Hatsuharu class
 Ariake
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The Hatsuharu class ( Japanese 型 駆 逐 艦 , Hatsuharu-gata kuchikukan ) was a class of six destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy , which was used in World War II .
Development history and construction
Due to the London Naval Treaty of 1930, which the Standard Displacement firmly laid for destroyers to 1500 ts only exceptions flotilla leaders admitted that 1850 could ts displace, it was the Imperial Japanese Navy no longer possible destroyer of Special Types ( Fubuki - and Akatsuki class ) to build because they had a standard displacement of 1750 ts. However, the Japanese naval designers succeeded by targeted weight reduction in the amount of 260 ts, such as the installation of a lighter and less powerful propulsion system, to work out a design which only carried one gun less and was equipped with a well-designed reloading system for torpedoes. After completing the first units ( Hatsuharu and Nenohi ), these destroyers looked top-heavy , which was also true. This was caused by the fact that the same high-rise bridge construction was used and an elevated single gun turret was added in front of the bridge. In addition, the third torpedo tube set had been given an elevated position on the aft protective deck and, together with its reserve torpedoes, this measure had practically eliminated the weight-reducing removal of the twin turret from this position. This considerable overweight in connection with a less wide hull should have caused stability problems, but it appears that the stability of the type ship was judged to be satisfactory after completion.
As part of the 1st construction program (Maru 1 Keikaku) from 1931, twelve units were ordered. As a result of the Tomozuru incident , in which the torpedo boat Tomozuru capsized in heavy seas on March 12, 1934 , losing a large part of the crew due to top-heaviness, the stability of the two ships already in service was checked and this was found to be defective rated. Four more units were already in the more advanced stages of construction and so the design was revised and the last six units of the originally planned class now formed the basis of the Shiratsuyu class .
Prewar changes
The structural changes made at Hatsuharu , Nenohi , Wakaba and Hatsushimo in the years 1935 to 1937, at Ariake and Yūgure these were carried out before commissioning, were the removal of the front elevated single tower, the front deckhouse and the aft torpedo tube set including reserve torpedoes. Superstructures, chimneys and masts were shortened so that the single tower could be erected again on the upper deck - this time back to back with the aft gun turret. The renovations increased the metacentric height from 0.588 to 0.8 meters and the center of gravity decreased from 1.232 to 0.486 meters.
List of ships
| Name (when planning) |
Surname | Shipyard | Keel laying | Launch | Commissioning | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dai-59-Gō Kuchikukan # 59 destroyer |
Ariake ( 有 明 ) |
Kawasaki Shipyard , Kobe |
January 14, 1933 | September 23, 1934 | March 25, 1935 | sunk on July 28, 1943 by air raid after running aground on a reef near Cape Gloucester |
|
Dai-60-Gō Kuchikukan No. 60 destroyer |
Hatsuharu ( 初春 ) |
Sasebo naval shipyard | May 14, 1931 | February 27, 1933 | September 30, 1934 | sunk on November 13, 1944 by air raid in Manila Bay |
|
Dai-61-Gō Kuchikukan No.61 destroyer |
Hatsushimo ( 初 霜 ) |
Uraga shipyard, Yokosuka |
January 31, 1933 | November 4, 1933 | September 27, 1934 | sunk on July 30, 1945 by a mine hit off Maizuru |
|
Dai-62-Gō Kuchikukan number 62 destroyer |
Nenohi ( 子 日 ) |
December 15, 1931 | December 22, 1932 | September 30, 1933 | sunk on July 4, 1942 by americans Submarine USS Triton , near Agattu |
|
|
Dai-63-Gō Kuchikukan # 63 destroyer |
Wakaba ( 若 葉 ) |
Sasebo naval shipyard | December 12, 1931 | March 18, 1934 | October 31, 1934 | sunk on 24 October 1944, aircraft of the USS Franklin , at the Battle of Leyte Gulf |
|
Dai-64-Gō Kuchikukan # 64 destroyer |
Yūgure ( 夕 暮 ) |
Maizuru naval shipyard | April 9, 1933 | May 6, 1934 | March 30, 1935 | sunk on July 20, 1943 by air raid off Vella Lavella |
|
Shiratsuyu Shigure Murasame Yūdachi Samidare Harusame |
After design-related changes, managed as a separate class . | |||||
technology
hull
The hull of a Hatsuharu- class destroyer was 109.5 meters long, 10 meters wide and had a draft of 3.03 meters with an operational displacement of 1,830 tons .
drive
It was driven by two turbine sets with simple toothed gears with three oil-fired steam generators - Kampon-type boilers , each housed in a separate room - with a total output of 42,000 HP (30,891 kW ). The power was delivered to two shafts with one screw each . The top speed was 36.5 knots (68 km / h ). 508 tons of fuel could be bunkered, resulting in a maximum travel distance of 6,000 nautical miles (11,112 km) at 15 knots.
Armament
After all stability problems had been resolved, the armament consisted of five 12.7 cm Type 3 guns with a length of 50 caliber in two twin turrets of the B model and a single turret of the A model. Which were set up back to back in the boat center line, one in front of the bridge structure and two behind the aft deckhouse. For air defense two 13.2-mm machine guns were of the type 93 are available, which were placed on both sides on a platform at the rear chimney. Furthermore, two triple torpedo tube sets in caliber 61 cm for torpedoes of the type 93 with six reserve torpedoes were on board as torpedo armament .
Due to the strong Allied air forces during the war, there was a continuous reinforcement of the two 2.5 cm guns , which had replaced the 13 mm machine guns before the war. The beginning was to put the single tower ashore and instead two triplet mounts were set up. By the end of the war, the number of anti-aircraft guns had increased to 21.
radar
Japanese destroyers were not equipped with radio measurement technology from the beginning of the Pacific War . It was not until the middle of 1943 that the first selected units received the Type 22 radar . This system, which is capable of surveillance of the sea and fire control , which consisted of a double horn - one for sending and one for receiving - was installed in the main mast behind the bridge. Due to the fact that early Japanese radar devices were unreliable and their operating personnel were poorly trained, commanders tended not to take any information from them seriously and to rely on classic reconnaissance methods such as lookouts with optical devices. This trust became more and more problematic as the Americans introduced better and better radar systems and used them primarily for fire control.
In 1944, the surviving destroyers received type 13 devices for air surveillance , which had a long ladder antenna that was usually mounted on the aft mast.
literature
- Harald Fock: Fleet Chronicle - The active warships involved in the two world wars and their whereabouts . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0788-2 , p. 173-200 .
- Mark Stille: Imperial Japanese Navy Destroyers 1919–45 . tape 1 . Osprey Publishing , Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-1-84908-984-5 , pp. 7-8 and 35-39 .
- Mike J. Whitley: Destroyer in World War II . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 , p. 190-191 .
