Yūbari (ship, 1923)
 The Yūbari in 1932
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The Yūbari ( Japanese 張 ) was a light cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy , which was built in the early 1920s and was used in World War II . It served to test new concepts in shipbuilding and the construction broke with many of the conventional principles according to which the previous Sendai class had been planned and formed the basis for the technical innovations of the subsequent Agano class .
history
draft
The restrictions imposed on Japan by the 1922 Washington Naval Conference forced the Navy to accept an upper limit on the total tonnage of its fleet of 300,000 tons. It was therefore important to develop ships that achieved an optimal combination of armament, speed, range and armor protection with the lowest possible tonnage.
The 1922 Yūbari was based on plans by Admiral Hiraga, the leading Japanese ship developer and advisor to the Japanese delegation during the naval conference. The draft became the basis for Japan's subsequent developments in the field of heavy cruisers and also had a lasting influence on the development of Japanese destroyers and other types of ships.
The boiler exhaust gases were no longer discharged via several chimneys , but the exhaust pipes combined in a single centrally located chimney amidships. The space gained on deck in this way allowed the installation of better protected, heavier armament with a shorter ship length. The distribution of fire control systems over the entire ship, which had previously been common on light cruisers, was abandoned and the systems were housed together with the ship's command in an enlarged bridge structure.
Problems
The novel character of the design led to various problems. One drawback was the chimney, from which the exhaust gases did not escape as desired. The Yūbari's chimney had to be raised by 1.80 meters in 1924 - one year after it was launched. In 1934, additional ballast was attached to the hull in Sasebo to increase seaworthiness. A mistake in the equipment almost led to the loss of the ship in the Pacific War of 1942 - the water hoses that the ship safety crews used to fight the fire did not reach the forward torpedo set, so a fire could not be stopped before the torpedoes reached them.
Fleet contracts
In order not to exceed the contractually permitted total tonnage in certain ship classes in Japan, the Imperial Japanese Navy began to systematically report the untruth about the water displacement of their newbuildings to the contracting states of the League of Nations from the construction of the Yūbari . 2,890 tons of standard displacement were reported, 3,390 actually were.
construction
The construction contract for the later Yūbari was awarded to the naval shipyard in Sasebo . This put the hull on June 5, 1922 on keel and the launch took place on March 5, 1923. The commissioning took place on July 31, 1923 under the command of Kaigun-taisa ( sea captain ) Sugiura Masao, who has been since March 1, 1923 as a so-called Supreme Equipment Officer ( Japanese艤 装 員 長, gisō inchō) had been commissioned with the building instruction .
Mission history
After commissioning, further testing and training continued until it helped evacuate refugees from Yokohama and other affected areas as a result of the Great Kanto earthquake of September 1, 1923 . During this time, on September 10, the future Tennō , Crown Prince Hirohito , embarked for an inspection trip from Yokohama to Yokosuka and back. The ship, which was subordinate to the 3rd Cruiser Division from December 1923 , carried out patrols off the Chinese coast until the end of March 1924 and was used from April 4 for tests of the machinery in Sasebo. This resulted in damage to the starboard turbine set, which was repaired over the summer while the ship was in dock, and the chimney was also raised.
In April 1925, the Yūbari observed the maneuvers of the American Pacific Fleet in Hawaiian waters . The light cruiser was caught or pursued by three destroyers off the island of Oahu . But managed to escape them. Used as the flagship of the 2nd Destroyer Squadron from October 20, 1925 , it remained so until December 1, 1931, when it became the flagship of the 1st Destroyer Squadron . In the period from the beginning of September 1931 to January 23, 1932, the Yūbari was repaired and modernized in the naval shipyard in Kure and, after completion of these measures, relocated to Shanghai ( First Battle of Shanghai ) due to tensions with the Republic of China . On February 8th and 9th, the Yūbari and the destroyers of their squadron shot at the Wusong forts from the Huangpu River to cover attacks .
