Nigitsu Maru
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Launch | November 28, 1942 |
| Commissioning | March 1943 |
| Decommissioning | January 12, 1944 |
| Whereabouts | sunk |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
11,800 ts |
| length |
144.2 m |
| width |
19.5 m |
| Draft |
11.5 m |
| drive |
4 piston steam engines |
| speed |
20 kn |
| Landing craft |
27 |
The Nigitsu Maru ( Jap. にぎつ丸 ) was a Japanese asked in March 1943 in service escort carrier of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second World War . However, it was completed without a flight deck. In some sources, the Nigitsu Maru and her sister ship, the Akitsu Maru , are said to be the world's first amphibious assault ships. Due to the poor relations between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy , the army operated its own transport fleet.
Technical details
The Nigitsu Maru was originally a passenger ship that was taken over by the Japanese Army before completion. The ship was built by Ishikawajima Harima in Harima Province . The escort carrier's machinery had four boilers and powered two screws. The machines achieved an output of up to 7,500 hp, with which a speed of 20 knots could be achieved. The water displacement was 11,800 tons. For landing operations, the Nigitsu Maru was able to accommodate 27 Daihatsu landing craft . The armament was 2 type 88 cannons, 75 mm, 10 field guns, 75 mm and 6 type 96 cannons, 25 mm on board.
fate
In March 1943 the Nigitsu Maru was put into service . From April 1943 the ship was used for transports from Japan to occupied islands. On January 9, 1944, the ship departed from Palau on the FU-901 convoy . There were around 2,000 soldiers on board. Mostly soldiers from the 12th Engineer Regiment. The destroyer Amagiri was there as escort . On January 12, the ship was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Hake (SS-256) off the island of Oki-daitō , east of the Okinawa Islands . Two out of four torpedoes shot down hit. The Nigitsu Maru sank within eight minutes. 574 soldiers were killed, including 456 from the 12th Engineer Regiment, 83 artillerymen and 35 crew members. The destroyer Amagiri saved the other soldiers and brought them to Japan.
See also
literature
- Ingo Bauernfeind: Escort aircraft carrier: USA, England, Japan 1939-1945. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-613-03597-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ 大 日本 帝國 海軍 特設 艦船 (Imperial Japanese Navy Tokusetsukansen - Data Base)
- ^ IJA Landing Craft Depot Ship Nigitsu Maru: Tabular Record of Movement . Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ Ingo Bauernfeind: Escort aircraft carrier: USA, England, Japan 1939-1945. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 2013, pp. 106-107