IJN Kirishima

The IJN Kirishima was a Japanese warship which was used in WW1 and WW2. It was one of the four Congo class battlecruisers which had been produced for the Imperial Japanese Navy at the beginning of the 20th century. Although it had been conceived as a battlecruiser, it was rebuilt and modernized into a fast battleship in the 1930s. It would play the role of carrier escort and it would also be used to bombard coastal areas before an invasion.

The IJN Kirishima was launched in 1913, entering service in 1915. Between 1927 and 1931, it was at dry dock being refitted. Between 1934 and 1940, along with her sister Hiei, it was completely modernized, receiving a new power plant to make it faster and with a longer range. Armor was also reinforced and heavy anti-aircraft guns were set up on deck. On December 7, 1941, Kirishima and the other three Congo-class battleships took part in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In early June 1942, during the Battle of Midway, she was hit by US dive bombers but was only slightly damaged.

Below, photo of the Kongo-class IJN Kirishima before second upgrade.

On November 12 and 13, she was part of the Japanese flotilla that attacked the US Navy's warships providing support to the US Marines on Guadalcanal. During that night, she and her sisters sank the USS Atlanta and seriously damaged the USS San Francisco, Juneau, and Helena. However, two days later, on the night of November 15-16, IJN Kirishima would be sunk by the American battleship USS Washington (BB-56). While she was viciously firing at the USS Dakota, the USS Washington came up from nowhere hitting Kirishima hull side with the 406mm gun shells. The rounds also knocked out two turrets as huge amount of water poured into the steering room. Other round impacts caused flames shoot up from fore section, with a series of explosions.

Specifications

Overall Length: 222 m

Beam: 31 m

Draft: 9.7 m

Displacement: 36,6000 tons (full load)

Power Plant: 4-shaft geared steam turbines, which put out 136,000 HP.

Speed: 30 knots

Armor: between 76 and 203-mm-thick on belt; and 121-mm on deck.

Armament: eight 356-mm naval guns; fourteen 152mm guns; and eight 127mm and twenty 25mm AA guns.

Crew: 1,500 officers and sailors.

Below, drawing of IJN Kirishima after 2nd modernization

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Kilo-Class Submarines

The Project 877 Paltus is the Russian official name for all the Kilo class submarines. Those that have been upgraded are known as Project 636 Varshavyanka. Along with the Lada class, they are the only submarines in service with the Russian Navy to be powered by the conventional diesel electric system. However, these submersible warships are among the stealthiest in the world, especially the improved Kilo class.

They are surreptitious and they also have high-tech sonars (MG-519EM and MGK-400EM), which allow them to detect the signature and noise of an enemy warship from a distance of 130 km away. According to a reliable source, there are twenty seven Kilo class submarines, including the upgraded ones, in active service with the Russian Navy as of May 2022.

Since their range is limited by their propulsion system, they were designed to patrol the sea waters adjacent to the Russian territorial coasts, so that the nuclear-powered submarines could be released of this duty and be employed on the high seas. This is the main reason why the Kilo class subs are in service with the Russian Black Sea fleet and the Baltic Sea flotilla. Being furtive and armed with hypersonic anti-ship missiles and torpedoes make the Project 877 and the 636 improved Kilo class subs extremely fit to patrol and protect strategic Russian naval bases.

Weapons

The Kilo class U-boats are fitted with the most advanced weaponry in the world. To attack and sink enemy vessels, such as an aircraft carrier, they are fitted with ten 3M-54 Kalibr anti-ship missiles as well as with eighteen VA-111 Shkval 533mm smart torpedoes + anti-submarine missiles and mines. These torpedoes are super fast as they are capable of reaching the maximum speed of 250 knots.

Specifications

Length: 74 m

Beam (width): 9.9 m

Draft: 6.5 m

Displacement: 4,000 tons (submerged)

Power plant: 5,900 shp diesel electric, generating 4,4000 KW, with one propeller.

Maximum speed: 26 knots (submerged)

Maximum depth water pressure resistance: 400 m

Stealth technology: classified

Below, an Improved Kilo class submarine moored to a naval base dock in 2019.

Project 636 sub cruising on the surface of the Black Sea near a Crimean Russian Naval Base in 2018. Right now, they are silently lurking underwater waiting for the NATO ships to come.

A Kilo class sub on port.

