Japanese cruiser Izumo

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The Japanese cruiser Izumo in 1905
Career Japanese Navy Ensign
Built: Armstrong Whitworth, Great Britain
Ordered: 1897 Fiscal Year
Laid down May 1898
Launched: September 19 1898
Completed: September 25 1900
Fate: Sunk by air attack July 24 1945
General Characteristics
Displacement: 9,750 tons
Length: 132.28 meters at waterline
Beam: 20.94 meters
Draught: 7.37 meters
Propulsion: 2-shaft, 14,500 BHP
Speed: 20.75 knots
Fuel: 1412 tons
Complement: 672
Armament:
  • 4 × 203 mm guns
  • 14 × 152 mm guns
  • 12 x 12 pdr guns
  • 8 x 2.5 pdr guns
  • 4 × 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armor: 88-175 mm main belt armor; 125 mm upper belt; 67 mm deck armor; 150 mm turret, casement

The IJN Izumo (出雲) was an armored cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy built in Elswick, Great Britain by Armstrong Whitworth. Although very similar to the Asama-class cruisers Asama and Tokiwa, its differences are significant enough to class it as the lead ship in the separate Izumo-class, which also included its sister-ship, the Iwate.

The Izumo served an important role in the Russo-Japanese War, including the crucial Battle of Tsushima, where it was the flagship of Admiral Hikonojo Kamimura.

The Izumo was re-designated a First-Class Coast Defense Vessel on 01 September 1921.

Assigned to support duties during the Japanese invasion of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Izumo was attacked at Shanghai on 14 August 1937 by Chinese Air Force aircraft lead by Captain (later Major General) Claire Chennault. The Chinese mistakenly bombed the British cruiser HMS Cumberland and the US Navy cruiser USS Augusta instead, as well as accidentally dropping bombs into Shanghai city, which kill more than 1700 civilians and wound 1800 others. The incident came to be known as the “Bloody Sunday Incident”. A Nakajima Type 90 scout floatplane from the Izumo shot down one of the Chinese aircraft during the attack.

Still in Shanghai on 8 December 1941, at about 0400, the Izumo opened fire and sank the American gunboat USS Wake and British gunboat HMS Petrel, in one of the first acts of the Pacific War following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Izumo was sunk at dock in an American air attack on Kure [34.14N, 132.30E], 24 July 1945, and later raised and scrapped in 1947.

Izumo is a city in Shimane, Japan and the name of an ancient Japanese province.

Japanese cruiser Izumo in 1902
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Japanese cruiser Izumo in 1902
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