Book Review of
The Japanese Light Cruiser Yubari
Author: Aliaksandr Sukhanevich
Kagero Super Drawings in 3D no. 16086
ISBN: 978-83-66673-90-8
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2022
MSRP: $37.95
ISBN: 978-83-66673-90-8
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2022
MSRP: $37.95
HISTORY:
Yūbari was an experimental light cruiser built between 1922 and 1923 for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Although a test bed for various new designs and technologies, she was commissioned as a front-line warship and participated in numerous combat operations during World War II before she was sunk by the U.S. Navy. Designs pioneered on Yūbari had a major impact on future Japanese warship designs.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Name: Yūbari
Namesake: Yūbari River
Ordered: October 1921
Builder: Sasebo Naval Arsenal
Laid down: 5 June 1922
Launched: 5 March 1923
Commissioned: 23 July 1923
Fate: Torpedoed and sunk by USS Bluegill, 28 April 1944
Type: Light cruiser
Displacement: 2,890 t (2,840 long tons) standard, (designed); 3,141 t (3,091 long tons) full load, (designed); 4,075 t (4,011 long tons) full load (actual)
Length: 138.90 m (455 ft 9 in)
Beam: 12.04 m (39 ft 6 in)
Draft: 3.58 m (11 ft 9 in)
Installed power: 43,060 kW (57,740 hp)
Propulsion: 3 × geared steam turbines, 8 × Kampon boilers, 3 × shafts
Speed: 35.5 kn (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph)
Range: 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement: 328
Armament as built: 6 × 14 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (2×2, 2×1), 1 × 80 mm (3 in)/40 3rd Year Type naval gun, 2 × 7.7mm machine guns, 4 × Type 93 torpedoes (2×2) torpedo launchers, 8 × 610 mm (24 in) torpedoes, 34 × mines
1944: 4 × 14 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (2×2), 1 × 12 cm/45 10th Year Type naval gun, 15 × Type 96 25mm AA guns (6×2, 1×3), 4 × Type 93 torpedoes (2×2) torpedo launchers, 8 × 610 mm (24 in) torpedoes, 2 × depth charge launchers
Armor:
Belt: 38 mm (1.5 in)
Deck: 25 mm (0.98 in)
Turrets: 25 mm (0.98 in)
THE BOOK:
Kagero is based in Lublin, Poland.
This book is in soft-cover of 78 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format. It comes in a self-sealing clear cello envelope.
I don’t know if it is really printed in 3D as I am partially color-blind and there are no cardboard glasses, that have a blue and a red lens in them, to use to see the images in 3D like I have gotten in the past with other Kagero 3D books.
The cover art shows a color illustration of a front view of the Yubari, posed against an all navy-blue background. The cruiser has a medium-grey hull with a red water-line and tan wood decks. The roof of the conning tower and the rear-ends of the turret guns are white.
The back cover shows a color illustration of the stern of the Yubari. A flag on the stern flies a huge Japanese rising sun flag.
There are 135 color illustrations inside the book. They show every inch of the cruiser. Further shown are light stripes across the decks, a jet black top to the smokestack and the motor launches.
The last page of the book shows 9 black and white cover arts of Kagero’s Naval Archives Series books.
Very oddly none of them say on the covers what the subject is inside them?
This is a neat book about the Yubari. Tamiya manufactures a kit of the Yubari in 1/700th scale and Pit-Road makes 2 boxings of it also to 1/700th scale.
This book will be of great interest to modelers and naval historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample.
Casemate is the N. American distributor of Kagero Books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Yūbari was an experimental light cruiser built between 1922 and 1923 for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Although a test bed for various new designs and technologies, she was commissioned as a front-line warship and participated in numerous combat operations during World War II before she was sunk by the U.S. Navy. Designs pioneered on Yūbari had a major impact on future Japanese warship designs.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Name: Yūbari
Namesake: Yūbari River
Ordered: October 1921
Builder: Sasebo Naval Arsenal
Laid down: 5 June 1922
Launched: 5 March 1923
Commissioned: 23 July 1923
Fate: Torpedoed and sunk by USS Bluegill, 28 April 1944
Type: Light cruiser
Displacement: 2,890 t (2,840 long tons) standard, (designed); 3,141 t (3,091 long tons) full load, (designed); 4,075 t (4,011 long tons) full load (actual)
Length: 138.90 m (455 ft 9 in)
Beam: 12.04 m (39 ft 6 in)
Draft: 3.58 m (11 ft 9 in)
Installed power: 43,060 kW (57,740 hp)
Propulsion: 3 × geared steam turbines, 8 × Kampon boilers, 3 × shafts
Speed: 35.5 kn (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph)
Range: 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement: 328
Armament as built: 6 × 14 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (2×2, 2×1), 1 × 80 mm (3 in)/40 3rd Year Type naval gun, 2 × 7.7mm machine guns, 4 × Type 93 torpedoes (2×2) torpedo launchers, 8 × 610 mm (24 in) torpedoes, 34 × mines
1944: 4 × 14 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (2×2), 1 × 12 cm/45 10th Year Type naval gun, 15 × Type 96 25mm AA guns (6×2, 1×3), 4 × Type 93 torpedoes (2×2) torpedo launchers, 8 × 610 mm (24 in) torpedoes, 2 × depth charge launchers
Armor:
Belt: 38 mm (1.5 in)
Deck: 25 mm (0.98 in)
Turrets: 25 mm (0.98 in)
THE BOOK:
Kagero is based in Lublin, Poland.
This book is in soft-cover of 78 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format. It comes in a self-sealing clear cello envelope.
I don’t know if it is really printed in 3D as I am partially color-blind and there are no cardboard glasses, that have a blue and a red lens in them, to use to see the images in 3D like I have gotten in the past with other Kagero 3D books.
The cover art shows a color illustration of a front view of the Yubari, posed against an all navy-blue background. The cruiser has a medium-grey hull with a red water-line and tan wood decks. The roof of the conning tower and the rear-ends of the turret guns are white.
The back cover shows a color illustration of the stern of the Yubari. A flag on the stern flies a huge Japanese rising sun flag.
There are 135 color illustrations inside the book. They show every inch of the cruiser. Further shown are light stripes across the decks, a jet black top to the smokestack and the motor launches.
The last page of the book shows 9 black and white cover arts of Kagero’s Naval Archives Series books.
Very oddly none of them say on the covers what the subject is inside them?
This is a neat book about the Yubari. Tamiya manufactures a kit of the Yubari in 1/700th scale and Pit-Road makes 2 boxings of it also to 1/700th scale.
This book will be of great interest to modelers and naval historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample.
Casemate is the N. American distributor of Kagero Books and all their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly recommended.