Fusō-class battleship

Fusō class battleships Yamashiro (foreground) and Fusō (middle background) in Tokyo Bay, Japan, some time around 1935. In the far background is Kongō class battlecruiser Haruna.
Class overview
Operators	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by	Kongō-class battlecruiser
Succeeded by	Ise-class battleship
Built	1912–1915
In commission	1915–1945
Completed	2
Lost	2
General characteristics
Type	Battleship
Displacement	39,154 long tons (39,782 t)
Length	213 m (698 ft 10 in)
Beam	30.61 m (100 ft 5 in)
Draught	9.68 m (31 ft 9 in)
Propulsion	4 shaft; Brown-Curtis turbines; 24 boilers; 40,000 shp (30,000 kW)
Speed	25 knots (29 mph; 46 km/h)
Range	8,000 nmi (15,000 km) at 14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h)
Complement	1,400
Armament	12 × 14 in (356 mm) guns 16 × 6 in (152 mm) guns 8 × 5 in (127 mm) DP guns up to 37 × 25 mm AA

The Fusō class (Japanese: 扶桑, an old name for Japan), was a battleship class of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed before the First World War. Two ships of the class were built, Fusō and Yamashiro.

Design

Their 14-inch (356 mm) main gun turrets were placed in an unorthodox 2-1-1-2 style (The Yamashiro having her third turret reversed when compared to the Fusō) and with a funnel separating the middle turret placement. This placement was not entirely successful as the armoured section was needlessly lengthened and the middle guns had trouble targeting. However, Fusō's relatively fine hull form allowed her to obtain a speed of 23 knots (43 km/h) as completed.

Modifications

Illustration of the Fusō

Between the wars, Fusō and Yamashiro received major modifications, in common with all of the Japanese battleships in service. Fusō was lengthened by an additional 25 feet (7.6 m), the twin funnels trunked together, the original 24 mixed-firing boilers replaced by six new oil-fired Kampon boilers and the ships' control tops dramatically added to produce the characteristic "pagoda" foremast which typified Japanese ships of the period. Armour protection was both increased in quantity and improved in quality on both ships, especially over the machinery spaces and below the waterline, a response to British capital ships' experiences against torpedoes (for example, HMS Marlborough was almost sunk by a single German torpedo just after the Battle of Jutland). The improvements included heavier armour belting over the midships machinery spaces, made possible by the opening out of these areas when the original boilers were replaced, and the addition of a torpedo bulge. The Fusōs were capable of 25.4 knots (47 km/h) by the time these modifications were completed, a testament to the vastly improved efficiency of boilers in the 1930s.

Service

Despite these modifications, the IJN considered that the Fusōs were inadequately protected and too slow to be of any great use, and thus Fusō and Yamashiro were both kept in the Inland Sea as a strategic reserve force (which, as it turned out, was unnecessary) at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack and for some time afterwards, mainly being employed on training duties.

Both ships of the class were sunk by US Navy forces at the battle of Surigao Strait on 25 October 1944.

References

• Breyer, Siegfried (1978). Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970. New York: Doubleday.
• Evans, David C.; Peattie, Mark R. (1997). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
• Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1984). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870219073.
• Garzke, William H.; Dulin, Robert O. (1985). Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-101-3.
• Jackson, Robert (2000). The World's Great Battleships. Brown Books. ISBN 1-89788-460-5
• Stille, Cdr Mark (2008). Imperial Japanese Navy Battleship 1941-1945. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-280-6

See also

Media related to Fusō class battleship at Wikimedia Commons