Nihon Kaigun 1946

[erik_t]

Fifteen years later, you mean.

[acelanceloet]

Fifteen years later, you mean.

/headdesk/ yes, of course
edited.

[emperor_andreas]

By the time the last Yamazuki-class ships were commissioned in the early 1950s, the design had changed slightly. The last of the class, Hae, was commissioned on 8 March 1953 and boasted an updated ASW suite, a new external sonar dome, six new K-guns and two depth-charge racks on the stern (both developed with the help of U.S. Navy engineers), and the No. 2 turret was replaced with a Weapon Alpha rocket launcher, with the turret magazine converted into the sonar room (lower level) and a storage area for ASW rockets (upper level).


Hae as commissioned on 8 March 1953.

However, the Weapon Alpha system quickly proved to be too complex and unreliable, so by 1956 all ships were refitted with two Hedgehog launchers in its place. In addition, all ships received America SPS-5 and SPS-6 radar systems while IJN technicians worked to develop the first post-war Japanese-built radar systems.


Yamazuki after her 1956 refit.

[eswube]

Interesting.

[erik_t]

Those K-guns are... interestingly... located.

[klagldsf]

Because they're so close to the DC racks?

[BB1987]

Those K-guns are... interestingly... located.

That might be a flaw inherted from an existing vessel. Me and Emperor have looked at the Harukaze Class Destroyer as a reference for the upgraded ASW fit of the Yamazukis. It was the first post-WWII indingenous-built Japanese destroyer, built roughly during the same timeframe (1954/56) of the Yamazuki refits represented above.

[erik_t]

Huh. I generally would have tried to keep the charges further away from the muzzles of such large-caliber weapons, but apparently it worked fine.

[eltf177]

Those K-guns are... interestingly... located.

Agree, OTOH there's not a lot of extra deck space available...

[emperor_andreas]

In 1944, two of the surviving 5,500-ton-type CLs were converted to CLAAs. Isuzu was one, Ayase was the other. By this time, Ayase was the sole survivor of her eight-ship class; all her sister ships had been sunk (Naka, Otonase, and Jintsu in 1942, Minase, Kako, and Sendai in 1943, and finally Naniwa in February 1944). She completed her refit in September 1944, and was part of the supply convoy to Lingga that November. From January 1945 onward, she remained in the Singapore area, and when Isuzu was sunk in April 1945, she became the sole surviving pre-1940 CL. The modification gave her several updates, including replacing her main armament with four twin-mount 127-mm. Type 89 Mod A1 guns. This actually saved weight:

Original Armament (as completed): 7 x 140-mm. Type 3 shielded single-mount guns; each mount weighs 20 tons apiece for 140 tons total.
Armament as of 1944 CLAA Conversion: 8 x 127-mm. Type 89 A1 Mod. 2 unshielded twin-mount guns; each mount weighs 20 tons apiece for 80 tons total.

As one of three Japanese cruisers still in Malayan waters, she was a prime target for British forces in the Indian Ocean, managing to outlast both Haguro and Ashigara, but anyone could see that her luck would not hold out forever. Finally, on 28 September 1945, she was en route back to Japan when she and the convoy she was escorting were surprised by a British surface group centered around battleship H.M.S. Lion. As the merchants scrambled to escape, pursued by the British destroyers, the Japanese escort ships bravely challenged the heavier units in a suicidal delaying action, with Ayase challenging Lion directly. However, the contest was a foregone conclusion; Ayase took five direct hits from Lion's sixteen-inch guns, with the last one detonating a magazine; the old cruiser disintegrated in a massive fireball and sank with only 13 survivors. Afterward, Lion's captain commented that the fight "...just proved further the fighting samurai spirit of the Japanese people."