From November 1934 assigned to the Yokosuka Marine District , where it was modernized and converted from July to November 1935. Then, as the flagship of the 5th Destroyer Squadron , patrol off the Chinese coast and, with the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, from August 1937 to evacuate 12,000 Japanese civilians from coastal cities in southern China to Formosa . The residents of Shantou will be evacuated from August 12th, from Canton on August 15th and those in Fuzhou on August 17th. The evacuation of Amoy is dragging on until the end of August for various reasons, but can be successfully completed. On October 20th, support for the landing of the 10th Army of the Imperial Japanese Army in Hangzhou Bay ( Second Battle of Shanghai ). Then return to Yokosuka and in December transfer to reserve status. Between March and October 1939 assigned to the Wminato guard district and patrol off the coast of the island of Sakhalin ( Japanese-Soviet border conflict ).
During the Pacific War it was initially part of several landing operations and was damaged by air raids near Salamaua in March 1942 .
Downfall
On April 26, 1944, the Yūbari ran from Babeldaob ( Palau Islands ) secured by the two destroyers Samidare and Yūzuki .
It was sighted off the island of Sonsorol , southwest of Babeldaob, on the following morning of April 27, by the American submarine USS Bluegill , under the command of Lieutenant Commander Eric L. Barr . The submarine, which was on its first patrol, attempted an attack on the light cruiser and one of the destroyers, but the formation disappeared behind the island so that it was canceled. The Yūbari then landed on Sonsorol troops to reinforce the local garrison and after this was completed, it was put to sea at 9:42 ( Japanese time ). At 9:44 am the cruiser is visible again to the American submarine. But performs zigzag maneuvers at 19 knots speed. After the submarine has reached a favorable firing position, six Mark 14-3A and Mark 23 torpedoes are fired through it . Five of them can be avoided, but one hits the Yūbari at 10:04 am on the starboard side near the boiler room No. 1. This is immediately flooded, killing 17 of the crew and the ship remains motionless. At 10:30 am, boiler room no.1 and no.2 are flooded. After 14:00 an attempt to get the ship going by means of the medium wave fails and at 16:50 a tow attempt by the samidars fails .
On April 28th, the ship is abandoned by the crew and at 5:41 am the flag of the 3rd destroyer squadron is handed over to the Yūzuki , which also takes over the crew at 5:44 am . Including the commander of the Yūbari Kaigun-taisa (sea captain) Nara Takeo and the squadron chief Kaigun-shōshō (rear admiral ) Nakagawa. At 10:15 (Japanese time), almost 24 hours after the torpedoing, the cruiser sinks to position 5 ° 38 ′ N , 131 ° 45 ′ E over the bow. A total of 19 crew members lost their lives.
On June 10, 1944, the Yūbari was removed from the fleet list of ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Surname
The Yūbari is the first ship of a Japanese Navy to bear this name . Named after a river of the same name on the island of Hokkaidō .
List of commanders
| No. | Surname | Beginning of the term of office | Term expires | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sea captain Sugiura Masao | July 31, 1923 | December 1, 1923 | entrusted with building instruction since March 1, 1923 |
| 2. | Sea captain Yamaguchi Nobuichi | December 1, 1923 | November 10, 1924 | |
| 3. | Frigate captain / sea captain Tomioka Aijiro | November 10, 1924 | October 20, 1925 | |
| 4th | Sea captain Anno Kiyoshi | October 20, 1925 | November 1, 1926 | |
| 5. | Sea captain Kida Shinpei | November 1, 1926 | December 1, 1927 | |
| 6th | Sea captain Morita Shigefusa | December 1, 1927 | November 30, 1929 | |
| 7th | Sea captain Kawana Takeo | November 30, 1929 | November 15, 1930 | |
| 8th. | Sea captain Hara Seitaro | November 15, 1930 | December 1, 1931 | |
| 9. | Sea captain Saito Jiro | December 1, 1931 | November 15, 1933 | |
| 10. | Sea captain Kiyomiya Ko | November 15, 1933 | November 15, 1934 | |
| 11. | Sea captain Margrave Daigo Tadashige | November 15, 1934 | May 25, 1935 | |
| 12. | Sea captain Seiichi Harada | May 25, 1935 | October 31, 1935 | |
| 13. | Sea captain Yamamoto Masao | October 31, 1935 | December 1, 1936 | |
| 14th | Sea captain Hirose Sueto | December 1, 1936 | November 15, 1937 | |
| 15th | Sea captain Hori Yugoro | November 15, 1937 | July 20, 1938 | |
| 16. | Sea captain Miyazato Shutoku | July 20, 1938 | November 15, 1938 | |
| 17th | Sea captain Kouda Takero | November 15, 1938 | November 1, 1939 | |
| - | Sea captain Kamata Michiaki | November 1, 1939 | November 15, 1939 | Commander of the Ashigara , entrusted with the conduct of business |
| 18th | Sea captain Edo Heitaro | November 15, 1939 | November 1, 1940 | |
| 19th | Sea captain Ban Masami | November 1, 1940 | August 15, 1942 | |
| 20th | Sea captain Hirai Yasuji | August 15, 1942 | May 3, 1943 | |
| 21st | Sea captain Funaki Morie | May 3, 1943 | January 20, 1944 | |
| - | Sea captain Oe Ranji | January 20, 1944 | February 20, 1944 | Maya commander in charge of business |
| 22nd | Sea captain Nara Takeo | February 20, 1944 | April 28, 1944 |
technical description
hull
The hull of the Yūbari was 139.44 meters long, 12.04 meters wide and had a draft of 3.58 meters with an operational displacement of 3,644 tons . The armor protection was 10.3% of the standard displacement and was integrated into the ship structure. This means that the hull was not, as previously usual, self-supporting and lined with armor, but the armor formed a fixed part of the walls and decks. The protected area comprised the engine rooms including the artillery center in front of it. The 58.5 meter long belt armor - which corresponds to 42% of the ship's length - was 38 mm thick and had an internal inclination of 10 °. It extended from the double floor, of which it was the continuation, to the upper deck. The wall thickness of the drop side in front of it was 19 mm and the space between these was used for the storage of fuel. The armored deck was 25 mm thick.
The shape of the bow was changed in terms of speed and seaworthiness compared to the previous classes, in that the uppermost edge was again led forward in an arc and the lower edge merged into the keel in a long curve, so that the course of the bow resembled that of a gooseneck.
drive
It was driven by eight steam generators - Kampon boilers of the Yarrow type , which were housed in three boiler rooms, with two mixed-fired boilers in the front, four oil-fired boilers in the middle and two further oil-fired boilers in the aft - and three Gihon geared turbine sets with one of them Total output of 57,900 PS (42,585 kW ) was achieved. These gave their power to three shafts , each with a three-wing screw . The top speed was 35.5 knots (66 km / h ) and the maximum distance traveled was 5,500 nautical miles (10,186 km) at 10 knots or 1,400 nautical miles (2,593 km) at 31 knots. 100 tons of coal and 830 tons of heavy oil could be bunkered. The propulsion system corresponded to that which was installed in the destroyers of the Minekaze class .
crew
The crew had a strength of 328 men.
Armament
artillery
At the time of commissioning, the artillery armament consisted of six 14 cm anti-tank guns with a 50- caliber type 3 . Introduced in 1916, this gun had a rate of fire of 6 to 10 rounds per minute and a lifespan of 800 rounds. It could fire a 38 kilogram grenade up to 15.8 kilometers and was housed in two 50-ton lightly armored twin towers (type A) and two 21-ton single mounts with simple shields. These were set up in the ship's center line, one pair each (the single mounts on the upper deck and the twin towers behind the single mounts on the superstructure) in front of or on the bridge structure and behind or on the aft deckhouse. The electrically driven twin towers had a lateral directional speed of 4 ° per second, an elevation speed of 6 ° per second and an elevation range of −5 ° to + 30 °. The manually operated single mounts had a lateral straightening speed of 8 ° per second, an elevation speed of 8 ° per second and an elevation range of −7 ° to + 30 °.
Air defense
At the time of commissioning, the anti-aircraft armament consisted of a 7.62 cm type 3 gun in a single mount amidships on a raised platform and two 7.7 mm type HI machine guns . The 7.62 cm gun reached a rate of 13 to 20 rounds per minute and the maximum range was about 7.2 kilometers at 75 ° elevation. The manually operated central pivot mount, weighing 3.35 tons, could be rotated 360 ° and had an elevation range of −7 ° to + 75 °. The 7.7 mm machine guns had a maximum rate of fire of around 900 rounds per minute, and the effective range was around 300 meters. The body-controlled carriage, which weighed 26 kilograms, could be rotated 360 ° and had an elevation range of −25 ° to + 85 °.
