allies. Finally reaching frontline service in mid-1943, the Nakajima B6N Tenzan (Heavenly Mountain to its Japanese crews, and "Jill" to the Allies) was a considerable improvement in speed and range over the B5N, while being of similar size (due to carrier elevator size restrictions) and carrying the same 800 Kg bomb load or torpedo. Unfortunately for the Japanese, by that time the U.S. Navy had obtained nearly complete air superiority anywhere its carriers sailed, and both the Jills and remaining Kates suffered accordingly. Both ended up being expended in futile Kamikaze attacks in the final months of the war.

Authors Mark Chambers and Tony Holmes have extensively researched Japanese files to present a concise history of the IJN's carrier attack operations. Much of the information on early wartime operations- Pearl Harbor, Indian Ocean, Coral Sea and Midway - are drawn directly from the memoirs of Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, who planned and led many of them. Both his observations and critiques add color and depth to the descriptions of actions involving the Kate squadrons up through the reduction of Rabaul. The desperate air battles in and around the Solomons, including Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz, are described in detail, as are the actions of B6N Tenzans in the Central Pacific and from Formosa, as well as from carriers during the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf battles. An added bonus, to the best extent possible where records are available, is the systematic breakdown throughout the text of the numbers of B5N and B6N aircraft assigned to individual carriers