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IJN Yamato

The IJN Yamato was the most renowned and powerful battleship in World War II. Along with her sister ship, Musashi, it was designed and laid down in 1937. Having been launched in August 1940, Yamato entered service with the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 16, 1941, nine days after the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. It had been built on Kure's naval yard's dry dock, in Kaigun Kosho. A gantry crane, which straddled the dock, had to be used to lift ship parts weighing over 100 tons. Her powerful 460-mm guns and her turrets were also produced at Kure.

Below, the Yamato battleship on trials, on October 20, 1941.

During the Battle of Midway, she became Admiral Yamamoto's flagship. In August 1942, the IJN Yamato sailed for the Solomon islands to provide fire support to a series of Japanese military operations to recapture Guadalcanal that had been taken by the US forces on August 7.  On December 25, 1943, she was hit by torpedoes fired by US submarine Skate near Truk island. The torpedo tore out a hole in its starboard side hull, with about 3,000 tons of water pouring in, which forced her to sail back to Japan for repair. In June 1944, she took part in the naval Battle of the Philippine Sea, from which she came out unscathed. At the end of October 1944, Yamato would participate in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, firing its powerful 460-mm guns on American ships. On April 6, 1945, she sailed for Okinawa to provide fire support to the Japanese troops defending the island. However, before she could reach the island, she was sunk by massive enemy air strike.

Armament

The IJN Yamato's mean weapons were her nine 460-mm (18.1 in) naval guns, which were mounted in three tripple turrets; two on the bow deck, and the other on the stern deck. She was also armed with Twelve 155-mm guns set up in four tripple turrets. For anti-air defense, she was equipped with twelve 127-mm AA and twenty four 25-mm AA guns.

Technical Data

Type: Battleship

Overall Length: 263 m

Waterline Length: 256 m

Beam: 38.9 m

Displacement: 72,809 tons (fully-loaded)

Draft (full load): 10.86 m

Armor: between 100 to 410-mm-thick at side belt; 230-mm steel plate at deck.

Aircraft: six float biplanes

Power Plant: four-shaft steam turbines, delivering 150,00 HP

Maximum Speed: 27.5 knots

Crew: 2500 sailors and officers

Below, the Yamato sailing of rough seas in early November 1941.

The battleship's layout, superior view

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Typhoon-Class Submarines

The Typhoon-class submarines are a series of Russian nuclear-powered Ballistic Missile submarines which were produced by the Soviet Union between 1976 and 1986, during the Cold War. Developed by the State-run, ship-building company Sevmash, the first one of this series, Dmitriy Donskoy (TK-208), was commissioned in 1981 to be part of the Soviet Navy's Northern Fleet. In the Soviet Union, it was known as Project 941 Akula (Shark).

Powered by two nuclear reactors, it is the largest submarine which has ever been built in history. Although most sources say that only one of the six Typhoon submarines which were produced remain in service, Dimitriy Donskoy, some military pundits believe that three Project 941 submersible vessels have been secretly modernized and reactivated: the Arkhangelsk (TK-17), the Severstal (TK-20), and the Simbirsk (TK-12) since 2014, when the Ukraine Crisis broke out, with the military coup against President Viktor Yanucovych.

Below, the Dmitriy Donskoy (TK-208) nearing its naval base in 2011

Armament

Since the Typhoon-class are ballistic missile submarines, they are fitted with the most lethal weapons in the world: 20 RSM-56 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which have a range of 10,000 km. The nose of each one of these missiles are armed with 10 MIRVs; Multiple Independent, Reentry Vehicles, each having a 100-kilotone warhead. Meanwhile, two of the reactivated Typhoon-class submarines are equipped with the high-tech hypersonic Kalibr cruise missiles, as well as with the P-800 Oniks anti-ship missiles.

Technical Characteristics

The Typhoon class submarines were built with a multiple pressure-hull design, using titanium alloy. The inner and second hull, as well as the exterior surface of the external hull, are lined with special rubber tiles to absorb noise, making it one of the stealthiest sub in the world. Their conning tower has no fins and it is located on the aft portion of the submersible vessel. It was developed to counter the USS Ohio-class subs, which are much smaller than the Russian ones.

A Typhoon-class submarine cruising in the waters of the Pacific Ocean in 1992.

Power Plant

They are fitted with two OK-650 nuclear reactors, with each one producing 190 MW. They supply two steam turbines, each delivering 50,000 HP. These drive two shafts which are fitted with 7-bladed shrouded screws.

Specifications

Type: nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.

