IJN Takao - Guide 192

do [Music] the takao class sometimes called the atago class were the second class of supposedly full-scale treaty compliant cruisers built for the imperial japanese navy they originated in plans in the mid-1920s for a further four mayoko class but various ambitious plans to try and build almost 50 new ships of which these would have been a part kept being thrown back in years of relative financial austerity eventually as the taisho era turned into the showa era otherwise known to us as the late 1920s authorization was given for four scout cruisers of 10 000 tons each by which point design ideas had evolved a bit beyond the stock mayoko hull these ships were designed primarily as fleet scouting units and so they were expecting to brawl with ships such as the counties in the royal navy and the north hamptons in the u.s navy both of which were under construction at the time in order to do this they had to be protected against incoming eight-inch fire to be faster than their projected opposition to carry aircraft to help in their scouting role and also to carry fleet flagship facilities to lead units that may be made up of varying types of other vessels thus compared to the mayoko class they would be fitted with a main battery capable of high angle elevation more armor for their magazines with simultaneous lightening of the superstructure through the use of welding and lighter metals a slightly repositioned torpedo battery and for the flagship rules the bridge tower was to be far larger in some ways these ships could have been said to have been strongly influenced by the county class as admiral hiraga who oversaw and approved the final design had just come back from a long stint abroad where he'd struck up a good friendship with the royal navy's then director of naval construction with the first three changes just listed being common between the two classes the ships would be laid down in 1927 and 1928 with all but the last launched over 1930 and all of them would commission in 1932. names were chosen from mountains found in japan and all of the names had also previously been used in other imperial japanese navy vessels and thus the designations were takao atago chokai and maya all entering service with the japanese navy once more at this point japan was still trying to abide by the treaty restrictions and thus there was actually genuine effort made to keep within the 10 000 ton limit but with a heavy main battery of 10 8-inch guns in five twin turrets three forward with the middle turret super firing and two super firing aft along with four single 4.7 inch aa guns eight torpedo tubes four heavy 24-inch torpedoes in four twin launchers with two per side plus two full sets of reloads along with a scattering of light anti-aircraft guns plus 132 000 shaft horsepower machinery driving four screws for a top speed of around 35 knots and up to almost five inches of belt armor over the magazines and four inches elsewhere sticking to the treaty limits would prove to be basically impossible with the ships completing badly overweight at 11 500 tons standard displacement exacerbated by later refits including depending on the exact year and the exact ship the replacement of twin torpedo launchers with quads for a total of 16 tubes replacing the single 4.7 inch air guns with the same number or more of twin five inch mounts as well as dozens of 25 millimeter anti-aircraft guns in single twin and triple mounts as well as a few heavy machine guns for mostly for morale purposes they would also be refitted in the late 1930s to carry the new type 93 long lance torpedo as a result these ships typically had to carry several hundred tons of ballast in addition to their designed loads just in order to stay upright and this also decreased the effectiveness of the belt armor as it was forced mostly underwater all four ships would nonetheless see extensive action in the pacific campaign mostly as carrier and invasion escorts in the early part of the conflict transitioning to a more active anti-shipping role as the war went on chokai fulfilling her flagship role at the first battle of saavo island leading four much older cruisers into a crushing victory over u.s and australian forces and maya being part of the force that arguably got the better of the gunfight with uss salt lake city at the battle of the komodorski islands they would all survive for a surprisingly long time remaining operational despite the odd spot of damage until late 1944 when everything suddenly caught up with them at the battle of leyte gulf and takao maya and atago would be hit during their approach by the u.s submarine's data and dace sending maya and atago to the ocean floor and takao limping into port never to sail again suddenly this left chakai as the sole survivor and she would only last two more days before being heavily damaged during the battle of samar by either a lucky five-inch shell or an aircraft drop bomb following which she was scuttled and the survivors would be taken aboard the destroyer fujinami which was itself unfortunately lost with all hands shortly thereafter to air attack that's it for this video thanks for watching if you have a comment or suggestion for a ship to review let us know in the comments below don't forget to comment on the pinned post for dry dock questions

Channel: Drachinifel

Views: 117,502

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Id: x591S9dsOgA

Length: 6min 16sec (376 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 15 2020