Stefan Draminski – författare

An illustrated study of Japan’s Nagato-class battleships: the IJN’s powerful super-dreadnoughts, which were heavily modernized to fight in World War II. Illustrated with the author’s much-acclaimed 3D reconstructions, naval researcher Stefan Draminski offers a technical and operational study of Nagato and Mutsu, Japan’s most powerful battleships of the dreadnought era. They were the world’s first battleships to mount 16-inch guns, and signalled Japan’s determination to build a fleet that qualitatively outmatched the world’s leading navies. Entering service in the 1920s, they would be heavily modernized before the outbreak of the Pacific War, which Nagato would start as Yamamoto’s flagship for the Pearl Harbor attack. Both ships were present at the Battle of Midway, and though Mutsu would be sunk by a magazine explosion in 1943, Nagato fought at Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf, before being modified again and moored at Yokosuka as an antiaircraft battery. The last Japanese battleship afloat on VJ-Day, Nagato was sunk in 1946 at Bikini Atoll in the Crossroads nuclear test. Drawing on Japanese-language sources and original documentation, this is a concisely detailed account of these formidable battleships, superbly illustrated with archive photos and artwork showing the ships through their careers and in action.

USS Iowa (BB-61) was the lead ship in one of the most famous classes of battleships ever commissioned into the US Navy.Transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, the Iowa first fired her guns in anger in the Marshall Islands campaign, and sunk her first enemy ship, the Katori. The Iowa went on to serve across a number of pivotal Pacific War campaigns, including at the battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf.After taking part in the Korea War, the Iowa was decommissioned in 1958, before being briefly reactivated in the 1980s as part of President Reagan’s 600-Ship Navy Plan. It is now a museum ship in Los Angeles.This brilliantly-detailed addition to the Anatomy of the Ship series is illustrated with contemporary photographs, scaled plans of the ship and hundreds of superb 3D illustrations which bring every detail of this historic battleship to life.

A brilliantly detailed visual representation of the only US World War II destroyer to have retained its original configuration.Superbly illustrated with artwork of the ship through its career, reconstructions of deck layouts, and 3D illustrations of every detail of the ship from its rigging to its boats to its anchors, this book reconstructs and dissects the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Kidd, the most original survivor of the US Navy's most famous class of World War II destroyers. Kidd fought throughout the Pacific War, in the Marshall Islands, Marianas, and Philippines campaigns. In early 1945, Kidd joined Task Force 58 for the invasion of Okinawa, and postwar served in the Korean War. Since 1982 USS Kidd has been a museum ship at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.Drawing on Stefan Draminski’s new research and making the best use yet of his acclaimed 3D illustration techniques, this is the most comprehensive examination of USS Kidd ever published. It includes a complete set of detailed line drawings with fully descriptive keys and full-color 3D artwork, supported by technical details, photographs, and a concise history of the ship’s construction and service.

The Bismarck is perhaps the most famous – and notorious – warship ever built.Completed in 1941, the 45,000-ton German battleship sank HMS Hood, the pride of the British Navy, during one of the most sensational encounters in naval history. Following the sinking, Bismarck was chased around the North Atlantic by many units of the Royal Navy. She was finally dispatched with gunfire and torpedoes on 27 May, less than five months after her completion. Her wreck still lies where she sank, 4,800m down and 960km off the west coast of France. Drawing on new research and technology, this edition is the most comprehensive examination of Bismarck ever published. It includes a complete set of detailed line drawings with fully descriptive keys and full-colour 3D artwork, supported by technical details, photographs and text on the building of the ship and a record of the ship’s service history.

The Kriegsmarine‘s Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, described either as a battleship or battlecruiser, and the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau.She was launched on 3 October 1936 and completed in January 1939, armed with nine 28cm C/34 guns in three triple turrets. She operated with Gneisenau for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. They took part in Operation Weserübung (April–June 1940), the German invasion of Norway, during which they sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent. Scharnhorst also sank HMS Rawalpindi in November 1939.In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined the Tirpitz in Norway to intercept Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. On a sortie from Norway to attack a convoy, the German force was intercepted by British ships and during the Battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943), HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank Scharnhorst. Most of her crew was lost.This is the most comprehensive examination of Scharnhorst ever published, drawing on new research and technology to tell the full story of the ship. It includes a complete set of detailed line drawings with fully descriptive keys and full-colour 3D artwork, supported by technical details, photographs, and text on the building of the ship, as well as a record of her service history.

A uniquely detailed study of a Japanese aircraft carrier that took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, before being sunk at Midway.Superbly illustrated with line drawings, full-colour artwork of the ship through its career, internal reconstructions of deck layouts, and 3D illustrations of every detail of the ship from its rigging to its aircraft to its anchors, this book reconstructs and dissects one of the most prominent carriers of the early Pacific War. Built in the late 1930s, Hiryu took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor and most of the operations of Japan’s triumphant first months of the war, before being sunk at Midway.Drawing on Stefan Draminski’s new research and making the best use yet of his acclaimed 3D illustration techniques, this is the most comprehensive examination of Hiryu ever published. It includes a complete set of detailed line drawings with fully descriptive keys and full-color 3D artwork, supported by technical details, photographs, and a concise history of the ship’s construction and service.

Japanese aircraft carrier “Kaga” was initially built as a battleship, but as a result of a coincidence it became one of the first large carriers in history. It was a part of Japanese Kidō Butai, a group of carriers that decided about the power of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the first half-year of the war in Pacific. After a daring attack on Pearl Harbor followed by a series of further victories there was a reversal during the battle of Midway, when “Kaga” and three accompanying carriers were destroyed which ultimately buried Japan’s chances for winning the war.

The Deutschland-class ships were the first heavy vessels of the German Navy after the First World War. In Germany they were classified as “Panzerschiffe”, but in other countries the term “pocket battleships” was very popular. The third and last vessel of this class was Admiral Graf Spee. She was laid down on 1 October 1932, launched on 30 June 1934 and commissioned on 6 January 1936. During the Spanish Civil War the ship patrolled coastal waters of this country. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, on 21 August 1939 the ship steamed out for the Atlantic. From 26 September she was fighting Allied shipping, sinking nine British vessels. On the morning of 13 December Graf Spee encountered a group of Allied warships (the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter and light cruisers HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles) near South American coast. The gun battle that ensued went to the history as the Battle of the River Plate. Both the Exeter and her German enemy were damaged during the course of the engagement. The commander of Graf Spee, Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorff decided to break off the battle and enter the nearby port of Montevideo in Uruguay. According to the international law the German corsair could not stay in a neutral port longer than 72 hours. Convinced that massive British forces were concentrating in the vicinity and hence the escape was impossible, Langsdorf decided to save the crew and scuttle the ship. On 17 December Admiral Graf Spee steamed to the roadstead and there the explosive charges were fired. The German ship sunk in shallow waters and her commander shot himself three days later in a hotel in Buenos Aires. The wreckage was penetrated even during the war by British divers in order to recover more valuable items and obtain information about German technology. In the post-war years many single parts of the ship were recovered.