Japanese gunboat Katata

	Katata around 1935
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Katata
Ordered	1910 Fiscal Year
Builder	Harima Shipyards, Japan
Laid down	29 April 1922
Launched	16 July 1922, disassembled and shipped to Shanghai, China. Reassembly started 25 January 1923 Tunghwa Shipyard
Completed	20 October 1923.
Stricken	3 May 1947
Fate	1945 to China
General characteristics
Type	Seta-class gunboat
Displacement	338 long tons (343 t) initial
Length	56.08 metres (184.0 ft)
Beam	8.23 metres (27.0 ft)
Draught	1.02 metres (3.3 ft).
Propulsion	2-shaft reciprocating VTE engines; 2 boilers; 2,100 hp (1,600 kW)
Speed	16 knots (18 mph; 30 km/h)
Range	1750 nautical miles @ 10 knots
Complement	62
Armament	2 × 80 mm (3.1 in)/45 cal. guns; 6 × 7.7 mm Type 96 25mm autocannon;

Katata (堅田, also Katada) was a

Yangtze River in China during the 1920s, and during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II

.

Background

Katata was the second of the Seta-class river gunboats built under the 1920 Fleet Building Program of the Imperial Japanese Navy for operations on the inland waterways of China.^[2]

Design

The basic design of Katata was modeled after that of the gunboat Toba, with the same general dimensions and layout. Katata had a hull with an overall length of 56.08 metres (184.0 ft) and width of 8.23 metres (27.0 ft), with a normal displacement of 338 tons and draft of 1.02 metres (3.3 ft). She was propelled by two reciprocating engines with two Kampon boilers driving three shafts, producing 1,400 hp (1,000 kW) and had a top speed of 16 knots.^[2]

The ship was initially armed with two 80 mm (3.1 in)/28 cal. guns and six 7.7mm machine guns.^[2]

Service record

Katata was laid down on 29 April 1922 and launched 16 July 1922 at the

Yangtze River from Shanghai to the Three Gorges, for commerce protection and as a show of force in protection of Japanese nationals and economic interests through the rest of the 1920s and early 1930s. Katata was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Masatomi Kimura from January to September 1932.^[1]

With the start of the

11th Divisions north of Shanghai.^[1]

Around 1940, Katata was refitted with two 3.1-in/40 cal anti-aircraft guns and five 13.2 mm Hotchkiss machine guns. She was assigned to the First China Expeditionary Fleet in December 1941. On 22 June 1942, she participated in “Operation SE” and was assigned to the Tung Ting Lake task force with gunboats Seta and Sumida. Around the end of 1943, her anti-aircraft weaponry was further upgraded with the replacement of the five Hotchkiss machine guns with six Type 96 AA guns.^[1]

On 12 December 1944

P-51 Mustang fighters on 2 April 1945 and remained wrecked to the surrender of Japan.^[1]

The wreck was given to the

navy list on 3 May 1947.^[2]

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "IJN River Gunboat KATATA: Tabular Record of Movement". Combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Jentsura, Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy; page 120

References

Konstam, Angus (2012). Yangtze River Gunboats 1900-49. Osprey Publishing.
ISBN 9781849084086
.

Gardner, Robert (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Conway Marine Press.
ISBN 0-85177-245-5
.

Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN 0-87021-893-X
.

External links

Nishida, Hiroshi. "Materials of IJN". Imperial Japanese Navy.
Japanese gunboats (with photos) (in Japanese)
Monograph 144 Chapter II

[Combined-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "IJN River Gunboat KATATA: Tabular Record of Movement". Combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 5 December 2012.

[Jentsura-2] Jentsura, Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy; page 120

[1]

[2]