Ōi (ship, 1921)
 The Ōi 1923
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The Ōi ( Japanese 大 井 ) was a light cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy . She belonged to the five ships of the Kuma class . The cruiser was named after the Ōi River in Shizuoka Prefecture .
The ship was built by Kawasaki in Kobe and put into service in 1921. It took part in the Pacific War, was converted for extraordinary purposes before it was sunk by a submarine on July 19, 1944.
Modifications and conversions
The Ōi was converted 1938 on boilers with an oil burner and air defense by two 80 Type-92 7.7 mm L / amplified -Maschinengewehre. In 1940, the 8.0 cm L / 40 Type 3 cannons were removed and replaced with two 25 mm L / 60 Type 96 twin automatic cannons.
Torpedo carrier
Around 1934, the Navy developed a new strategy based on a new type of torpedo with a long range. It was finally decided to convert the Ōi into a torpedo carrier which, as part of the overall strategy of the Navy, was to attack an enemy battle fleet from the cover of darkness with a large number of superior torpedoes. The enemy thus decimated should then be defeated by the Japanese battle fleet.
For this purpose, ten quad starters for 61 cm Type 93 torpedoes were installed on the sides of the ship and the bulk of the main artillery was removed. Only two 14.0 cm L / 50-year-3 guns on the forecastle remained. Two more anti-aircraft machine guns were installed and the fire control devices were changed to focus on torpedo use.
Troop transport
Based on the changed strategic situation after the Battle of Midway , it was decided in the summer of 1942 to dismantle the four aft quadruple torpedo sets and to convert Ōi and Kitakami into troop transports. Air defense was reinforced by two 25mm L / 60 Type 96 triplets. Two 14-meter landing craft were taken on board and drop rails for depth charges were attached.
Career
According to the provisions of the Fleet Conference in London of October 1930, the Ōi had to be partially demilitarized. While the other light cruisers were equipped with aircraft catapults, on Teilei and her sister ship Kitakami only the parts of the adaptations to the bridge superstructures could be implemented in which the light cruisers were equipped with additional observation platforms as part of a reinforced front mast.
In 1934 she was assigned to the naval school in Kure as a training ship for artillerymen .
On September 26, 1935, the cruisers Ōi , Kitakami and the cruiser Kinu were severely damaged by waves in a typhoon . The navy then decided to retrofit all light cruisers of the Kuma , Sendai and Nagara classes , to strengthen the hulls and to reduce the superstructure in order to improve stability.
In 1936 the Ōi were again sent to the naval base in Kure for training purposes.
In 1937, the Ōi was assigned to block Chinese merchant shipping and moved to reserve towards the end of the year. One began with the conversion of the machine systems and later with the conversion to the torpedo carrier, which lasted until shortly before the start of the war in 1941.
Second World War
At the end of January 1941, the Ōi formed the escort for a troop transport from Japan to Magong , part of a group of islands off Taiwan . She then performed backup tasks.
In connection with the Japanese expansion efforts, Ōi ran out as part of one of the fleets that were to occupy the Midway Islands . After the Battle of Midway it was decided to convert the ship for transport tasks. The renovation lasted until September 1942.
After their conversion to transporters, Ōi and Kitakami were assigned to transport troops in connection with the Battle of Guadalcanal in autumn 1942 . Ōi brought troops to Truk and Rabaul .
From the beginning of 1943 to May 1943, together with her sister ship Kitakami , she carried out several transport trips to New Guinea in order to strengthen the units of the Imperial Japanese Army there with troops that were previously stationed in China.
In the second week of October 1943 she carried out transport trips to Car Nicobar and in early November to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands . She remained in Singapore as a guard ship until January 1944.
At the beginning of February 1944 she was turned off to participate in the fleet operation "SA-1", in which she was to accompany the heavy cruiser Aoba , Tone Chikuma with the light cruiser Kinu and the destroyers Uranami , Shikinami and Amagiri . The mission was canceled at the end of March and she returned to Singapore on the 25th. The Ōi subsequently transported airfield personnel from Singapore to Davao , where they received troops in May 1944, which they brought to Sorong .
Downfall
After the troop transport mission, she was to relocate back to Singapore with a stopover in Manila. Some time after the ship had left the port of Manila on July 19, 1944, around noon it was hit on the port side, on the aft half of the ship, by two torpedoes that the submarine USS Flasher had launched four minutes earlier. Only one of the guns exploded. The fuel in one of the Ōi's tanks caught fire and one of the engine rooms overflowed.
Because of the heavy seas, a second attack by the submarine failed, but the water in the hull of the Ōi rose faster and soon put another engine room out of order, so that the cruiser was stopped. An attempt to the ship by the destroyer Shikinami tow, failed when the Ōi broke, and at 13 ° 12 ' N , 114 ° 52' O went down. 368 crew members were rescued and 153 seafarers were killed.
literature
- Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. US Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3 .