Japanese Heavy Cruisers of WW2 [A Goofy Guide]

if you are watching this video i would imagine that you know something about the second world war it is also likely that you are well accustomed to the fact that the japanese well to put it in the words of the emperor's showa himself the war situation has developed not necessarily to japan's advantage [Music] this was perhaps a slight understatement but despite the war ending not necessarily to japan's advantage instrumental to the empire's astounding victories in the opening phases of the pacific war was the glorious dai nippon takoku kaigen the imperial japanese navy or ijn just four years prior to emperor hirangito's fateful address to the nation in 1945 the imperial japanese navy was the third largest navy in the world challenged by only the u.s and royal navies with whom they were destined to clash when that day came the 7th of december 1941 as the ijn's battleships sat in home waters awaiting what they believed would be the decisive naval battle of the war a battle of tsushima 2.0 it would be the ijn's heavy cruisers which spearheaded what some describe as the japanese blitzkrieg through southeast asia fast and heavily armed they were technologically superior and far more innovative than their allied counterparts and they would prove to be one of the more successful components of the ign during the pacific war there were 18 of these metal beasts at the time of pearl harbor yet less than four years later only two corpses of ships remained to reflect this once mighty element of the imperial japanese navy first a quick word about doctrine yes that's right you thought i was going to talk about a sponsor huh what what's out of here is that the funny guy alert the ijn's basic strategy was defensive up until 1939 with the plan being to lure the american fleet into a decisive naval battle in the western pacific essentially a battle of tsushima 2.0 in a theoretical scenario the ijn's heavy cruisers would partake in nutritional warfare along with destroyers aiming to whittle down the us fleet so that it would be closer to numerical parity with the ijn's fleet when the great predicted battle began it was also anticipated that the navy's heavy cruisers would be the ijn's principal night fighting unit [Music] originally planned to act at night in the aforementioned combat role the heavy cruisers would prove during the guadalcanal campaign that they could fulfill this role to great effect first up the alba and furutaka classes predating the washington naval treaty furutaka and kako made up the first class of japanese heavy cruisers laid down in 1922. the alba and kunigasa were essentially improved versions of the previous class laid down two years later their original armaments can be seen here on the furutakas consisting of six 7.9 inch guns after this brief flirtation with the 7.9 the ign decided to upgrade the ships to the newer 8-inch models which became common among japanese cruises of the heavy variety the albas were completed accordingly and the furotaka is modified later on their armor layouts were as seen here making up just over 12 percent on both classes during their lifetimes they would all see many minor modifications plus a major reconstruction of the ships in the late 1930s to early 40s ships which survived guadalcanal would later receive modifications including radars and in accordance with the us industry joining the chat and beginning to pump out thousands of planes into the skies the aircraft armaments which was good these were with the addition of more and more type 96 20 millimeter guns which was uh not so good but we'll talk more about those later [Music] next up the miyoko and takao classes as with before the takaos were basically an improved version of the previous class the easiest way to tell the types apart was that the cows possessed a characteristically massive breed mega chunka both classes contained four ships each with the myokos laid down in 1924 25 and the takaos laid down three and four years later respectively armaments of the two classes like the previous two classes begun with the myokos bearing the 7.9 and later being upgraded to the eight inch guns which the takaos were constructed with there was also another weapon which the japanese rather liked the torpedo and when i say they liked it i mean they really liked it everything from aircraft to capital ships everything must have torpedoes the types armor makes up just over 16 percent on both types service modifications to both classes mainly revolved around small changes with the exception of the reconstruction of the bridges of the tokyo and otago in order to reduce top weight the main change to all ships was the addition of more and more 20 millimeter guns you see the problem with the type 98 guns were well there were a number of problems but the ign's approach to light anti-aircraft protection was definitely quantity over quality this approach was taken to the extreme by maya who was reconstructed as an anti-aircraft cruiser in 1943 with a final tally of no less than 60 20 millimeter bounds oh gummies because japan was running out of allocated tonnage for heavy cruises under the washington naval treaty they thought why not build some light cruiser which just so happen to be specifically designed to be up one to eight inch guns and can be turned into heavy cruisers when the treaty stopped applying to japan and so they did laid down then then and whoops a torpedo boat capsizes in a storm when the ign was like maybe we need to make these cruises a little less overweight so they changed a bunch of stuff and then they all lived happily ever after oh dear a typhoon in 1935 damages mogami and mokuma and everything is stopped it's time to start so that the cruisers can be structurally modified again when they're all finally launched armaments looked like this in the beginning and during 1939 and 1940 when the treaties suddenly didn't apply to the ign they were all up gunned to look like this protection was very similar to that of the takaos modifications throughout the war saw the bolstering of anti-aircraft armaments of the surviving ships as well as the addition of different radar sets mogami herself was the exception receiving the most modification of any japanese heavy cruiser of the war being turned into an aircraft carrier cruiser essentially her entire aft section was replaced with a flight deck in catapults and room for 11 seaplanes not exactly a fleet carrier originally planned as improved versions of the morgami just as the toner herself was on the building way in 1936 the ign had a change in plan and tony and her sister ship were reproposed as scouting