In April 1942, just days after crippling two British cruisers off Ceylon, Japanese carrier-based dive bombers struck again. Their target: the Royal Navy’s hms Hermes, Britain’s first aircraft carrier.

May 1945. In the final months of World War 2, the Imperial Japanese Navy sent the heavy cruiser Haguro on a desperate supply mission to the Andaman Islands. But the Royal Navy was waiting. Acting on ...