Ise class
| Ise class | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Overview | |
| Type: |
Battleship hybrid aircraft carrier (from 1944) |
| Units: | 2 |
| Predecessor class: | Fusō class |
| Successor class: | Nagato class |
| Technical data (original planning) |
|
| Displacement: | Standard: 29,980 t |
| Length: | over everything: 208 m |
| Width: | 28 m |
| Draft: | Draft: 8.7 m |
| Speed: | Top: 25.4 kn |
| Crew: | 1200 permanent crew |
| Range: | 8000 nautical miles at 14 knots |
| Drive: | 4 screws over 4 shafts |
The Ise class ( Japanese 伊 勢 型 戦 艦 , Ise-gata senkan ) was a class of two battleships of the Japanese Empire that were used in the First and Second World Wars . Both ships were converted into hybrid aircraft carriers later in the war, a mixture of classic battleship and aircraft carrier.
Development history and technical data
arms race
As early as 1910, the Imperial Japanese Navy tried to adapt to the emerging trend of the “all-big-gun” battleship, as it had heralded in Great Britain with the construction of the dreadnought in 1906 , through a large-scale new building program. The idea was initially to achieve 70% of the combat strength of the United States Navy by building eight battleships and eight battle cruisers. Even if it was finally dropped by the planners in 1922, funds for four battleships were applied for on the basis of this plan and the funds were made available by the Japanese state budget in 1912 and 1913.
Starting with the Fuso class , the construction of which began in 1912, the following class of ships should be an improved version of the Fuso . In this new class, called the Ise class after the type ship , six turrets, each with two 35.6 cm L / 45 guns, were placed along the longitudinal axis of the hull , as with the Fusō class , but the two turrets were grasped Close to each other amidships, so that there was more space for the propulsion systems in the hull than in the Fusō class . In the maritime arms race before World War I, the Ise class with twelve tubes outperformed both the American New York class and its successor, the Nevada class of 1912, which each had ten 14-inch tubes (35.6 cm L / 45) were equipped. The American Pennsylvania class , started in 1913, followed suit with twelve tubes of the same caliber each.
Displacement and armor protection
Both ships were keeled in 1915, the Ise from Kawasaki at the Kobe shipyard and Hyuga from Mitsubishi at the Nagasaki shipyard . With a planned water displacement of 29,980 tons and a ship length of 208 meters, they were among the largest battleships of their time.
The armored citadel in the hull, which enclosed the machinery and ammunition bunker, was armored up to 305 mm thick with steel on the sides; this belt armor thinned to 76 mm towards the bow and stern. The deck was armored over the important ship systems with 65 mm, in other areas the thickness of the deck armor decreased to 31 mm. The turrets and the armored command bridge had armor made of up to 305 mm thick steel. The casemates of the secondary artillery were protected with up to 152 mm steel armor.
Propulsion systems
In the original version, the Ise-class ships were equipped with 24 coal-fired steam boilers . The systems were expanded in 1935–1937 and replaced by oil-fired boilers and new turbines were installed. After completing this work, the ships reached a speed of 25.4 knots.
Armament
The main armament consisted of six turrets , which were set up in pairs, two each on the forecastle, two amidships and two on the quarterdeck. Each turret housed two 35.6 cm L / 45 guns . Before the Second World War, around 1937, the towers of all older battleships were rebuilt so that the maximum tube elevation of originally around 25 ° became 45 ° and the range increased significantly. This effect was not achieved by relocating the bearing journals, but by lowering the inner tower equipment.
Since there was not enough space available for this work at the aft under the towers, this work was dispensed with for the rear towers on the Ise class and these towers were left with their lower tube elevation and range. Since the locks of the converted turrets could only be opened when the barrel was raised by a maximum of 25 °, the rate of fire dropped significantly because the guns first had to be lowered from a 45 ° position to below 25 ° for loading.
The secondary artillery consisted of eighteen 14 cm L / 50 guns, which were combined in casemates, nine each on port and starboard. The ships originally had six underwater torpedo tubes integrated into the hull. These were removed in the course of the first conversion in 1935–1937, along with two of the 18 14 cm L / 50 guns.
The originally used, based on the Vickers 2-Pdr Mk. VIII, four 40 mm / 62 “HI” Type 91 anti -aircraft guns were exchanged for 25 mm / 60 Type 96 Model 1s during the first conversion and their number was increased on ten.
First modifications
After a long period of service in peacetime, the ship was extensively modernized between 1935 and 1937. The hull was widened and lengthened, the propulsion system reinforced. The first chimney was expanded, while the front tripod mast of the Ise was converted into a so-called pagoda mast by adding numerous platforms . Eight new anti-aircraft guns with 12.7 cm caliber were also installed (four twins). Instead of the makeshift aircraft on board, the ship now also received a catapult, a small storage deck and a retractable crane for re-boarding the float planes, three of which were usually on board.
