The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
|
| Previous: Uno Takashi | Table of Contents | Next: Uphola |
|
|
|
| Tonnage | 17,150 tons standard displacement |
| Dimensions | 746'1" by 72'2" by 25'9" 227.4m by 22.0m 7.8m |
| Maximum speed | 34 knots |
| Complement | 1595 |
| Aircraft | 712' (217.0m) flight deck 65 aircraft |
| Armament | 6x2 5"/40
dual-purpose guns 21x3 25mm/60 AA guns |
| Protection | 5.9"
(150mm) belt (magazines) 1.8" (46mm) belt (machinery) 2.2" (56mm) deck (magazines) 1" (25mm) deck (machinery) 2" (50mm) torpedo bulkhead |
| Machinery |
4-shaft geared turbine
(152,000
shp) 8 Kampon boilers |
| Bunkerage | 3670 tons fuel oil 150,000 gallons (570,000 liters) aviation gasoline |
| Range | 8000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 18 knots |
| Sensors |
Type
13 air search radar Type 21 radar (two sets) |
| Modification | Amagi
and Katsuragi completed with an additional 1x3, 23x1
25mm guns. Katsuragi was allocated destroyer machinery
due to a
shortage of parts, reducing power to about 100,000 shp and
maximum
speed to 32 knots.
1944: Added 6x8 5" antiaircraft rocket launchers |
The Unryus were ordered in 1941 and were
based on the Hiryu,
with few
improvements based on lessons learned with the earlier
ships.
Since the Shokakus
and Taiho
were superior to the Hiryu, this seems like a retrograde
step. However, the ships were apparently designed to be the heart
of
anti-convoy strike forces
rather
than part of the main battle fleet.
The ships were designed with cruiser
machinery which gave them
good speed. They operated a reasonably large air group (65
aircraft)
but
did not
incorporate the excellent Japanese 3.9”/65
AA gun
and were somewhat lacking in protection. Unryu herself
was
crippled by
a single torpedo,
and
finished off with another salvo that set off suicide craft stored in
her hangar
deck.
Three ships were built of this class,
and three more were
planned but canceled in 1945. The Japanese
shortage
of steel
was
crippling by this point in the war. Furthermore, the units that
were
completed never saw combat due to shortages of aircraft and aviation
fuel.
|
Completed 1944-8-6 (Yokosuka) |
Torpedoed by Redfish on 1944-12-19 200 nautical miles southeast of Shanghai | |
|
Completed 1944-8-10 (Nagasaki) |
Sunk by aircraft on 1945-7-24 off Kure | |
|
Completed 1944-10-15 (Kure) |
 |
 |
|
References
Gogin
(2010; accessed 2013-4-20)
Jentschura, Jung, and Mickel (1977)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2013, 2016 by Kent G. Budge. Index