cruisers essentially the general staff just wanted to increase the seaplane capacity of the ships like how megami would end up but the ijn also wanted the ships to be able to launch planes and be able to fire their guns at the same time so they had a simple solution move all of the guns to the front part of the ship and make the aft into a large seaplane handling deck so they did with an original treaty restricted armament similar to the mogamis they would later be converted like the previous class to the can you guess 8-inch guns upon their entry to service the ships proved surprisingly satisfactory for their service modifications of the two ships was also reasonably limited mainly seeing radar sets installed and more beloved 20 millimeter guns bolted to every spare space on the ships [Music] at the beginning of the pacific war the ijn's heavy cruisers were organized into sentais or divisions the albas and furutakas comprised sentai six the takaos and miyoko sentai four the morgami is sentai seven and the taunes sentai number eight at the opening of hostilities in december 1941 the heavy cruisers would be found covering various naval invasions across southeast asia and the pacific notable among them was the toenails who were assigned to the infamous kirobutai which they would escort during the attack on pearl harbor with the exception of sentai six most of the other cruisers would be involved in actions in and around the east indies following their initial operations sinking a number of allied ships one of these actions was known as the battle of sunder strait in which all former games would participate in the sinking of seven ships what was not so good is that only two of those ships were allied ships four were imperial japanese army transports and the other a japanese minesweeper all torpedoed accidentally during the encounter in the aftermath a very angry lieutenant general imamura was plucked from the water it was later discovered that mogami herself was the culprit following the major actions in the east indies a number of heavy cruisers were involved in what came to be known as the indian ocean raid essentially a japanese force went into the indian ocean caused a fuss sank some british ships and then buggered back off again sentai seven accounted for eight enemy ships sunk and seaplanes from the tourney spotted and were subsequently responsible for the sinking of two british cruisers following the indian ocean adventure a few of the ign's heavy cruisers would take part in the attempt to seize port moresby and the subsequent battle of the coral sea which didn't go so well for the japanese [Music] it would be the first strategic setback of the japanese in the war but not the last the next major action was the midway operation the cruisers acting as escorts for the carriers would again be helpless to prevent the unfolding disaster at midway there was also a sneaky diversionary attack in the aleutian islands occurring at the same time with takao maya and nucci supporting that operation it was the reconnaissance seaplanes of the tourne who would fatefully report the spotting of the american carriers at midway although their report was frustratingly vague what happened next was arguably the turning point of the pacific war exactly at the end of the six months predicted by admiral irasoku yamamoto midway also saw the first loss of the ijn's heavy cruiser force mikuma was sunk by aircraft while withdrawing from the battle one down 17 to go following the not so victory at midway the next major series of actions around the solomon islands became known as the guadalcanal campaign it was around this island that the heavy cruisers would be given opportunities to act in their intended pre-war role as night fighting units [Music] it was the heavy cruisers who had formed the backbone of the ign's operations around guadalcanal early in the campaign came the battle of savo island a total of five heavy cruisers were present on the japanese side and the battle went surprisingly well for the japanese however the kako was sunk by a u.s submarine while returning from the battle over the course of the campaign the cruisers would also participate in a number of bombardment operations when i say a number i mean a big number mainly of the american airstrip at henderson field there will also be a number of other large actions including the battle of cape esperance battle of the east solomons and battle of santa cruz a bunch of cruisers were also caught in rebel preparing to counter the american invasion of bougainville uh which didn't go so well 1943 was a relatively quiet year for the heavy cruisers with none sunk that year 1944 however yeah it was in 44 that the ijn's heavy cruisers would be effectively destroyed as a force a number of ships were present at the battle of the philippine sea but like midway two years earlier they were powerless to affect the battle's outcome it was the collection of battles around leyte golf later that year which would mark the effective end of the ijn's heavy cruisers it was an absolute disaster for the ijn myoko alba takao are all heavily damaged and forced to withdraw from the battle nachi chikuma chokai are all sunk by carrier aircraft atago kimono and maya are sunk by submarines mogami undergoes quite the ordeal after eventually being sunk by a destroyer escort very few escape and most who do are heavily damaged as 1945 came around most of the heavy cruisers had been turned into floating anti-aircraft batteries throughout japan and her remaining territories from here they were slowly whittled down by mainly airstrikes until only two remained tony and takao both in heavily damaged condition the imperial japanese navy entered the pacific war with 18 fast powerful capable and formidable looking heavy cruisers yet although their fearsome appearance has overshadowed their allied counterparts their heavier emphasis on offensive capabilities led to them not being as balanced as their later american counterparts for example the lack of adequate armor protection there is also the consistent issue of overweight designs which was undesirable to say the least their true downfall came at the hands of the american exploiting of the japanese weaknesses of inadequate anti-aircraft defenses and anti-submarine warfare the ign's heavy cruisers cannot be overlooked in the story of the imperial japanese navy as they represent one of the most successful components of the ign during the second world war you

Channel: ComradeKangaroo

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Id: GCLLU-MtRxk

Length: 15min 20sec (920 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 28 2022