, figures and photos showing intimate details of each class/kit, and background history with photos (in Japanese of course). Scales are mostly 1/700 since 1/350 kits are not available for Katori and Hatsuharu classes yet. Battleships kits are mostly 1/350 scale model kits. Coverage is comprehensive, with emphasis on historical accuracy of appearance. This edition is perfect for those modeling these ship classes.

The Story

This volume is a newly developed account of the naval war between the United States and its Allies against the Japanese from 1941 through 1945. Since the author and publisher are British, it naturally follows that there is a subdued emphasis on the British and Commonwealth participation in the war, a good thing since this topic has not been covered in a lot of detail over the past few years. In a little over 200 pages, the author condenses the topic to the point that it isn’t really a comprehensive history, but instead a series of chapters dealing with specific issues and events associated with the war, along with his interpretations of the causes and effects of these events.

Mark Stille is a retired Commander of the US Navy and has written a succession of books for Osprey Publishing on naval topics. He continues as an intelligence analyst at the Pentagon. New Vanguard 182 covers Italian battleships of World War Two, an obscure topic. Like other Osprey books, an in-depth treatment is not given, but an excellent synopsis of design, characteristics and history of each ship is presented.