Japanese cruiser Kasuga

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Career

Ordered:	FY1903 to Ansaldo Yards, Genoa, Italy
Laid down:	March 10 1902
Launched:	October 22 1902
Commissioned:	January 7 1904
Fate:	Sunk July 18 1945
Struck:	November 30 1945
General Characteristics
Displacement:	7,698 tons
Length:	357 feet at waterline (108.8m), 366 feet 6 inches overall (111.73m)
Beam:	61 feet 6 inches (18.9m)
Draught:	24 feet (7.32m)
Propulsion:	Two Shaft Reciprocating Vertical Triple Expansion (VTE) Engines; 13,500 shp
Speed:	20 knots
Range:
Complement:	600
Armament:	one 10-Inch (forward); two 8-Inch (aft); fourteen 6-Inch; ten 3-Inch; six 3 pounder; 2 Maxim machine guns; four 18-Inch torpedo tubes (above water)
Armor:	belt 70-150 mm, deck 25-38 mm, barbette 100-150 mm, casemate 150 mm, conning tower 150 mm

IJN Kasuga (春日) was the lead ship of Kasuga-class armored cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built by Ansaldo in Italy, where the type was known as the Garibaldi-class. It was named after a holy mountain in Nara prefecture.

Designed as a cross between a battleship and a cruiser, but with a very small displacement, it had the ability to stand in the battle line and the speed to avoid action with battleships. Its armor was only 6-inches thick but covered a far greater percentage of the hull than previous armored cruiser designs.

Kasuga had a sister ship, the Nisshin.

[edit] History

The Kasuga was the second to last of the Garibaldi-class armored cruisers to be built. Ordered by the Italian Navy as the Mitra in the spring of 1902, it was sold immediately after launch to the Argentine Navy, who renamed it the Rivadavia. However, the prospects for war between Argentina and Chile diminished before the ship was completed on January 7 1904, making it surplus. The Japanese quickly purchased it due to increasing tension with Russia.

Completed on January 7 1904, the Kasuga was conveyed to Japan by Italian sailors using the voyage as a shakedown cruise.

At the start of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy had six modern battleships. This was slightly fewer than the number of Russian battleships at Port Arthur, but Japan had an edge in armored cruisers. The 10-inch (254mm) gun of Kasuga had sufficient elevation to make it one of the longest-ranged guns in the fleet. On May 15, 1904, in a major disaster for the Imperial Japanese Navy, two Japanese battleships (Yashima and Hatsuse) were lost to Russian mines. On the same day, after shelling Port Arthur, the Kashima collided with the protected cruiser Yoshino, which turned turtle and sank with the loss of 319 lives. The Kasuga herself was so badly damaged that she required a month’s refit in a dockyard.

With a third of Japan's battleships thus depleted, the unprecedented decision was taken to use the cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga in the line of battle together with the remaining four first line battleships Mikasa, Asahi, Shikishima and Fuji during Battle of the Yellow Sea (August 10, 1904). Kasuga fired 33 ten-inch shells during the battle.

At the subsequent Battle of Tsushima　 on May 26, 1905, Kasuga was 5th in the line of battle. At 14:15, Kasuga opened fire on the Oslayaba, the lead ship in the second column of the Russian fleet at a range of 7,000 yards, followed by the Imperator Aleksandr III　 then the Borodino. During the course of the battle, Kasuga fired 50 ten-inch shells and 103 eight-inch shells, and was hit by one 12-inch, one 6-inch and one unidentified of shell, none of which affected her efficiency. During the battle, the Mikasa and the Kasuga, as the lead ships in the column, were more heavily damaged.

During the 1920s, Kasuga was partially disarmed in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty, and designated as a training ship. Kasuga almost managed to survive the Pacific War, but was sunk at her mooring at Yokosuka on July 18, 1945 during an air raid by American forces.

[edit] References

Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905
Delorme, Pierre, Les Grandes Batailles de l'Histoire, Port-Arthur 1904, Socomer Editions (French)
Dull, Paul S. (1978) A Battle History of The Imperial Japanese Navy ISBN 0-85059-295-X
Gardiner, Robert (editor) (2001) Steam, Steel and Shellfire, The Steam Warship 1815–1905, ISBN 0-7858-1413-2
Tōgō Shrine and Tōgō Association (東郷神社・東郷会), Togo Heihachiro in images, illustrated Meiji Navy (図説東郷平八郎、目で見る明治の海軍), (Japanese)
Kofman, V.L. Armored Cruiser Type Garibaldi, Morskaya Kollektsia 3-1995
Blond Georges, Admiral Togo
Campbell N.J.M., The Battle of Tsu-Shima