The first of the modern type of submarines for the Swedish navy was the Sjöormen class, designed in the early 1960s by Kockums, Malmo, and built by that company (three units) and Karlskronavarvet (two units). The class comprised the Sjöormen, Sjolejonet, Sjohunden, Sjobjornen and Sjohasten. With an Albacore type hull for speed and a twin-deck arrangement the class was extensively used in the relatively shallow Baltic where its excellent maneuverability and silent-running capabilities greatly aided the Swedish navy's anti-submarine warfare operations.

Mark Lardas holds a degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan. Mark spent the next thirty years at the Johnson Space Center doing Space Shuttle structural analysis, and space navigation. An amateur historian and a long-time ship modeler, he has written extensively about modelling as well as naval, maritime, and military history. Mark has authored more than twenty-five books and has worked with Boy’s Life as the Hobby Master. Mark also worked with an English language publication from Hong Kong called English Street. Mark is currently working in League City, Texas.

Bottom Line

Tom’s Modelworks supplies a hefty, highly-detailed PE set for the Fujimi family of 12 large, Kawasaki-type Imperial Japanese Navy fleet tankers. This PE set is for advanced modelers with some scratch-building experience.

Brief History

The Kawasaki type tankers were twelve large (~10000 tons) tankers that were designed in the mid-1930s with the intention of joining the fleet in wartime, to be refitted with underway refueling of warships. Although there were some variations in dimensions from different yards, they were very similar in appearance and performance. Seven were used during the Pearl Harbor attack, and all were extensively used by the fleet, but none survived the war.

By 1765 Britain had achieved hegemony in Europe, North America, India, Africa and the West Indies over archrival France with its decisive victory in the Seven Years War (1756-1763) fought on 5 continents and the sea (Quiberon Bay). However, the overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in 1791, and the emergence of revolutionary France was an entirely new phenomenon, and by 1793 virtually all of the major European nations, all headed by monarchs, had declared war on the new French Republic. As a result, France in 1794 was threatened by famine and risked all by organizing a massive North America to France food convoy against the Royal Navy and harsh North Atlantic seas.

Launched on the last day in April, 1919, and commissioned just over three years later, on June 3, 1920, this sixth vessel to carry the name Tennessee was the name ship of her class (which included her sister, USS California) and the last US battleship to carry 14” guns. In this Naval edition of his extensive “Legends of Warfare” series, author David Doyle provides another extensively illustrated history of this famous warship. While each chapter - covering Construction; Launching, Fitting Out and Commissioning; To War (with subsequent descriptions of her collision with USS California and participation in the action in Surigao Straight); and The End of the Line - includes a brief introductory written description, the bulk of the written information comes as captions to the hundreds of photos (the vast majority in sharp black & white, with four color photos of her following decommissioning).