Itsukushima (ship, 1929)
Itsukushima in 1935
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The Itsukushima ( Japanese. 厳 島 ) was a mine-layer / net-layer of the Imperial Japanese Navy , which was built in the late 1920s and was used in World War II .
history
Development history and construction
Under the budget for 1923, the Japanese Navy was granted funds to supplement its aging mine-laying population. At the time, this consisted of the Katsuriki and the two former armored cruisers Aso and Tokiwa . Then the Navy developed a small design H-2 (later Shirataka , with about 1,500 tons displacement and turbine drive) and a great design H-1 (later Itsukushima , with around 2,000 tons and diesel drive) which during the First World War won Should reflect operating experience.
The construction contract for the later Itsukushima was awarded to the Uraga shipyard in Tokyo . This put the hull on February 2, 1928 on keel and the launch took place on May 22, 1929. The commissioning took place on December 26, 1929 under the command of Kaigun-taisa ( sea captain ) Koyama Taiji, who has been since May 1 1929 as a so-called supreme equipment officer ( Japanese 艤 装 員 長 , gisō inchō) was commissioned with the building instruction.
Mission history
After commissioning, the Itsukushima was assigned to the Yokusuka Marine District and used as a training ship. Several trips to the southern Pacific and the Bonin Islands followed . In September 1935, during the Combined Fleet maneuvers in the northwestern Pacific, the ship was assigned to the 4th Fleet and involved in the 4th Fleet incident. In this incident, this fleet association got into a typhoon in which two destroyers of the Fubuki -class was torn off the bow and other ships, such as the heavy cruisers Myōkō and Mogami , suffered serious damage. The Itsukushima was so badly damaged that it came close to a total structural loss and the repairs were so extensive that they were almost completely new. After repairs at the end of 1936, the ship was used for patrols in the area of the Chinese coast under changing positions and from the end of 1938 was transferred to reserve status and laid up in Yokosuka .
On November 15, 1940, the Itsukushima was reactivated and used for patrols and for training its own crew off the Chinese coast. Assigned to the 3rd Fleet from April 1941 and stationed in Palau , the mine -layer was used to mine the San Bernardino Road after the start of the war in December 1941 . In the course of 1942 the ship was used to support various landings in Southeast Asia ( Tarakan , Balikpapan , Java ). From the beginning of 1943 to November 1943 the Itsukushima was stationed in Palau and then subordinated to the 4th Fleet and was then transferred to Ambon .
From the beginning of 1944, the ship was tasked with securing convoys between Ambon, Soerabaja and the island of Halmahera . There was an unsuccessful attack by the American submarine USS Bonefish in the Celebes Sea on May 6, and a mission to supply or reinforce the Japanese forces on Biak ( Battle of Biak ) on May 31 . On August 24, 1944, while securing a convoy to Celebes , the Itsukushima was attacked by B-25 bombers of the 345th bomber group of the American Army Air Force in Lembeh Street . The ship suffered damage from close-range bombs , which led to the engine room being flooded and the propulsion system to fail, whereupon the miner Wakataka in Bitung was instructed to provide assistance.
Downfall
On October 17, 1944, the Itsukushima was towed by the Wakataka , east of Bawean in the Java Sea , en route to Surabaya , by the Dutch submarine Mr. Ms. Zwaardvisch agreed. The Dutch boat under the command of Luitenant ter zee 1st class Hendrikus Abraham Waldemar Goossens then fired three torpedoes at the Itsukushima , one of which hit and sank the mine-layer at 5 ° 26 ′ S , 113 ° 48 ′ E. The Itsukushima was removed from the list of ships of the Imperial Navy on January 10, 1945.
Surname
The Itsukushima is after the protected cruiser of the same name - which was in service from September 1891 to March 1926 - the second warship of a Japanese navy to bear this name. Named after the island of Itsukushima in the Seto Inland Sea , which has a famous Shinto shrine ( Itsukushima shrine ).