Thereafter, the Ise remained largely unchanged until the Battle of Midway , with the exception of some changes to the pagoda tower and the installation of the first ten 25 mm double anti-aircraft mounts, and apart from the fact that shortly before the fateful battle she was one of the first Japanese ships to be equipped with radar (test system model 21 at the front of the main rangefinder on the pagoda tower). The ship kept this facility until it was sunk. In 1944 two sea surveillance systems, model 22, with their characteristic double horn antennas, were added on both sides of the pagoda mast, later in the same year (unlike the Hyuga ) two air surveillance systems, model 13, were added diagonally behind on both sides above the star-shaped platform ring of the main mast. Whether the installation of "Type 13" was actually carried out was at times controversial, but Japanese film recordings from October 1944 (near Leyte ) show the antennas, and photos of the brackets, the damaged starboard antenna and the apparently a result of the wreck after the war The port antenna that fell on the flight deck due to the impact vibrations was also still visible.
Distinguishing features
Compared to the sister ship Hyuga , some details of the pagoda mast on the Ise were designed differently after the renovations in the thirties. After the conversion to the hybrid carrier, both ships were largely identical again. The most important visual difference, by which the two ships have been relatively easy to distinguish since then, is the main mast rod that was attached behind the main mast on the Ise and in front of the main mast on the Hyuga .
Conversion to a hybrid aircraft carrier
After Japan lost four aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway, there was a need for additional flight deck capacity, which led to one of the most spectacular conversion attempts in the entire history of shipping. The ships of the Ise class had two twin towers of 35.6 cm caliber fore, aft and amidships . The aft guns were removed and a flight deck built. This deck was not intended as a departure or landing deck, but was actually just a shunting deck on which aircraft could be prepared for take-off. It had a concrete covering, which was necessary to compensate for the weight of the missing turrets, as otherwise the draft would have decreased too much aft . Below was a hangar that was connected to the flight deck by an elevator. The hangar was 25 meters wide, but tapered to 11 meters towards the stern. The ships could transport up to 22 aircraft: nine in the hangar, eleven on deck and two more on the catapults. The two catapults were each 25 meters long and were located amidships.
There was no landing area, only float planes watering next to the ship could be picked up again. However, the flight deck construction was never used. The number of Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (“Judy”) dive combat aircraft with wheeled landing gear (planned 22 per ship) was halved because they could only land on an airfield on land or a “real” aircraft carrier. In order to be able to take at least some of the machines back on board, eleven Aichi E16A Zuiun ("Paul") swimmer dive bombers per ship were instead taken over, but as swimmer planes they could not compete with modern wheeled planes in terms of performance. The underlying concept of using a crane to rescue planes once they have taken off from the water after their return could not be combined with the requirements of the rapidly changing threats in modern naval warfare. The E16A machines were mainly intended as reconnaissance aircraft. In May 1944 the Ise received its on-board flying group of the "634. Kokutai ". The training of the pilots was not completed by October 1944, and so Admiral Matsuda (who commanded carrier division 4 with Ise and Hyuga at the time) decided to hand over the aircraft to land bases on Formosa and to use the ships again as pure battleships.
Is added, however, that the Japanese Navy already with the cruisers of the Tone class and later with the Oyodo possessed aft on ships with a "half-page" aircraft equipment and the concept of so-called. "Hybrid carrier" even with the damaged at Midway heavy cruiser Mogami relocated, which also received a large flight deck aft instead of the original 20.3 cm gun turrets, but there without a hangar. At the same time as the conversion to a hybrid carrier, the air defense armament was reinforced. With the elimination of the 14 cm casemate guns, the heavy flak was doubled to eight 12.7 cm guns in twin mounts, and the ten 25 mm double mounts were replaced by 19 triplet mounts of the same caliber. In 1944, another twelve 2.5 cm triplet mounts were added, eight of them on both sides of the hangar just below the flight deck and four on the ceilings of the elevated 35.6 cm towers, for which the platforms had already been prepared in 1943. Eleven transportable 25 mm individual guns could also be installed on the flight deck.
Finally, on both sides of the aft flight deck substructure, three 28-tube rocket launchers were installed on each side, which fired unguided rockets with a caliber of 12 cm while generating enormous smoke . The development of the weapon was carried out under great time pressure, so that it was planned on the basis of the mount of the 96-25 mm L / 60 triple automatic cannon, which was available in large numbers. Two sheet metal crates were placed on both sides of the carriage, behind which the operating team could take cover when firing to protect themselves from the return beam of the rockets. In the middle there was a box with three rows with six and two rows with five tubes each. The rockets were triggered electrically and had delay fuses from 5.5 to 8.5 seconds with a maximum range of about 4800 meters. A charge of 28 missiles could be fired within 10 seconds. The missiles themselves weighed 23.9 kg each and were equipped with an explosive incendiary warhead . Even if the weapon system provided a rapid increase in the anti-aircraft capabilities of the ships and was used in the Battle of Leyte, there are no reports of a successful defense by these rocket launchers.
