Kawachi class battleship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 The Japanese battleship Kawachi |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Kawachi |
| Builders: | Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan (Kawachi) Kure Naval Arsenal, Japan (Settsu) |
| Operators: |  Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Completed: | Two |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | battleship |
| Displacement: | 20,800 tons |
| Length: | 160.6 metres (526.9 ft) |
| Beam: | 25.6 metres (84.0 ft) |
| Draught: | 8.23 metres (27.0 ft) (Kawachi) 8.47 metres (27.8 ft) (Settsu) |
| Propulsion: | Two shaft Brown-Curtis turbine engines; 16 Miyabara boilers, 25,000 shp (18640 kW) |
| Speed: | 18.5 knots (34 km/h) |
| Complement: | 999 (Kawachi) 968 (Settsu) |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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The Kawachi class (河内型戦艦 Kawachi-gata senkan?) was a two-ship class of dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Kawachi class vessels were the first battleships to be built for Japan exceeding 20,000 tons displacement, and the last to be built as dreadnoughts.
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[edit] Background
Kawachi and Settsu were ordered under in 1907 Fleet Expansion Program as one of the first steps in full implementation of the Eight-Eight Fleet Program. The Japanese Navy projected that a fleet of eight front-line battleships was the minimum necessary against potential threats from China, Russia or the United States.
[edit] Design
The design of the Kawachi class was a modified version of the previous Satsuma class.
[edit] Armament
For its main battery, the Kawachi class carried four Type 41 12-inch (305 mm)/50 caliber naval guns mounted two per turret; one centerline forward, one centerline aft and eight Type 41 12-inch (305 mm)/45 caliber naval guns mounted in one wing turret on each side that could fire forward and to its side and one wing turret on each side that could fire aft and to its side. These main guns were very unusual in that the centerline guns were longer than the ones in the wing turrets. Although the different calibers were used for budgetary considerations, this had the unexpected benefit of reducing topside weight, and the unexpected demerit of proper gunnery control as the shells from the different length guns had different trajectories.
Secondary armament was very heavy, as per the previous Aki class design, with ten Type 41 6-inch (152 mm)/40-caliber quick firing guns to counter torpedo boat attacks.
Tertiary armament consisted of eight Type 41 4.7-inch (120 mm)/40-caliber naval guns and 12 Type 41 3-inch (7.62 cm)/40-caliber naval guns, commonly known as "twelve pounders" plus an additional four Type 41 3-inch (7.62 cm)/25-caliber naval guns
[edit] Propulsion
The engines on the Kawachi class vessels were coal-fired Brown Curtiss turbine engines with 16 Miyabara water tube boilers. The engines produced 25,000 shp (18640 kW), yielding a design speed of 20 knots (37 km/h).
[edit] Ships in class
Commissioned on 1912-03-31, Kawachi played a minor role in World War I, and was lost in an accidental explosion with massive loss of life on 1918-07-12.
Commissioned on 1912-07-01, Settsu played a minor role in World War I. She was disarmed as part of Japan’s compliance with the Washington Naval Agreement in 1924, and used as a radio-controlled target ship thereafter until the end of World War II.
[edit] References
- Brown, D. K. (1999). Warrior to Dreadnought, Warship Development 1860-1906. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-84067-529-2.
- Evans, David (1979). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870211927.
- Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0689114028.
- Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 087021893X.
[edit] External links
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