Azuma (ship)
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|---|---|
 The Azuma in 1905 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Armored cruiser |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | March 1898 |
| Launch | June 24, 1899 |
| delivery | July 28, 1900 |
| Namesake | old name for (Eastern) Japan |
| period of service |
1900-1945 |
| Whereabouts | August 9, 1945 sunk Demolition 1945 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
9307 ts |
| length |
131.5 m pp, |
| width |
20.94 m |
| Draft |
7.21 m |
| crew |
644 men |
| drive |
24 Belleville boilers |
| speed |
20 kn |
| Range |
7,000 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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| similar | |
The Azuma ( Japanese 吾 妻 ), sometimes also Adzuma, was an armored cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy designed and built in France . The name Azuma is an old name for Japan and especially the Kantō region in eastern Japan .
Building history
The Azuma was one of the six armored cruisers that were ordered from foreign shipyards as the core of the Japanese navy after the First Sino-Japanese War as part of the "six-six program" (six ships of the line - six armored cruisers ). Almost all of the contracts in the construction program went to Great Britain. Armstrong built two pairs of these cruisers in Elswick: first the Asama and the Tokiwa , then the Izumo and the Iwate . For political and diplomatic reasons, the Yakumo was ordered in Germany and her near-sister ship Azuma in France.
The basic design developed by Armstrong envisaged two twin turrets with 203 mm Armstrong guns as the main armament and a speed of 20 to 21 knots for all six cruisers in the program . The shipyards were relatively free to design the details. The French shipyard developed a long but narrow hull with a high freeboard and the twin towers relatively close to the ends of the ship. The Azuma had two boiler rooms, the rear one behind the center chimney. This gave the Azuma its own silhouette , as this arrangement created a relatively large gap between the middle and rear chimneys.
The Azuma had 24 Belleville boilers , which were considered quite advanced at the time. An important innovation was a system for better draft in the chimneys. Contemporary British and German warships had significantly lower air intakes, which had proven to be problematic in combat as they sucked fire and debris from the deck as well. Installation in the chimneys became standard equipment on most warships after the Russo-Japanese War . The main armament did not differ from the other armored cruisers.
The keel of the Azuma was laid in March 1898, she was launched on June 24, 1899 and was put into service on July 28, 1900.
The problem was the long hull of the Azuma , for which there was no suitable dry dock in Japan . Their Belleville boilers also often proved to be defective at higher pressures.
Mission history
Russo-Japanese War
At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War on February 9, 1904, the Azuma with Izumo , Iwate , Tokiwa and Yakumo as the 2nd Division of the United Japanese Fleet together with the 1st Division, which consisted of six ships of the line, was initially used against Port Arthur . Subsequently, on March 6th, the Azuma took part in the first unsuccessful bombardment of Vladivostok with Izumo , Asama , Yakumo and Iwate in the association of the 2nd squadron .
After the success of the Russian cruisers from Vladivostok , the armored cruiser was deployed under Admiral Kamimura as a second fleet in the Sea of Japan and defeated with the four modern armored cruisers Izumo , Azuma , Tokiwa and Iwate as well as the two armored cruisers Naniwa and Takachiho in the sea battle near Ulsan on August 14th 1904 the Russian cruiser squadron under Rear Admiral Karl Jessen with the armored cruisers Rossija , Gromoboi and the outdated Rurik , which was sunk. Azuma received ten hits in that battle and only had injuries. She briefly fell out of the Kamimuras battle line. After replenishing the used ammunition and fuel supplies, Izumo went back to sea with Tokiwa and the Azuma . After the battle, she was one of the blockade forces off Vladivostok and was on duty there with changing partners from December 23 to February 10, without tracking down an enemy ship. In addition, like the other armored cruisers, it was overhauled and easily converted.
The Azuma was involved in the decisive naval battle at Tsushima on May 27-28, 1905 , and suffered fifteen hits and at least ten dead. After the battle, she participated in the occupation of Sakhalin in August .
Training ship
Even before the World War , the Azuma carried out two training trips for the naval academy. From December 5, 1912 to April 21, 1913, the 40th class went to Australia. The trip was carried out together with the protected cruiser Soya and the formerly Russian Varyag built in the USA . The second voyage via Hawaii to North America began on April 20, 1914 with the Asama . Shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe, the cruisers with the 41st class returned on August 11th. From 1916 to 1920 three more trips with the 43rd, 46th and 47th class. The first two trips from April 20 to August 22, 1916 together with Iwate and from March 1 to July 26, 1919 with Tokiwa , went to Australia. Between the voyages, the Azuma came back into active service and secured transports on the Indian Ocean between Singapore and the Suez Canal .
The last training trip of the Azuma took place with the 47th class on November 24, 1919 again with the Tokiwa to Singapore , Southeast Asia and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean , before she returned to Yokosuka on May 20, 1920.
Whereabouts
The Azuma was reclassified as a coastal defense ship 1st class on September 1, 1921, but remained as a stationary training ship from October 1, 1927 at the School of Ship Technology in Maizuru . From July 1, 1942, she was designated as an auxiliary ship on February 15, 1944 and demolished in 1945. The fuselage was sunk on July 18, 1945 by American bombs. Your anchor is kept in Nogi Shrine in Tokyo .
literature
- Hansgeorg Jentsura: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1869-1945 , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1976, ISBN 0-87021-893-X
- Arthur W. Jose: The Royal Australian Navy 1914-1918 The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 , 9th Edition, Sydney 1941
- John Roberts, HC Timewell, Roger Chesneau (ed.), Eugene M. Kolesnik (ed.): Warships of the World 1860 to 1905 - Volume 2: USA, Japan and Russia , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz, 1983, ISBN 3- 7637-5403-2
Web links
- Japanese cruiser Adzuma, completed in 1901 ( Memento from October 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Hiroshi Nishida: Technical information on the Azuma
- Rift of the Azuma
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AS Aleksandrow, SA Bałakin: “Asama” i drugije. Japonskie bronienosnyje kriejsera programmy 1895–1896
(А.С. Александров, С.А. Балакин: “Асама” и другие. Японские. Японские Японские броненосные. 1895-1. seria Morskaja Kampania, 1/2006 (Russian)
