Osprey is a publishing house in the United Kingdom that should be a household name to the swarms of us. Osprey continues to expand their Duel series with the 83^rd book in this installment. The Duel Series examine the relative strengths and weaknesses of two adversaries across a particular conflict. This particular volume turns its attention to the US Navy Battleships versus the IJN Battleships.

For the Duel series, the chapters are organized as follows:

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Design and Development
• Technical Specifications
• The Strategic Situation
• The Combatants
• Combat
• Statistics and Analysis
• Aftermath
• Further Reading
• Index

In the build-up to World War II both the United States and Japan believed their battleships would play a central role in battle, but after the Pacific War began in December 1941, the role of the battleship proved to be much more limited than either side expected. There would be only two battleship vs battleship actions in the Pacific in World War II, both of which are assessed in this engaging study. At Guadalcanal in 1942, Kirishima faced two modern US battleships, USS Washington and USS South Dakota. In the Surigao Strait in 1944, two World War I-era Japanese battleships, Yamashiro and Fuso, faced six American battleships supported by four heavy cruisers in history's last-ever clash between battleships.

As the table of contents indicates, the duel series looks at the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two adversaries named, the mighty USN Modern battleships and the underdog IJN Battleships. Here we get to look at nation specific doctrine, leadership, rationale and weapons in telling about this decisive showdown. These books have described a very accurate portrayal of a well-known blow that was dealt to the IJN.

We all know what led up to conflict with the empire of Japan after the events of Pearl Harbor, The empire of Japan however wasn’t expecting such a swift recovery of our naval forces and truly underestimated the industrial might of the United States which was now Hellbent on revenge.

As with all Osprey titles, this is certainly a welcome addition to my growing library of reference material. My thanks to IPMS, and Osprey Publishing for giving me the opportunity to review this book.