Japanese cruiser Izumo

Izumo in 1905 Izumo in 1905
Career	Japanese Navy Ensign
Name:	Izumo
Ordered:	1897 Fiscal Year
Builder:	Armstrong Whitworth, United Kingdom
Laid down:	May 1898
Launched:	19 September 1898
Completed:	25 September 1900
Fate:	Sunk by air attack, 24 July 1945 Raised and scrapped in 1947
General characteristics
Class and type:	Izumo-class cruiser
Displacement:	9,750 long tons (9,906 t)
Length:	132.28 m (434 ft 0 in) w/l
Beam:	20.94 m (68 ft 8 in)
Draught:	7.37 m (24 ft 2 in)
Propulsion:	2 shaft VTE 24 boilers 14,500 shp (10,800 kW) 1412 tons coal
Speed:	20.75 knots (23.88 mph; 38.43 km/h)
Range:	7,000 nmi (13,000 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement:	648
Armament:	• 4 × 203 mm (8 in) guns • 14 × 152 mm (6 in) rapid fire guns • 12 × 12-pounder rapid fire guns • 8 × 2.5-pounder rapid fire guns • 4 × 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Main belt: 88–175 mm (3.5–6.9 in) Upper belt: 125 mm (4.9 in) Deck: 67 mm (2.6 in) Turret, casemate: 150 mm (5.9 in) Conning tower: 356 mm (14.0 in)
Aircraft carried:	1 × Nakajima Type 90 floatplane

Izumo (出雲) was an armored cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Although very similar to the Asama-class cruisers Asama and Tokiwa, its differences are significant enough to classify it as the lead ship in the separate Izumo-class, which also included its sister ship, the Iwate. The Izumo was named after Izumo Province, an ancient province of Japan (corresponding to present-day Shimane Prefecture).

Background

The Izumo was one of six armored cruisers ordered to overseas shipyards after the First Sino-Japanese War as part of the "Six-Six Program" (six battleships-six cruisers) intended to be the backbone of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was built in Elswick, in the United Kingdom by Armstrong Whitworth.

Service record

The Izumo served an important role in the Russo-Japanese War, where it was the flagship of the 2nd Fleet under Admiral Kamimura Hikonojō. It patrolled from the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin to the Tsushima Strait, in pursuit of the Imperial Russian Navy's Vladivostok squadron, which had been raiding Japanese shipping, and threatened the logistics link between the Japan home islands and the Japanese armies in Manchuria. The Izumo participated in Battle off Ulsan on 14 August 1904, and also the crucial Battle of Tsushima on 26 May 1905.

On 22 May 1909, under command of Captain Takeshita Isamu, the Izumo departed Sasebo for the United States to participate in the 140th anniversary celebrations of the founding of San Francisco. It made port calls in Hawaii, Monterrey, Santa Barbara, and San Diego on the way.

In World War I, the Izumo was used extensively for overseas patrol. Its relatively large size made it suitable for long-term overseas service, and it was dispatched to Malta, as a second special duty fleet flagship, directing the Japanese destroyer unit which participated in convoy escort in the Mediterranean Sea as part of Japan's contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance.

Afterwards, the Izumo was assigned to the training fleet and was based out of Yokosuka, making numerous navigation training cruises to the Indian Ocean and to South America. In the 1919 Naval Review, Emperor Taishō took the helm of the Izumo briefly during fleet maneuvers. The Izumo was re-designated a 1st class coastal defense vessel on 1 September 1921.

In 1934, the Izumo was equipped with a floatplane, which it launched by lowering from a crane on its aft deck to the ocean.

Assigned as flagship of the Japanese 3rd Fleet during the Japanese invasion of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Izumo was attacked at the Battle of Shanghai by a Chinese torpedo boat. It was also attacked on 14 August 1937 by Chinese Air Force aircraft led by Captain (later Major General) Claire Lee Chennault.

Still in Shanghai on 8 December 1941, at about 0400, the Izumo opened fire and forced the surrender of the United States Navy gunboat USS Wake and sunk the British gunboat HMS Peterel, in one of the first acts of the Pacific War following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

With the start of the Pacific War, despite its antiquated age, the Izumo was retrofitted with anti-aircraft guns and re-classified back as a 1st class cruiser on 1 July 1942. However, throughout the duration of the war, it was used as a training vessel, never departing from the safe confines of the Inland Sea.

The Izumo was sunk at dock in an American air attack on Kure (34°14′N 132°30′E) on 24 July 1945, and its hulk was later raised and scrapped in 1947.

Gallery

• IJN Izumo 1902.jpg

  Izumo in 1902

• IJN Izumo in Kobe.jpg

  Izumo in Kobe in 1903

• IJN Izumo in Shanghai2.jpg

  Izumo in Shanghai, 1932

• IJN Izumo in Shanghai.jpg

  Izumo in Shanghai, 1937

References

• Evans, David. Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press (1979). ISBN 0870211927
• Howarth, Stephen. The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum; (1983) ISBN 0689114028
• Jane, Fred T. The Imperial Japanese Navy. Thacker, Spink & Co (1904) ASIN: B00085LCZ4
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg. Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press (1976). ISBN 087021893X
• Schencking, J. Charles. Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, And The Emergence Of The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. Stanford University Press (2005). ISBN 0804749779