Japanese Super Cruiser Ashitaka

## 愛鷹-class Cruiser

Side profile, Ashitaka

Ashitaka (愛鷹) was a unique Super Type A cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy that served during World War II.

## Background

In 1935, the Imperial Japanese Navy sought out designs for super cruisers to replace the role of the aging Kongo-class battleships in slightly larger numbers. 4 different designs were selected for construction out of 14 proposals. However, due to financial constraints, the number of warships of these 4 classes constructed ended up being lower than intended. Furthermore, several hulls were instead selected for conversion to aircraft carriers, like the Oshima of the Ishikari-class and Asahi of the Akitsushima-class. This left the Japanese cruiser forces with significantly less surface striking force than they desired.

In 1939, funding was allocated for a smaller run of similarly designed super cruisers. A cancelled design from the 1935 project was revised, with improvements in shipbuilding allowing for a partial correction of some of the original design's deficiencies. This would become Ashitaka, the sole ship of her class.

## Design

Ashitaka was 240m long at the waterline and had a maximum beam of 30m. Compared to her original design, her draft was increased to a maximum of 10m and displacement increased to 33500 tons. The resulting finer, deeper hullform allowed her original powerplant, consisting of 9 Kampon oil boilers and 4 shaft Gihon Impulse geared turbines for 171000 SHP and 32.5 knots, to be reconfigured into a more compact arrangement. This also allowed Ashitaka to have a slightly improved torpedo protection system 3m (?) deep, compared to the original 2.5m. However, relative to her contemporaries, this was still fairly shallow.

Ashitaka's main battery consisted of 10 36cm/45 41st Year Type guns in 2 three-gun and 2 superfiring two-gun turrets arranged along her centerline, as well as 12 15.5cm/60 3rd Year Type guns in 4 three-gun mounts as secondaries. Instead of new weapons, Ashitaka used relined old guns from the Kongo-class and turrets from the Mogami class respectively to save costs and accelerate completion. Ashitaka carried 4 triple torpedo tubes with the famed Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo, a typical feature of Japanese cruisers of the time.

Ashitaka's armor consisted of a declined 229mm main belt, 76mm thick torpedo bulkheads, and 102mm of armored decks. While this was more than adequate against cruisers, her large size left her potentially more vulnerable to capital ship gunfire.

## Service History

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Ashitaka was laid down in January 1939 at the Kure Naval Arsenal. She was launched in April 1941 and commissioned by December 1941. On trials she achieved her design speed.

#### World War II

In December 1941, during the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the newly commissioned Ashitaka tailed behind Battleship Division 2 towards the Bonin Islands, before being detached towards the coast of Siam and Malaya to assist in the hunt for the British Force Z, consisting of battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse. Following the sinking of the British vessels, Ashitaka returned to the Southern Pacific.

Operating with 2 heavy cruisers as the largest Japanese ship during the action in the Battle of the Java Sea in February 1942, Ashitaka's combined large caliber gunfire and torpedoes helped in the sinking of much of the ABDA forces. Ashitaka's force received the "large torpedo ship" IJN Ainoura shortly before the subsequent battle of Sunda Strait. During this battle, Ashitaka provided gunfire support, and narrowly avoided an erroneous torpedo spread fired by the cruiser Mogami. Ashitaka then returned to Japan, receiving a refit at Sasebo.

Ashitaka next saw action in April 1942, participating in the unsuccessful pursuit of the Doolittle Raid forces, before heading once more for the South Pacific to assist in various operations as a large command vessel.