List of battlecruisers of Japan

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sea trials
, on 23 January 1915.

The

Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) and in contrast to the Royal Navy,[3] the Japanese envisioned and designed battlecruisers that could operate alongside more heavily armoured battleships to counter numerical superiority.[4]

The first phase of the Eight-Eight plan began in 1910, when the

Diet of Japan authorised the construction of one battleship (Fusō) and four battlecruisers of the Kongō class. Designed by British naval architect George Thurston, the first of these battlecruisers (Kongō) was constructed in Britain by Vickers, while the remaining three were constructed in Japan. Armed with eight 14-inch (360 mm) guns and with a top speed of 30 knots (35 mph; 56 km/h), they were the most advanced capital ships of their time.[5] At the height of the First World War, an additional four battlecruisers of the Amagi class were ordered. The ships would have had a main battery of ten 16-inch (410 mm) guns, but none were ever completed as battlecruisers, as the Washington Naval Treaty limited the size of the navies of Japan, Britain and the United States.[6] Before the Second World War, a further class of two battlecruisers were planned (Design B-65), but more pressing naval priorities and a faltering war effort ensured these ships never reached the construction phase.[7]

Of the eight battlecruiser hulls laid down by Japan (the four Kongō and four Amagi class), none survived the Second World War. Amagi was being converted to an aircraft carrier when its hull was catastrophically damaged by the

Kure Naval Base in July 1945.[10]

Key

Definitions
Main guns The number and type of the main battery guns
Armour Thickness of the
armoured belt
Displacement Ship displacement at full combat load
Propulsion Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated
Service The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate
Laid down The date the keel began to be assembled
Commissioned The date the ship was commissioned
Fate The eventual fate of the ship (e.g., sunk, scrapped)

Kongō class

Artist's rendition of Kongō in its 1944 configuration
Main article: Kongō-class battlecruiser

The four

First World War
.

In the aftermath of the Washington Naval Treaty, all four ships underwent extensive modernisation in the 1920s and 1930s, which reconfigured them as

Formosa Strait,[9] and Haruna was sunk during the Bombing of Kure on 28 July 1945.[10]

Specifications and service data
Ship Main guns Armour Displacement Propulsion Service
Laid down Commissioned Fate
Kongō 8 × 14 in (356 mm)[5] 8 in (203 mm)[15] 27,500 long tons (27,941 t)[5] 4 screws, steam turbines, 27.5 kn (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) (later 30.5 kn (56.5 km/h; 35.1 mph))[16] 17 January 1911 16 August 1913 Torpedoed in the
Formosa Strait, 21 November 1944[9]
Hiei 4 November 1911 4 August 1914 Scuttled following Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 13 November 1942[17]
Kirishima 17 March 1912 19 April 1915 Sank following Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 15 November 1942[18]
Haruna 16 March 1912 19 April 1915 Sunk by air attack,
Kure Naval Base, 28 July 1945[18]

Amagi class

launch
as an aircraft carrier
Main article: Amagi-class battlecruiser

As part of the Eight-Eight fleet, four

Yokosuka naval yard. Atago's keel was laid in Kobe at the Kawasaki shipyard on 22 November 1921, while Takao, the fourth and final ship of the class, was laid down at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki on 19 December 1921.[6]

The terms of the February 1922 Washington Naval Treaty forced the class' cancellation, but the two closest to completion (Amagi and Akagi) were saved from the scrappers by a provision that allowed two capital ships to be converted to aircraft carriers. However, the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake caused significant stress damage to the hull of Amagi. The structure was too heavily damaged to be usable, and conversion work was abandoned.[20][N 1] Amagi was struck from the navy list and sold for scrapping, which began on 14 April 1924. The other two ships, Atago and Takao, were officially cancelled two years later (31 July 1924) and were broken up for scrap in their slipways. Akagi went on as an aircraft carrier to fight in the Second World War, where it was sunk after air attack during the Battle of Midway.[6]

Specifications and service data
Ship Main guns Armour Displacement Propulsion Service
Laid down Commissioned Fate
Amagi 10 × 16 in (406 mm)[6] 10 in (254 mm)[6] 46,000 long tons (46,738 t)[6] 4 screws, steam turbines, 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)[6] 16 December 1920 November 1923 (projected) Reordered as aircraft carrier; damaged in earthquake; cancelled and scrapped[6]
Akagi 6 December 1920 December 1923 Reordered and completed as aircraft carrier[6]
Atago 22 November 1921 December 1924 Cancelled and scrapped[6]
Takao 19 December 1921 December 1924 Cancelled and scrapped[6]

Design B-64/B-65 class

A line drawing of the plans for the Design B-65 cruisers
Main article: Design B-65 cruiser

Design B-64 was originally intended to be part of Japan's Night Battle Force, a force that would attack an enemy fleet's outer defence ring of cruisers and destroyers under the cover of darkness. After penetrating the ring, Japanese cruisers and destroyers would launch torpedo attacks on the enemy's battleships. The remainder of the enemy would be finished off by the main fleet on the following day. The B-64s were intended to support the lighter cruisers and destroyers in these nighttime strikes.[21] This strategy was altered when the Japanese learned the specifications of the United States' Alaska-class large cruisers. The design was enlarged and redesignated B-65; their purpose would now be to screen the main battle fleet against the threat posed by the fast and heavily armed Alaskas.[22][23] With war looming in 1940, the Japanese focused on more useful and versatile ship types such as aircraft carriers and cruisers; the Japanese defeat at the 1942 Battle of Midway meant that the ships were postponed indefinitely, and with more important strategic considerations to worry about, the ships were never built.[24][25]

Specifications and construction data
Ship Main guns Armour Displacement Propulsion Service
Laid down Commissioned Fate
Yard number 795 (not named)[N 2]
 9 × 12.2 in (310 mm)[26] 7.5 in (191 mm)[26] 34,000 long tons (34,546 t)[26] Four sets of geared steam turbines, 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)[26] NA 1945 (projected) Not ordered due to war
Yard number 796 (not named) 1946 (projected)

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ In place of Amagi, the Tosa-class battleship Kaga was reordered as an aircraft carrier.[20]
  2. ^ As the ships were only in the design phase when cancelled – no orders were placed and no construction had begun – the B-65s were never assigned actual names.[26]

Citations

  1. ^ Stille, p. 4
  2. ^ Stille, p. 7
  3. ^ Staff, p. 3
  4. ^ Evans & Peattie, p. 150
  5. ^ a b c d Jackson, p. 48
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Gardiner and Gray, p. 235
  7. ^ Evans and Peattie, p. 360
  8. ^ Jackson, p. 121
  9. ^ a b c Wheeler, p. 183
  10. ^ a b Jackson, p. 129
  11. ^ Gardiner and Gray, p. 234
  12. ^ Stille, p. 16
  13. ^ Stille, pp. 16–17
  14. ^ Stille, p. 19
  15. ^ McCurtie, p. 185
  16. ^ Stille, p. 15
  17. ^ Schom, p. 417
  18. ^ a b Stille, p. 20
  19. ^ Gardiner and Gray, p. 224
  20. ^ a b Stille, p. 8
  21. ^ Evans and Peattie, pp. 273–276
  22. ^ Lacroix and Wells II, p. 606
  23. ^ Evans and Peattie, pp. 359–360
  24. ^ Lacroix and Wells II, p. 829
  25. ^ Garzke and Dulin, pp. 84–85
  26. ^ a b c d e Garzke and Dulin, p. 86

Bibliography

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