Ise class ships
Ise
The Ise was laid down in Kobe by Kawasaki in May 1915 and launched in November 1916. It was used in the conflict with China in 1937 and 1938 and patrolled off the Chinese coast, among other things. In the Pacific War she was initially used defensively, but in 1942 suffered a malfunction in one of the shaft tunnels and an engine room was flooded. After the repairs were completed, it was converted into a hybrid aircraft carrier in February 1943. It transported troops to Truk in early 1944 and was used as bait for American aircraft carriers in October 1944 in the Battle of Leyte near Cape Engaño . During an attack by carrier aircraft on the 25th, it was damaged by around 35 aerial bombs close to it, but returned to Japan. She was attacked by aircraft on July 24th and 28th, 1945 and sank in shallow water. The wreck was dismantled and scrapped after the war.
Hyūga
The Hyūga was laid down by Mitsubishi in Nagasaki in May 1915 and launched in January 1917. In 1937 she was used to support Japanese landing operations in China and transported, among other things, marine infantry . It was not used offensively in the Pacific War, and conversion to a hybrid aircraft carrier began as early as April 1943. In October 1944 she was used as a bait ship at the Battle of Leyte , together with the bulk of the remaining Japanese aircraft carriers, and was the target of American air raids. It was damaged but returned to Japan. On July 24, 1945, she was again the target of air raids and sank to the shallow bottom south of Kure after several bomb hits. It was scrapped after the war.
Evidence and references
literature
Sources for the Ise class:
- Maru Special, Japanese Naval Vessels (first series in 56 volumes), Volume 12: Ise (Tokyo 1977) and second series Volume 113: History of the Fuso and Ise classes (Tokyo 1986)
- Gakken Pictorial Series, Volume 26, Ise class (Tokyo 2000)
- Gakken (publ.), Battleships of Japan (Tokyo 2004)
- Kaijinsha (publ.), The Imperial Japanese Navy (in 14 volumes), Volume 1 (Battleships 1) (Tokyo 1989/1994)
- Fukui Shizuo, Japanese Naval Vessels Illustrated, 1869–1945 (in three volumes), Volume 1, Battleships and Battlecruisers (Tokyo 1974)
- Todaka Kazushige, Japanese Naval Warships (so far in 6 volumes) Volume 2, Battleships and Battle Cruisers , Kure Maritime Museum (Kure 2005)
- Ishiwata Kohji, Japanese Battleships , Ships of the World Band 391 (Tokyo 1988)
Sources on the political situation and planning of the Japanese Navy:
- David C. Evans: Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941 . US Naval Institute Press, 2003, ISBN 0-87021-192-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The 14-inch gun on Navweaps.com, sighted June 3, 2010
- ↑ REPORTS OF THE US NAVAL TECHNICAL MISSION TO JAPAN 1945-1946, O-54, Japanese Naval Guns, p. 24 and following
- ↑ The 40 mm / 62 "HI" Type 91 on Naval Weapons
- ↑ The 25 mm / 60 Type 96 Model 1 on Naval Weapons
- ↑ On the Ise aircraft, see: Michel Ledet, Samourai sur Porte-Avions , Outreau 2006, a very detailed and comprehensively illustrated representation of the Japanese carrier aircraft 1922–1945, based on the latest research in marine history. Admiral Matsuda Chiaki himself reported the details of the aircraft group and the training as well as the operations of the Ise up to the beginning of 1945, in: Interrogation Nav No. 69 in USSBS No. 345 of November 12, 1945. For identification and endowment also: Eduardo Cea, The Air Force of the Japanese Imperial Navy - Carrier Based Aircraft 1922-1945 , Part II, pp. 45-48. Basic information on the naval aircraft of the Japanese 1941-1945 can be found in the generally accepted standard reference book by: René J. Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War. 2nd Edition. London 1979/1994.
- ↑ REPORTS OF THE US NAVAL TECHNICAL MISSION TO JAPAN 1945–1946, SERIES O: ORDNANCE TARGETS, O-50, Japanese Shipboard Rocket Launchers, pp. 7 and 8
- ↑ REPORTS OF THE US NAVAL TECHNICAL MISSION TO JAPAN 1945–1946, SERIES O: ORDNANCE TARGETS, O-09, Japanese Naval Rockets, pp. 5 and following
