Kuma class
 The Ōi in 1923.
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The Kuma-class ( Japanese 球磨 型 軽 巡洋艦 , Kuma-gata keijun'yōkan ) was a class of five light cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy , which were built in the late 1910s and were used in World War II .
history
Design and construction
The Kuma class was an enlarged version of the previous Tenryū class . Findings about the shipbuilding activities of other nations led to the fear that the Tenryū class was artillery inadequate for potential opponents they might have encountered. In particular, the American Omaha class , which was planned with British cruiser types in mind in 1917, was much heavier armed. According to the findings of the war, the new cruiser class should also be able to be used with destroyer units as a flotilla leader and therefore had to be faster than its predecessor class. The fuselage was significantly lengthened and the machinery was reinforced, which resulted in a significantly higher speed overall.
Armament
The ships of the Kuma class were correspondingly larger and were heavily equipped with seven 14 cm L / 50 guns. These were protected by a shield that shielded the front, sides and top of the weapon.
Two guns were placed one behind the other in front of the bridge structure and two more side by side directly behind the bridge structure. The last three guns were again one behind the other on the stern. No guns were set up too high, but all fixtures were seated directly on the weather deck of the fore ship or on the weather deck of the aft superstructure, so that the guns hindered each other's effectiveness. Only the two guns behind the bridge structure stood far enough outboard to be able to fire forward over the bow - past the structure. Two 8 cm L / 40 guns were mounted on deck in open mounts at the level of the first funnel, one each on port and starboard.
The ships received heavy torpedo armament with eight tubes by placing two 533-mm twin tube sets on port and starboard. In contrast to the previous class, in which the pipe sets could be swiveled to port or starboard, in the Kuma class they could only be used on the respective side of the ship on which they were mounted.
machinery
The Kuma class retained the silhouette of the previous class and again had three chimneys, this time of the same size and diameter. Twelve Kampon steam boilers , ten of them fueled with heavy oil and two with coal , supplied the energy for four impulse reaction turbines from Gihon, which were based on the principle of the Brown Curtis turbine and generated around 90,000 WPS . The ships were able to reach 36 knots over four waves.
Information on the amount of fuel carried varies between 1,150 and 1,260 tons of heavy fuel oil, while 350 tons of coal are assumed. The possible range of the ships was about 5000 nautical miles at 14 knots. After later conversions and retrofitting, this value changed, however, as the draft and water displacement increased, so that, for example, after their conversion to a torpedo carrier, only 4000 nautical miles at 14 knots are assumed for the Kitakami .
Aircraft
In order to allow the use of on-board aircraft, the installation of a catapult was planned on three ships. For this purpose, a pedestal was set up on the aft ship, on which the catapult could be swiveled over the guns to port or starboard.
Modernizations
In the run-up to and in the course of the Pacific War , the ships were continuously modernized and each received four quadruple torpedo sets, type 21 radar devices and additional anti-aircraft armament. Kitakami and Ōi were converted into fast transporters in 1942 and their armament changed again.
Kuma-class ships
Kuma
Main article: Kuma (ship, 1920)
The Kuma was laid down in Sasebo in August 1918 and launched in July 1919. It was used in the Pacific War. In April 1942, near Cebu , she survived the attack by US speedboats undamaged. On January 11, 1944, she was attacked near Penang by the British submarine HMS Tally-Ho and hit by two torpedoes on the starboard side. Fire broke out and the depth charges on the quarterdeck exploded, causing the ship to sink over the stern.
Tama
Main article: Tama (ship, 1920)
The Tama was laid down in Nagasaki in August 1918 and launched in February 1920. It took part in numerous operations in the Pacific War, survived a British air raid on October 21, 1943, and finally took part in the 1944 Battle of Leyte . Damaged by a torpedo on the morning of October 25, it was attacked 19 hours later by the submarine USS Jallao and broke apart after two torpedo hits.
Kitakami
Main article: Kitakami (ship, 1921)
The Kitakami was laid down in Sasebo in September 1919 and launched in July 1920. Immediately after its launch, it was used in the Second Sino-Japanese War . Later, in the Pacific War, she initially took part in landing operations as a security ship, but was converted into a "fast transporter" itself in 1942. In January 1944 she was hit by two torpedoes from a British submarine in the Strait of Malacca and badly damaged. She was converted again, this time to a carrier for Kaiten submarines. When the war ended, it was finally scrapped in 1946.
Ōi
Main article: Ōi (ship, 1921)
The Ōi was laid down in Kobe in November 1919 and launched in July 1920. With the completion of the development work on the Type 93 torpedo , the ship was sent to the shipyard for conversion as a torpedo carrier. It received 40 61-cm torpedo tubes in ten sets of four. The concept was dropped and towards the end of 1942 the ship was converted into a "fast transporter". She was sunk by a torpedo hit on July 19, 1944 on the way to Manila from the submarine USS Flasher .
Kiso
Main article: Kiso (ship, 1921)
The Kiso was laid down in Nagasaki in July 1917 and launched in May 1918. It was damaged by an aerial bomb hit in October 1942 during the Pacific War. Two of their 14 cm guns were replaced by 127 mm twin anti-aircraft guns during the repair work. After she had largely carried out transport tasks in the following period, she was attacked by American carrier aircraft near Manila on November 13, 1944 and capsized after three bomb hits.
literature
- Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War . US Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3 .
Web links
- Kuma class at combinedfleet.com
Footnotes
- ↑ Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. P. 30
- ^ A b Andrew Lambert: Warship , Volume 10, Conway Maritime Press, 1987, ISBN 0-85177449-0 , page 35