Japanese battleship Yamashiro

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Career
Yamashiro with Fusō and Haruna (more distant) Tokyo Bay, 1930s
Ordered:
Laid down:	November 20, 1913
Launched:	November 3, 1915
Commissioned:	March 31, 1917
Fate:	Sunk October 25, 1944
General Characteristics
Displacement:	39,154 tons (39,782 t)
Length:	213 m (698 feet)
Beam:	30.6 m (100 feet 5 inches)
Draught:	9.7 m (31 feet 9 inches)
Propulsion:	Four-shaft geared turbines, 24 boilers (40,000 shp) as built. Four-shaft geared turbines, 6 boilers (75,000 shp) as converted.
Speed:	25 knots (46 km/h)
Range:	8000 nautical miles at 14 knots as built.
Complement:	1400
Armament:	twelve 14 inch guns, sixteen 6 inch, eight 5 inch DP, up to 37 × 25 mm AA

The Yamashiro (山城) was the Imperial Japanese Navy's second Fusō-class battleship, and was laid down at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on November 20, 1913, launched on November 3, 1915, and commissioned on March 31, 1917. She was the first Japanese vessel equipped with aircraft catapults. The ship was named after the Japanese province where Kyoto is located.

The Yamashiro was reconstructed from December 1930 to March 1935. The original 24 coal-fired Mijabara boilers producing 24,000 hp were replaced with six new Kanpon oil-fired boilers producing 75,000 hp. Torpedo bulges were fitted, increasing beam from 94 feet to 100 feet, 6 inches. The stern was lengthened by 24 feet to improve the fineness ratio and restore lost speed. Deck armor was thickened to a total of 7 inches on three decks. Elevation of the main armament was increased from 30 degrees to 43 degrees. The forefunnel was removed, but converted later, the Yamashiro differed slightly from its sister ship Fusō in the arrangement of gun turrets; by altering the "dead angle" of "C" turret from foreward training to aft, deck space was left for a larger superstructure (see picture above.) Eight 5-inch/40 heavy anti-aicraft guns were fitted, one twin mount on each side of the bridge forward, and the other pair of twin mounts high up on the tower structure aft.

At the battle of Surigao Strait on October 25, 1944, she came under attack and was sunk by U.S. naval forces, receiving four hits from destroyer torpedoes and numerous 14" and 16" shells from U.S. battleships.