Nihon Kaigun 1946

Nice! The Takao and Myoko superstructures just seems to fit well on a bigger hull.

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"If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done." ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

The Otowa-class light cruisers came about as part of a plan to have a multi-task ship for either a SubRon flagship, a scout cruiser for larger fleets, or as lone commerce raiders. The plan was later scrapped, but as the first two ships had been laid down - and the IJN could always use more CLs - construction was permitted to proceed. The ships mounted six 6-inch guns in three twin turrets.

Otowa as commissioned in February 1944:

She was given a shorter work-up time than other ships, and sent on a raiding mission into the Indian Ocean in April 1944. She managed to sink three ships, but one of her floatplanes was sighted by a patrolling PBY while on a scouting mission. The PBY followed the aircraft back to its mother ship and broadcast Otowa's position, which was picked up by British cruiser Devonshire. Three hours later, the larger British ship intercepted Otowa, and ended the Japanese raider's career after a brief thirty-minute surface action.

Matsushima was completed to a modified design in August 1944:

She served with Ozawa's fleet off Cape Engano, and managed to escape the holocaust with only minor damage from four rocket hits and one near-miss 500-pound bomb.

By 1945, Matsushima had undergone some modifications:

She missed Yamato's final sortie, anchored in Maizuru harbor helping to train new DDs with CL Sakawa and other new CLs. However, it was obvious that she would soon need to take her place on the front lines...

In March 1946, Matsushima's profile looked like this:

She and Sakawa were assigned to escort battleship Kii on her unsuccessful attempt to reach Sasebo, and when it was obvious that Kii was all but done for, she and Sakawa became the focus of the attack. As Sakawa was holed by a near-miss and slowly turned turtle off in the distance, Matsushima took a T-10 bomb directly amidships. As the crew of nearby destroyer Yukikaze watched in mute horror, Matsushima's midships section vanished in a brilliant white light, the bow and stern jackknifed, and what was left of the cruiser sank within seconds. Only 18 of her crew survived.

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

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The improved Agano-class light cruisers were commissioned alongside their lesser-gunned 'cousins', starting with Kamo in August 1943. She was the only one of the class to see action at Leyte Gulf, and became flagship of DesRon 2 when Noshiro was sunk.

The second ship of the class, Kizu, was commissioned in late October 1944:

Nayoro followed in January 1945, again with slight modifications from her sister ships:

In April 1945, Kamo went with Yamato on the abortive sortie to Okinawa, and met her end along with the battleship, large cruisers Katsuma and Takami, heavy cruiser Kurama, and fellow light cruisers Yahagi, Niyodo, and Shibetsu. Nayoro lasted just under four months longer, being sunk off Eta Jima during one of the many July 1945 air strikes that sorely taxed the IJN.

The final ship of the class, Ashida, was commissioned in January 1946:

Kizu was anchored in Tokyo Bay with Nagato and Kawachi at the time of the surrender, while Ashida - having been fortunate enough to miss Kii's final sortie back in March due to still being in shakedown - ended the war anchored in Maizuru. Both CLs would go on to have long and profitable careers in the IJN's postwar fleet.

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The first class of anti-aircraft cruiser for the IJN arrived on the scene with the commissioning of the Yubetsu in late December 1943. The second ship, Shokotsu, followed in February 1944, with both ships practically identical in looks:

Two more ships, Shibetsu and Shiribetsu, followed in May and July 1944, respectively:

The final ship of the class, Toshibetsu, was commissioned in September 1944, and was the only one of the class not to see action at the Battle of Leyte Gulf:

All four CLAAs operated with Kurita's Force A, and their quick-firing 3.9-inch guns proved to be quite a nuisance for attacking Allied aircraft. In response, Allied dive-bomber pilots of the second and third waves were ordered to attack other targets, and then go into the clouds and come back down in fake bombing runs on the CLAAs in an effort to distract them, while Avenger torpedo bombers attacked from sea level. This worked quite well against Shokotsu, which took three torpedoes in quick succession, one of which snapped her keel; the cruiser broke up and sank two hours after the attack. The following day, during the Battle off Samar, Yubetsu slugged it out with one of her American counterparts, U.S.S. San Diego. Both sides had quick-firing main guns, but the American vessel had bigger weapons and more of them. Pounded into a wreck, Yubetsu sank with heavy casualties.

By 1945, the three survivors had undergone minor refits:

It was in this guise that Shibetsu met her end, pounded into submission along with Yamato and several other ships off Okinawa in April 1945.

By 1946, Shiribetsu and Toshibetsu had undergone another refit, the most notable change being the removal of all boats and the crane attached to the mainmast:

The final loss of the class came in July 1946, when Toshibetsu was sunk by submarine U.S.S. Tirante. Shiribetsu greeted the surrender in Tokyo Bay with several other IJN vessels. She would go on to enjoy a long post-war career before finally being decomissioned in 1970.

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The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

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very nice, so Atlanta-ish and still definitely Japanese; i also like how the wing mounted shielded 80mm guns leads to a sort-of replica of the Atlanta class gun layout.

All the cruisers for the AU have now been - for the most part - posted. Every class is in some way represented now, whether in this thread or the 'Real' ships section.

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The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

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so, here it comes also the massive Yoshino Class Battleship.
(history courtesy of emperor_Andreas, refit details by me)

When commissioned starting in May 1929, the Yoshino-class battleships were the most powerful warships in the world, and the first battleships ever to mount 18-inch guns. Due to secrecy, the U.S. Navy did not discover the true size and armament of these monsters until 1934, and immediately made plans to speed up construction of their own battleships to compensate. Yoshino herself initially sported eight 24-inch torpedo tubes, but after trials she was discovered to be dangerously overloaded; deletion of the torpedo tubes fixed the problem and her five sisters were completed without them.

Yoshino after the torpedo tubes removal (for former configuration just check the real n°13 class

Between september 1937 and april 1942 all six Yoshino clas sships underwent a massive reconstruction, the biggest and most complex ones ever underwwnt by an IJN warship, the first to enter drydock was IJN Oshima in september 1937, the last one Tsuruga in July 1938, and all but one where handed back to the navy just in time for the start of the war.
Yoshino: march 1938 to november 1941
Oshima: september 1937 to may 1941
Asahi: november 1937 to june 1941
Kitami: march 1938 to december 1941
Tsuruga: july 1938 to april 1942
Iwami: january 1938 to november 1941
The refit was immense, the waterline lenght increased to 275,25 meters, an addition of 8,5 while overall lenght reached 280,71, torpedo bulges added 3,2 meters to the beam to 34 meters, dispalcement rose by nearly 8.000 tons to 64.706 at full load, new all-oil-fired boilers and machinery kept maximum speed at 30 knots, Oshima actually reached 30,3 knots during post-reconstruction sea-trails; four twin 127mm/40 Type 89 anti-aircraft gun mounts superseeded the older 120mm ones, 10 twin and two triple 25mm machine guns where also added for light anti-aircraft defense, a twin variant of the by then under construction Yamato class guns was also manifactured for the Yoshino class, the new turrets where capable of 45° barrel elevation to the older 30°, this increased range from 36.000 yards (32.920 meters) to 45,960 yards (42,030 m), a massive 15-meter rangefinder and director tower similar to those fitted on the Yamato class ships was also added on top of the massive heptapodal mast, wich was rebuilt in a gigantic pagoda, it towered almost 54 meters above the waterline at the top of the main gun director, it was so massive that even the huge Fuso class superstrucutre looked small in comparision.
the aft superstructure was also rebuilt housing more fire-control platforms and the auxiliary main gun director this also from the same model to be mounted on the Yamato class, when machinery space was upgraded the funnel was also shifted furter back to make space for the enormous pagoda mast and in order to better clear the moke from the bridge platforms, the funnel was also engulfed by the searchlight and high-angle-gun directors suite; aircraft handling was fitted at the stern and two Nakajima E8N embarked, complement at the start of the war was 2.541 officers and sailors.

Yoshino in December 1941 at the start of the war, fresh from her main reconstruction

On 26 May 1942, Asahi was sighted by submarine U.S.S. Salmon as she steamed from Singapore to Kure. Incredibly, the ship's only escort were destroyers Namikaze and Nokaze; the IJN believed that the armor of a Yoshino-class battleship was able to stop any serious damage from being incurred, and decided not to send more escorts for such an important capital ship. As the refits to the Yoshinos were not known, Salmon's skipper - having only a pre-refit Yoshino-class drawing to go by - listed his target as a 'Tosa-class battleship' and fired four torpedoes at Asahi. All four torpedoes hit and three exploded, one abreast the forward magazine, the second below the massive bridge pagoda, and one abreast the funnel. Believing his ship could continue, Captain Tamura Ryukichi ordered the voyage to Kure resumed once the flooding was contained; however, the repairs could not hold against the strain of 27 knots, and flooding resumed within two hours. Three hours after being hit, a bulkhead within the ship gave way, and the starboard list dramatically increased. The massive pagoda bridge did not help matters, as it hung over the water and threatened to capsize the massive warship. Bowing to the inevitable, Captain Tamura ordered 'Abandon Ship', and the crew was transferred to the two escorting DDs. About ten minutes after Captain Tamura - who was the last man off - departed, Asahi rolled onto her starboard side and sank bow-first. Incredibly, only sixteen crewmen were killed.

The rest of the class survived until the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. Oshima was behind battleship Shinano when she was rammed by large cruiser Nantai, and made an emergency turn to starboard to avoid becoming the third ship in the collision. Her port side was only 500 yards away (point-blank range) when Nantai suddenly exploded, sending a wall of shrapnel hurtling towards Oshima; in seconds everyone in an exposed position on the port side was either killed or seriously injured, and the port superstructure looked like "metallic Swiss cheese" in the words of crewmen from destroyer Tanigiri, many of whom were sickened by the sight of the battleship's decks literally painted red with human blood. The underwater concussion also hit Oshima hard, snapping her keel and mortally wounding her. Knowing there was no way to repair his ship, her Captain ordered her abandoned. As she slowly sank, battleship U.S.S. North Carolina opened fire on her, adding to the carnage; her final casualties were 466 dead and 537 wounded, nearly half of the crew.
Kitami slugged it out with both U.S.S. New Jersey and U.S.S. Kentucky, and managed to land a killing blow on the former, sending an 18-inch shell straight through her forward magazines and sinking her with only 130 survivors. Enraged by the destruction, eight U.S. destroyers made the first of several torpedo runs against the Japanese fleet. Two destroyers launched their torpedoes directly at Kitami from about 1,100 yards, being pounded by the Japanese battleship's secondary guns the entire time. Twenty torpedoes sped towards the Japanese battleship, but destroyer Yamagiri deliberately placed herself in the path of several. Five torpedoes slammed into her in quick succession; she disintegrated with her entire crew. Battle cruiser Atago inadvertently stopped three more; a navigational error put her directly in their path, and she limped off, trailing oil from a leaking fuel bunker, only to be pounded into submission by battleships Alabama and Missouri later on. The final act of sacrifice was made by battle cruiser Hitachi, which sped up and placed herself directly in front of Kitami. As both American and Japanese crews alike watched in horror, at least eight torpedoes ripped her apart, sinking her in seconds with only eight survivors. But even this sacrifice failed to prevent Kitami from being damaged, the remaining four torpedoes slammed into Kitami's bow and stern, the latter hits taking out her propellers and rudder, making her easy prey for BBs Massachusetts, Iowa, and Illinois to finish off. She sank just before sunset with heavy casualties, firing salvos to the very end.

Yoshino as she looked during the Philippine Campaign, with revised airwing, upgraded radar suite and anti-aircraft suite increased; two 5.5-inch casemate guns where removed and four 127mm/40 Type 89 AA guns in twin mounts where added, the 25mm machine guns reached a total of 146 in 10 twin and 42 triple mount, complement increased to at least 2.901 men, including AA crews

The three remaining vessels - Yoshino, Tsuruga, and Iwami - were all damaged in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but survived to escape back to Japan in late 1944. In June 1945, Iwami attempted to run from Yokosuka to Kure escorted only by destroyers Taekaze, Satokaze, and Murakaze, only to be sunk by submarine U.S.S. Archerfish. In April 1946, Yoshino departed Sasebo for Maizuru, but struck a mine and had to return to port, effectively knocking her out of the war. Tsuruga remained anchored in Maizuru from February 1945 onward, and greeted the surrender there. These two battleships, along with Nagato and Kawachi, became the core of the IJN's training fleet post-war.

Amazing! Words fail me other than to say...Elite Membership for BB1987?

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The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

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