Length: 175 m (574 ft)

Beam: 23 m (75 ft 6 in)

Displacement: 48,000 tons (submerged)

Draft: 12 m (39 ft 4 in)

Maximum Speed: 27 knots (submerged)

Range: unlimited, depending on food and ammunition logistic supplies.

Crew: 165 sailors and officers.

Below, the Typhoon-class Arkhangelsk T-17 sub.

Below, the Typhoon-class submarine Simbirsk (TK-12) in 1988, leaving its naval base.

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Reichsmarine

The Reichsmarine was the naval fleet of Germany during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). It was created right after World War I, with a limited number of warships due to the fact that the Treaty of Versailles had imposed such restriction. Along with the German Army (das Heer), it was a part of the Reichswehr, which was the name of the German armed forces during this period. Thus, it succeeded the Kaiserliche Marine (the Imperial German Navy), which had been formed when the German Empire was created in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War.

The Reichsmarine was created in 1919, practically from scratch, as 74 warships of the Kaiserliche Marine had been scuttled by their commander in Scapa Flow, right after Germany had surrendered, to prevent that these ships fell in British hands. (Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Scottish Northern islands). This is how Germany formed the Reichsmarine, around what was left at their naval ports; a handful of obsolete warships: 12 destroyers, six light cruisers, and six dreadnought battleships, which had been built at the beginning of the 20th century. They had not been kept in proper conditions, with old rusting boilers and machinery.

Reduced in tonnage and to only 20,000 men, the only mission and purpose of the Reichsmarine was the defense of Germany's coastline, with their first commander being Admiral von Trotha, who would be succeeded by Admiral Behnke. However, in the mid 1920s, these war vessels would be upgraded and modernized. Therefore, the dreadnought battleships Schleswig Holstein, Schlesien, and Hessen were still in service when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933. With the creation of the Third Reich, a new navy would be formed; the Kriegsmarine, whose most feared vessel would be the U-boat.

Below, the Schlesien and Schleswig-Holstein dreadnought battleships of the Reichsmarine anchored in a German deep-water river in 1925.

 

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Nagato (Battleship)

The Nagato was a battleship in service with the Imperial Japanese Navy between 1920 and 1945. It first saw combat action during the Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s, being used in coastal bombardment of Chinese ports and to soften up beachheads before the landing of troops.

During World War II, the Nagato took part in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harvor on December 7, 1941, the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, and also in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, having sustained damage in this last military engagement. However, she survived the war, only to be used as a target in the US Navy’s military exercises of 1946, when she was finally sunk.

Launched in 1919, Nagato was a Dreadnought type battleship, whose bow had been remade in 1930 to reduce the amount of surfs and spray when sailing in rough seas. Between 1934 and 1936, she was updated with the addition of extra armor, new machinery, and anti-aircraft guns, being the lead ship of her class. With a length of 215.8 m, she was 40 m shorter than the Yamato, which was the biggest battleship in history, but she could launch 3 reconnaissance floatplanes, using one catapult. Like battleship Yamato, Nagato’s power plant consisted of 4 steam engines, with 4 shafts, supplied by 21 water-tube boilers, generating 80,000 hp.

Weapons

The battleship Nagato was armed with eight powerful 410mm naval guns, mounted in four twin turrets, two fore and two aft; eighteen 140mm guns; eight 127mm guns; and ninety eight 25mm AA guns.

Specifications

Length: 215.8 m

Beam: 34.6 m

Draft: 9.5 m

Displacement: 39,140 tons

Speed: 25 knots

Range: 8,650 nautical mile

Below, three photos of Nagato taken in the 1930s. One of them is a close-up of her 410mm naval guns

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Graf Spee Battleship

The Admiral Graf Spee battleship was a one of three German pocket battleships used by the Kriegsmarine during World War II. Since it was smaller and more compact than those employed by the Allied nations, it was often referred to as a 'pocket battleship', with 'battlecruiser' being also another designation for this particular type of warship. It had been launched on June 30, 1934, and it had been commissioned for service on January 6, 1936.

Technical Characteristics

Belonging to the Deutschland Class of pocket battleships (Panzerschiffe in German), the Admiral Graf Spee had a 10,000-ton displacement, with an overall length of 186 m, and a beam of 20.5 m. It had a vertical stem type bow. When it was launched in 1934, it was the first German warship to be equipped with a search radar: a FuMO-22, which was fitted to the foremast. This radar used a mattress-type antenna. Its power plant consisted of eight MAN diesel engines, driving two propellers, generating 54,000 horse power and 48 km/h speed.

