IJN Ships -- Some Less Well-Known Photos

[Brian James]

IJN No 28 Class Sub Chasers pictured at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on September 13th 1945. Project number K8B. 31 vessels were built in 1941-44 under the Maru Rin Programme (Ship # 221 – 232) and the Maru Kyū Programme (Ship # 440 – 458). Shipbuilders abolished a slanting stern design for mass production.

[Brian James]

The Former Russian Petropavlovsk Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship Poltava emerges as IJN Coastal Defence Ship Tango following three and a half years of reconstruction works, pictured at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in 1909.

[Brian James]

River Gunboat Ataka pictured on completion at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on September 23rd 1922.

[Brian James]

Hiyō Class Carrier Jun'yō pictured at Sasebo on September 25th 1945...She was laid down as the passenger liner Kashiwara Maru, but was purchased by the IJN in 1941 while still under construction and converted into an Aircraft Carrier. Completed in May 1942, she participated in the Aleutian Islands Campaign the following month and in several battles during the Guadalcanal Campaign later in the year. Her aircraft were used from land bases during several battles in the New Guinea and Solomon Islands Campaigns.
Jun'yō was torpedoed in November 1943 and spent three months under repair. She was damaged by several bombs during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in mid-1944, but quickly returned to service. Lacking aircraft, she was used as a transport in late 1944 and was torpedoed again in December. Jun'yō was under repair until March 1945, when work was cancelled as uneconomical. She was then effectively hulked for the rest of the war. After the surrender of Japan in September, the Americans also decided that she was not worth the cost to make her serviceable for use as a repatriation ship, and she was broken up in 1946–1947...Submarine Ha-201 is alongside, she was scuttled off the Gotō Islands on January 4th 1946.

[Brian James]

Submarine Depot Ship Toyohashi pictured with Holland Class Submarines No4 and No 5 in her care at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on September 25th 1905.

[designeraccd]

Here is a deck shot of mid life KIRISHIMA........ DFO

[Brian James]

Auxiliary Stores Ship Nanshin pictured at Osaka Bay in September 1940...Laid down at Hitachi Zosen’s Sakurajima Shipyard Osaka as a refrigerated stores ship on March 7th 1940, she was re-named as Kinezaki on April 1st 1942.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship, Escort Carrier Taiyō pictured at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on September 30th 1943, prior to her torpedo damage repairs. She was originally built as Kasuga Maru, the last of three Nitta Maru Class of passenger-cargo liners built in Japan during the late 1930s for NYK Line. She was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy in early 1941 and was converted into an Escort Carrier. Taiyō was initially used to transport aircraft to distant air bases and for training, but was later used to escort convoys of merchant ships between Japan and Singapore. In December 1943, Taiyō was assigned to the Grand Escort Command and she began a lengthy refit at Yokohama that completed on April 4th 1944. On the 29th, she was assigned to the First Surface Escort Unit and she escorted Convoy HI-61 from Japan to Singapore, via Manila. Upon arrival at her destination on May 18th, Taiyō was tasked to escort Convoy HI-62 home. After arriving on June 8th, she was assigned to carry aircraft to Manila, departing on July 12th. En route, she joined up with the escort of Convoy HI-69 and arrived there on the 20th. Taiyō then escorted a convoy to Formosa and then back to Japan. On August 10th, she escorted Convoy HI-71 to Singapore, via Mako and Manila. Eight days later, off Cape Bolinao, Luzon, Taiyō was hit in the stern by a torpedo fired by Gato Class Submarine USS Rasher. The hit caused the Carrier's aft avgas tank to explode, and Taiyō sank within 28 minutes. The number of passengers aboard is unknown, but 350–400 was common practice at that time. Coupled with the 400-odd survivors rescued and the authorized complement of 834, that suggests that approximately 790 passengers and crew were lost in the sinking.

[Brian James]

Pre-Dreadnought Battleship Asahi pictured in her role as a Repair and Depot Ship at Shanghai in 1938..She was transferred to occupied Singapore in early 1942 to repair a damaged Light Cruiser and ordered to return home in May. She was sunk en route by Submarine USS Salmon on May 26th 1942.

[Brian James]

Protected Cruiser Unebi pictured departing Le Havre on October 19th 1886...Built at Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde at Le Havre and completed in October 1886. Her main battery consisted of four Krupp 35-calibre 9.4 inch guns, mounted on the upper deck in single mounts sponsoned out over the side of the hull. Most of her secondary armament of seven Krupp 5.9 inch guns were mounted amidships on the upper deck, three on each broadside. The remaining gun was mounted as a bow-chaser underneath the short forecastle deck. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by a pair of quick-firing 2.2 inch Nordenfelt guns, one mounted on the forecastle and the other on the stern. Short-range defensive weapons consisted of 10 quadruple-barreled 1 inch Nordenfelt guns and four 10-barreled 0.43 inch Nordenfelt machine guns, distributed about the ship. Unebi was also fitted with four 14 inch torpedo tubes for Schwartzkopff torpedoes. Her armour was limited to the 2.5 inch lower deck that covered the full length of the ship and her conning tower was protected by 0.9 inch of armour. With a mixed crew of Japanese sailors and shipyard employees aboard, Unebi attempted to depart Le Havre for Japan on the 18th, but had to turn back when she ran into a storm that caused her to roll so heavily that her safety was endangered. She set sail on the following day and encountered weaker storms in the Mediterranean and after passing through the Suez Canal. A stronger storm caused Unebi to return to Aden, Yemen, where she off-loaded two of her main guns in an effort to improve her stability. After arriving in Singapore, the ship departed on December 3rd, bound for Tokyo Bay, where she was expected to arrive on December 12th or 13th. Unebi disappeared without a trace somewhere in the South China Sea. No survivors and no wreckage were ever found despite searching by ships from the IJN and the Royal Navy's China Station; the most popular theory is that the design was top-heavy due to its excessive armament and was unstable in rough weather. Unebi was officially declared lost with all hands and stricken from the navy list on October 19th 1887. The insurance settlement of ¥1,245,309 was applied to the construction of the Cruiser Chiyoda. However, the Imperial Japanese Navy was reluctant to continue working with French shipyards after the Unebi disaster, and placed its order for the French-designed Chiyoda with John Brown & Company in Scotland.