List of commanders
| No. | Surname | Beginning of the term of office | Term expires | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sea Captain Koyama Taiji | December 26, 1929 | December 1, 1930 | entrusted with building instruction since May 1, 1929 |
| 2. | Sea captain Komatsu Teruhisa | December 1, 1930 | November 14, 1931 | |
| 3. | Sea captain Sonoda Shigeru | November 14, 1931 | December 1, 1932 | |
| 4th | Sea captain Nakamura Toshihisa | December 1, 1932 | May 25, 1933 | |
| 5. | Sea captain Horiuchi Shigenori | May 25, 1933 | November 15, 1933 | |
| 6th | Sea captain Kaneko Toyokichi | November 15, 1933 | October 22, 1934 | |
| 7th | Frigate Captain Endo Masaru | October 22, 1934 | November 15, 1936 | |
| 8th. | Frigate Captain Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi | November 15, 1936 | December 1, 1937 | |
| 9. | Sea captain Ishikawa Shingo | December 1, 1937 | January 30, 1938 | |
| 10. | Sea captain Ichimiya Yoshiyuki | January 30, 1938 | July 22, 1938 | |
| 11. | Sea captain Takama Tamotsu | July 22, 1938 | December 15, 1938 | |
| 12. | Sea captain Mori Tomoichi | December 15, 1938 | December 10, 1939 | |
| 13. | Sea captain Takahashi Ichimatsu | December 10, 1939 | November 15, 1940 | |
| 14th | Sea captain Kawara Katsumi | November 15, 1940 | September 10, 1941 | |
| 15th | Frigate captain / sea captain Morikawa Matao | September 10, 1941 | June 1, 1942 | |
| 16. | Frigate Captain Yanagawa Masao | June 1, 1942 | June 1, 1944 | |
| 17th | Sea captain Oishi Shinichi | June 1, 1944 | October 7, 1944 |
technical description
hull
The hull of the Itsukushima was 104 meters long, 11.83 meters wide and had a draft of 3.22 meters with an operational displacement of 2,447 tons .
drive
The drive was carried out by three 4-cylinder diesel engines from MAN . These gave their power to three shafts with one screw each . The top speed was 17 knots (31 km / h ). 300 t of diesel fuel could be stored, which led to a maximum driving distance of 5,000 nautical miles (9,260 km) at 10 knots.
crew
The crew had a strength of 235 men.
Armament
When commissioned, the artillery armament consisted of three 14 cm type 3 guns with a 50 caliber length . These could shoot a 38 kilogram grenade up to 15.8 kilometers and were installed in three individual mounts. These center pivot mounts had simple shields, which were used for splinter protection, and weighed 21 tons. The lateral and elevation speed was 8 ° per second, the elevation range –7 ° to + 20 ° and the lateral alignment range + 150 ° to –150 °. They were set up in the midship line, one on a deckhouse in front of the bridge structure and two on the aft deck in front of and behind the aft mast. For air defense , two 7.62-cm gun was type 3 either side of the bridge mast on board. Furthermore, two pitcher for water bombs and it could 300-400 mines of the type 5 to be accommodated on the upper deck, and in a special storage space at the rear. These could then be laid using mine laying rails from the upper deck or through mine shafts in the aft ship.
In 1938 there was a slight modernization of the anti-aircraft armament, in which the two 7.62-cm guns on both sides of the bridge mast were replaced by four 13.2-mm machine guns of the Type 93 . Due to the strong Allied air forces during the Pacific War , there was a further strengthening of the anti-aircraft armament. When the Itsukushima sank, this consisted of six 13.2 mm type 93 machine guns and three 2.5 cm type 96 machine guns .
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 .
- Hansgeorg Jentschura, Dieter Jung, Peter Mickel: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1869-1945 . US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1977, ISBN 0-87021-893-X , pp. 198 .
Web links
- Large mine layers on ww2technik.de
- CV of Itsukushima on combinedfleet.com (English)
- Itsukushima on pacificwrecks.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Type 3 14 cm cannon. In: navweaps.com. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .