Yakumo (ship)

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The completed yakumo
The completed yakumo
Overview
Type Armored cruiser
Shipyard

AG Vulcan , Szczecin

Order Construction no. 240
Keel laying March 1898
Launch July 8, 1899
delivery June 20, 1900
period of service

1900-1946

Whereabouts Sold for demolition on July 20, 1946
Technical specifications
displacement

9,646 t , maximum 10,288 t.

length

132.3 m over everything,
124.64 m waterline

width

19.56 m

Draft

7.24 m

crew

648-700 men

drive

24 Belleville boilers
2 × triple steam engines
15,500 HP
2 screws

speed

20.5 kn

Range

7,000 nm at 10 kn
1,242 t coal

Armament
  • 4 × 203 mm Armstrong cannons
    in twin turrets
  • 12 × 152 mm rapid fire guns
  • 12 × 12-pounder 76mm L / 40 rapid-fire guns
  • 7 × 47 mm Hotchkiss guns
  • 5 × 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armor
  • Belt armor: 88–170 mm
  • Armored deck: 62 mm
  • Barbette, tower: 150 mm
  • Casemates: 50–150 mm
  • Command tower: 75-300 mm
similar

Asama , Tokiwa ;
Izumo , Iwate ,
Azuma

The Yakumo ( Japanese 八 雲 ) was a 1st class armored cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy , which was designed and built by the Szczecin Vulcan shipyard . At the same time four armored cruisers were procured in Great Britain and one in France. The Yakumo is the largest warship completed in Germany for use abroad.

Building history

Half-sister Azuma

The Yakumo was one of six armored cruisers that were ordered after the First Sino-Japanese War as part of the "six-six program" (six ships of the line - six armored cruisers) from foreign shipyards as the core of the Japanese navy. Almost all orders went to Great Britain, for example the six ships of the line Fuji , Yashima , Shikishima , Hatsuse , Asahi and Mikasa , as well as the four armored cruisers Asama , Tokiwa , Izumo and Iwate . The Armstrong company not only supplied the four armored cruisers mentioned, but also two ships of the line ( Yashima , Hatsuse ), the protected cruiser Takasago and the artillery of all ships.

For political and diplomatic reasons, the Yakumo was ordered in Germany and her near-sister ship Azuma in France . The Yakumo was the only large newbuilding of the Japanese Navy that was commissioned in Germany. She was armed for compatibility with British guns.

In addition to prizes built in Germany from the wars against China and Russia, the Japanese Navy had the first class torpedo boat Shirataka and 19 second class torpedo boats from Germany, which were delivered by the Schichau works between 1893 and 1901.

Design and armament

The Asama
The Iwate

The basic design was the same for all six cruisers in the program, they were to have 8-inch Armstrong guns as their main armament and a speed of 20 to 21 knots. The shipyards were relatively free to design the details. The Szczecin shipyard chose a smooth deck variant with a relatively high freeboard and towers relatively close to both ends. The ship also had a ram. The Yakumo received 24 Belleville boilers , which were considered very advanced at the time.

The main armament of the Yakumo was a pair of newly designed twin turrets for the 203 mm L / 45 guns supplied by Armstrong. The turrets could be rotated up to 150 degrees on each side and allowed the barrel to be raised by 30 degrees, giving the guns a range of 18,000 meters. The side-mounted middle artillery with 152 mm L / 40 Armstrong guns had a range of 9,140 meters and allowed a rate of fire of five rounds per minute, whereby a very experienced crew could also reach seven rounds. Eight guns were housed in casemates, which were higher than on the half-sisters of British origin and in some cases also allowed shooting directly forward. Four guns stood higher behind protective shields on the side. All guns were equipped with 150 rounds and, unlike the other ships, had their own ammunition elevator.

Mission history

Russo-Japanese War

The Yakumo took part in the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905. She was involved in the first attack on Port Arthur on February 9, 1904, received a hit on the foremast and was able to score a hit on the Nowik herself . On the 23rd there was another exchange of fire with the Russian fleet and the coastal fortifications. Then she was assigned to the forces of Vice Admiral Kamimura on March 6 and took part in an unsuccessful bombardment of Vladivostok .

With the Asama she then served again from Port Arthur in the 3rd Squadron of Admiral Dewa from April to July and then received an early 305 mm hit from the Poltava in the Battle of the Yellow Sea on August 10 , which killed 22 men. She spotted the cruisers Askold and Nowik retreating from the battle , but could not follow them. She then checked with other ships the neutral ports for Russian ships and blocked them if necessary. From January 25 to March 1, 1905, she looked for any blockade breakers in the Sea of ​​Japan.

Admiral Ushakov in Port Said

She was involved in the decisive battle of Tsushima on May 27th , where she was only slightly damaged despite one 305 mm hit, four 152 mm hits and two other hits and had three deaths . In the evening hours of May 28, she and the Iwate landed the Russian coastal armored ship Admiral Uschakow , which had escaped the defeat of the Russian fleet in the night, northeast of Pusan . After around 15 hits from 152 mm and 203 mm shells, the Russian crew sank their burning ship themselves. Around 100 men were killed. The rest of the crew were saved by the Japanese.

After that, the Yakumo was the flagship of the 3rd Fleet in the capture of Sakhalin .

First World War

During the First World War , the Yakumo was first used in front of Tsingtau and was then used to pursue the ships of the German cruiser squadron under Vice Admiral Count Maximilian von Spee and the Emden , without being involved in active acts of war. In October 1914, she went to the Bay of Bengal with the armored cruiser Tokiwa to support the light cruisers Chikuma and the Russian Shemtschug in search of the Emden .

Cadet training ship

On April 5, 1917, the Yakumo together with the cruiser Tokiwa from Yokosuka made her first trip to the USA to California, Hawaii and the South Pacific with cadets of the 44th class of the Japanese Naval Academy.

On September 1, 1921, the Yakumo was reclassified as a coastal defense ship and served primarily as a training ship for navigation and the training of the offspring of officers. In this capacity she made over 14 long-distance trips to Europe, North America, South America and the South Seas. At the time of the reclassification, she had been on the way through the Panama Canal to the American east coast, from which she did not return until April 1922 via Europe and the Indian Ocean, together with the Izumo and around 150 cadets of the 49th class since August . In 7.5 months she completed a training trip around the world. Your commander Nomura Kichisaburō was Japanese envoy to the naval conference in Washington . In 1927 the machinery was renewed by installing six modern Yarrow boilers. However, the engine power was reduced to 7,000 hp, which only allowed a top speed of 16 knots. The coal supply was 1,210 t, plus 306 t of oil.

The Iwate ,
Yakumo's
partner ship since 1933

In 1930 , like all Japanese armored cruisers, the Yakumo was subject to the London Naval Agreement, which aimed to remove all old ironclad ships from the fleets. According to Art. 12.4. According to the agreement, the armored cruisers Asama , Yakumo , Izumo , Iwate and Kasuga should be allowed to remain in service until the first three replacement structures for the Kuma- class light cruisers have been completed. Three Kuma- class ships were to be converted into training ships. To this end, the main artillery should be limited to four guns, the torpedo tubes should be removed and all facilities for the use of aircraft and half of the boilers expanded. The treaty provisions were not implemented by Japan.

In 1930 the Yakumo visited together with the Izumo Tsingtau and Shanghai in China. In 1931 she made a second Mediterranean voyage via Hong Kong , through the Suez Canal to Naples and Marseille , before returning to Sasebo . In 1936, on a school trip to North America between Saipan and Truk, there was an explosion in the front magazine that killed four sailors and made it necessary to flood the forecastle. Even so, she continued the journey during which the repairs were carried out en route. The ship only returned to Japan after 23,272 nm (43,100 km). In 1937 the Yakumo sailed again into the Mediterranean.

After the start of the war in the Pacific, the totally outdated Yakumo was re-armed on July 1, 1942, fitted with anti-aircraft guns and put back into service as a cruiser. However, she stayed on the Japanese inland sea during the war and was used for training purposes without taking part in combat operations.

Whereabouts

After the end of World War II , the yakumo was still used to bring home troops and civilians from Japan's previous possessions, particularly Taiwan and China . On their last departure from China with Japanese returnees, Kuomintang troops are said to have removed all of the Yakumo's interior furnishings, including the German-made wooden furnishings from the commandant's cabin. Other sources claim the facility was expanded when it was demolished to equip the Atada , the former Chinese light cruiser Yat-Sen , which the Japanese were to return to the Chinese national government. On July 20, 1946, the Yakumo was sold for demolition and scrapped from April 1, 1947 at the Maizuru shipyard of Hitachi Shipbuilding & Engineering . The main anchor of the Yakumo is still preserved there today.

literature

  • David Evans: Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN 0-87021-192-7 .
  • Stephen Howarth: The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum, 1983, ISBN 0-689-11402-8 .
  • Fred T. Jane: The Imperial Japanese Navy. Thacker, Spink & Co, 1904.
  • Jentsura, Hansgeorg. Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press, 1976, ISBN 0-87021-893-X .
  • J. Charles Schencking: Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. Stanford University Press (2005). ISBN 0-8047-4977-9 .
  • Daiji Katagiri: Ship Name Chronicles of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet. Kōjinsha (Japan), June 1988, ISBN 4-7698-0386-9 .

Web links

Commons : Yakumo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. Admiral Ushakov (1893), 5050 t, 4 × 255 mm, 6-120 mm guns
  2. International treaty for the limitation and reduction of naval armament
  3. Kasuga (1902), 7,820 t, 20 kn, 1 × 250 mm, 2 × 203 mm, 14 × 152 mm guns