Armament

Despite its compact size, the Graf Spee bristled with different kinds of weapons. It was equipped with six 280-mm-caliber naval guns, which were set up in two triple turrets, one fore and one aft. It was also armed with eight 150mm and three 88mm guns. It was also fitted with eight torpedo tubes mounted aft.

Service History

The Graf Spee was the best known German pocket battleship. However, it had the shortest career as it was scuttled after suffering damage by British warships at the beginning of the war. As soon as it had been commissioned, it was deployed five times off the coast of Spain during the Spanish Civil War, even though she saw no combat action during this armed conflict. It September 1939, it was assigned to raid freight ships in the Atlantic Ocean, sinking nine Allied ships. On December 13, 1939, it fought in the Battle of the River Plate, off the coasts of Argentina and Uruguay, against three British cruisers. As it sustained damage and was at disadvantage, her captain, Hans Langsdorff, asked the Uruguayan authorities to moor at their port. Since he was allowed to stay there only three days, Langsdorff ordered his men to scuttle it.

Specifications

Type: Panzerschiff (literally "armored ship") in German; pocket battleship in English.

Length: 186 m

Beam: 20.5 m

Displacement: 10,000 tons

Draft: 5.77 m

Armor: 80-mm-thick armored belt along the sides of hull.

Speed: 26 knots

Range: 17,500 nautical miles

Below, the Admiral Graf Spee anchored at a German port in early 1936, before her departure for Spain.

The Graf Spee sailing in the South Atlantic Ocean in October 1939.

 

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Best Warship in WW2

There is no doubt about it, the best warship in WW2 was the aircraft carrier. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, proved it, showing its capacity to project lethal fire power much farther away than the range of ordinary warships guns. By destroying more than 50% of the American Pacific fleet from a distance where they could not be spotted by both the binocular-aided eye and the land radars, the Japanese carriers showed the world they were the most effective and deadliest warship of WW2, even surpassing and dwarfing the mighty battleship.

Therefore, the main reason it was the best war vessel of all time was the fact that it could project fire support, with to a distance, which was the flight range of the dive bombers and fighters it carried on its deck. It was able to attack and destroy unseen enemy targets. However, this overwhelming importance of the aircraft carrier as power projection in warfare at sea was only dimly foreseen in the years before World War II.

Historically, it had been the battleship and the naval gunnery which had dominated the oceans ever since the days of the Spanish Armada in the 16th century right up to the Battle of Jutland at the beginning of the 20th century. When World War II broke out, battleships considerably outnumbered carriers in navies throughout the world. Nevertheless, the 1930s saw the evolution of the methods and tactics that were to dominate the Pacific Theater of Operations and which were also to contribute greatly to the successful conclusion of the war in the Atlantic. It was the US Navy that was eventually to become the master of carrier warfare; however, it was the Imperial Japanese Navy that first used the aircraft carrier in war, to destroy the Chinese ports and provide support fire power to Japanese ground troops during the Sino-Japanese War and to attack the US Navy base of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Carrier-borne air power reached such a peak in World War II that several battles which took place over the Pacific were fought solely with carrier-borne aircraft. Elsewhere the carriers were protecting convoys, fighting submarines and covering beach assaults. The demands made by this new form of warfare were considerable, especially upon the aircraft used and upon the young pilots who flew them. The ‘controlled crash’ of a carrier landing demanded strong nerves and a strong aircraft. If the sea itself was anything other than calm (which unfortunately it so often was), the motion of the waves would cause the deck to pitch and roll alarmingly, making landings rather tricky.

Generally, carrier-based aircraft had inferior performance when compared to their land-based contemporaries. However, this did not prevent the Fairey Swordfish from amassing a war record which was second to none – while conversions of land-based planes, such as the Supermarine Spitfire produced performance – at the expense of durability. Instead, it was left to the Japanese to show that the carrier aircraft, in the shape of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, could outfly and outfight its land-based opponents. It was, however, the swarm of big, beefy US Navy aircraft, which were based upon the navy’s massive American carrier force, that was to prove decisive in the Pacific. Led by the Grumman F6F Hellcat and the Vought F4U Corsair, US and Allied naval aircraft acquired air supremacy in the skies over the Pacific Ocean during the last two years of the war, in a display of naval air power undreamed of only five years before.