From 1935, two 13.2 mm type 93 machine guns in double mount replaced the 7.62 cm gun, which in turn was replaced in 1940 by two 2.5 cm type 96 machine guns in double mount.
The ship was overhauled between December 1943 and March 1944. The two 14 cm individual guns were removed. A single 12 cm Type 10 cannon was installed on the former position of tower “A” . On the former position of the aft tower, a triple mount for automatic cannons of the Type 96 was placed . Two further 25 mm triplets were installed amidships and further single and twin mounts in the superstructure.
Torpedoes
The Yubari led as torpedo armament two Zweifachtorpedorrohrsätze in the caliber of 61 cm for torpedoes of the type 8 , which - were placed between the chimney and achterem deckhouse - destroyer according to amidships. Since production of the Type 8 torpedo was discontinued in 1932, it was only available in limited numbers during the Pacific War and was only used on a few older light cruisers and destroyers. It can therefore be assumed that the Yūbari was converted to the successor model, the Torpedo Type 93 .
Others
Up to 34 sea mines could be carried. From 1944, two drainage rails for depth charges were installed on the aft ship for anti-submarine defense .
Fire control and sensors
Fire control system
A fire control station in the foremast and two cross- sectional rangefinders with a base length of 10 feet on both sides of the compass bridge were available for fire control.
radar
For air and sea surveillance possessed the Yubari from 1944 via a radio measuring device (radar) of the Type 22 . This radar device, which consisted of a double horn - one for transmitting and one for receiving - was installed on the searchlight platform above the bridge, where it replaced the searchlight. It was able to locate a group of aircraft up to 35 kilometers away, a single aircraft up to 17 kilometers away and a large sea craft up to 34.5 kilometers away. Although it was not designed for fire control of the artillery, it provided moderately accurate measurements for this purpose. It worked with a wavelength of 10 cm and had a transmission power of 2 kW .
sonar
To search for submarines one was between August to October 1943 echolocation system of the type 93 with a hydrophone -Set the Type 93 scaffolded. This hydrophone set consisted of two groups of eight sensors each, one group on each side of the ship.
literature
- Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. US Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3 .
- Light cruisers, Tenryu, Kuma, Yubari and Nagara classes. Kojinsha, series ships of the IJN. 1990, ISBN 4-7698-0458-X .
- David C. Evans: Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press, 2003, ISBN 0870211927 .
- Harlow A. Hyde: Scraps of paper: the disarmament treaties between the world wars. Media Publishing, 1989, ISBN 978-0939644469
- 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. 110 (English).
- Mark Stille: Imperial Japanese Navy Light Cruiser 1941–45 . Osprey Publishing , Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-1-84908-562-5 , pp. 31-34 (English).
- Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 978-3-613-01842-6 , p. 191-192 .
Web links
- CV of the Yūbari on combinedfleet.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d e Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. P. 799.
- ^ A b Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. P. 45.
- ↑ Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. P. 47.
- ^ Anthony John Watts, Brian G. Gordon: The Imperial Japanese Navy. Doubleday, 1971, p. 289.
- ↑ Scraps of paper: the disarmament treaties between the world wars, p. 152 and following.
- ^ A b c Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II. P. 191.
- ↑ a b c Hans Georg Jentschura, Dieter Jung, Peter Mickel: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1869 to 1945. P. 110.
- ↑ Type 3 14 cm cannon. In: navweaps.com. Accessed August 2, 2020 .
- ^ A b Mark Stille: Imperial Japanese Navy Light Cruiser 1941-45. P. 31.
- ↑ Type 3 3-inch cannon. In: navweaps.com. Accessed August 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Type-HI 7.7 mm machine gun. In: navweaps.com. Accessed August 2, 2020 .
- ^ A b c d Mark Stille: Imperial Japanese Navy Light Cruiser 1941–45. P. 32.
- ↑ Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. P. 369.
- ↑ Japanese radar equipment in WWII. In: combinedfleet.com. Accessed August 5, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Japanese Sonar and Asdic (USNTMJ E-10). (PDF) US Navy Technical Mission to Japan, December 14, 1945, pp. 7 and 11 , accessed on August 5, 2020 .