Yamashio Maru-class escort carrier

The Yamashio Maru class (Japanese: 山汐丸) consisted of a pair of auxiliary escort carriers operated by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. They were converted from tankers. Only the name ship was completed during the war and she was sunk by American aircraft before she could be used.

Yamashio Maru
Class overview
BuildersMitsubishi Heavy Industries
Operators Imperial Japanese Army
Preceded byAkitsu Maru class
Succeeded byKumano Maru
Built1944–1945
In commission1945
Planned2
Completed1
Cancelled1
Lost1
General characteristics
TypeEscort carrier
Displacement16,119 tonnes (15,864 long tons)
Length157.5 m (516 ft 9 in)
Beam20.48 m (67 ft 2 in)
Draught9 m (29 ft 6 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Range9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement221
Armament
Aircraft carried8

Construction

In 1944, the Japanese Army, which had already converted two passenger liners into combined assault ship and aircraft carriers, decided to acquire its own escort carriers to provide aerial anti-submarine cover for troop convoys. It therefore chartered two partly built Type 2TL Tankers, Yamashio Maru and Chigusa Maru, for conversion to auxiliary escort carriers.[1]

The conversion was extremely simple, with a 107-metre (351 ft 1 in)-long flush flight deck added. There was no hangar, the ship's eight Ki-76s being stored on deck. Defensive armament consisted of sixteen 25 mm anti-aircraft guns, with a depth charge projector forward.[2]

Operational history

Yamashio Maru commissioned on 27 January 1945 and was sunk at Yokohama harbor by US aircraft on 17 February.[2][3] Plans were drawn up for conversion to a coal-burning freighter,[1] but she was never used as a carrier. Her sister ships, Chigusa Maru and Zuiun Maru, were incomplete when Japan surrendered and served after the war as tankers:[2]

Chigusa Maru was sunk in 1945. The ship was repaired as tanker in 1945 and scrapped in Sasebo in June 1963. Zuiun Maru was scrapped in Oskata on 15 June 1964.

Photo

See also

Notes

  1. Gardiner and Chesneau, p. 213
  2. Chesneau, p. 186
  3. "The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II". Retrieved 21 December 2012.

Bibliography

  • Chesneau, Roger (1995). Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (New, revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-902-2.
  • Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
  • Fukui, Shizuo (1991). Japanese Naval Vessels at the End of World War II. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-125-8.
  • Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter; Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
  • Polmar, Norman; Genda, Minoru (2006). Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events. Vol. 1, 1909–1945. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 1-57488-663-0.
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