The mighty power of the aircraft carrier (WW2 historical footage). In the Battle of Midway it played a key role in sinking enemy ships.

 

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Akula Class Submarine

An Akula class submarine is one of a series of nuclear-powered attack submarines. It was developed in the Soviet Union, during the Cold War years, as Project 971, with the first of its class being launched in 1980 and commissioned in 1984. It is the quietest nuclear submarine in the Russian Navy and one of the stealthiest in the world. Six of them are still part of the Russian Navy lethal arsenal, while four are in the process of being modernized. Three models were built: Akula I, II, and III.

Armament

The Akula-class attack submarines are armed with Kalibr hypersonic and RK-55 Granat cruise missiles for conventional warfare, plus twenty-eight torpedoes that are launched through four 533-mm torpedo tubes. To spot and attack enemy warships, the Akula-class submarine is equipped with the Chiblis surface search radar.

Below, Nerpa (K-152) Akula, leaving port as it cruised in the waters of the Baltic Sea in 2015

List of Akula-Class Subs 

Pantera (K-317), Magadan (K-331), Kuzbass (K-419), Volk (K-461), Leopard (K-328), Tigr (K-154), Samara (K-295), Vepr (K-157), Gepard (K-335), and Nerpa (K-152). They produce the lowest noise levels in the world as they sail almost undetectable. 

Specifications 

Type: Nuclear missile submarine

Length: 113.3 m (Akula III)

Beam: 13.6 m

Displacement: 13,800 tons (submerged)

Draft: 9.7 m

Power Plant: one 190 MW pressurized nuclear reactor, with one 43,000 HP steam turbine

Crew: 73

Below, an upgraded and refitted Akula III, K-328 Leopard, in the Baltic Sea in the Summer of 2023.

Below, an Akula I submarine in the waters of the northern Pacific, about 300 miles off the coast of North America in 1989.

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Why Did the Battleship Become Obsolete?

Many people wonder why today's navies no longer deploy battleships. The answer is simple: it became obsolete. Why did it become obsolete? The answer to this second question is also simple; it did not have the long range fire projection an aircraft carrier does. The emergence of a warship that could carry a large number of fighters and dive bombers on board was what put an end to the reign of the battleship as the most powerful naval weapon. Thus, at the beginning of WW2, it had already become obsolete as a decisive weapon to alter or influence the course of a naval battle. Although battleships were protected by thick steel armor and armed with powerful, large-caliber guns, they lacked the enormous power projection capacity of fleet carriers, which they exert through the destructive might of their bombers and fighter aircraft they carry onboard.

Either to provide fire support to landing troops or confront an enemy fleet, the battleship fighting range was limited by the range of her naval guns, which means she could not put up a fight further away from the limit beyond which their guns projectiles could not reach. For example, the maximum fighting range of a World War II battleship was 23 miles, for that was the range of the 16″ guns it was armed with. Whereas as the fighting range of a carrier from the same epoch was 1,100 miles, for that was the range of a Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber. Today’s super carriers can project a fighting or destructive capacity up to 1,300 miles + 600 miles, which are the F/A-18 Hornet’s range plus the AGM-158 JASSM’s air-to-surface missile’s.

The Japanese were the first to envision this obsolescence of the battleship, since to carry out the attack on Pearl Harbor they used their fleet carriers instead of these heavy steel sea monsters. Although during the Cold War the USS Missouri, USS Iowa, and USS New Jersey were recommissioned, updated, and armed with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, which gave them great power projection, all three of them were phased out after that period, for the cost of keeping each one of them operating was too high as they were too big and too heavy, guzzling up large amount of fuel and needing a large number of sailors and officers to keep them working. And today the job of anti-ship and cruise missile launching ship platform is performed by submarines, cruisers, and destroyers, which are smaller, lighter, and, therefore, less expensive to run.

Below, a World War II battleship bristling with powerful naval guns of all sort, whose fire power lacked the range of the carrier-based dive bombers.

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Dreadnought Battleship

The Dreadnought battleship was a type of armored warship equipped with six or nine heavy naval guns, all having the same caliber. These powerful guns were set up in two or three turrets on the fore and aft deck of the war vessel. Aside from its armor belt and heavy armament, it was also characterized by a considerable length and a broad beam and fitted with two or three smokestacks. Therefore, the main differences between its predecessor, called the armorclads, and the new warship was the unified calibers of all the main guns, the anti-mine defense, and faster speed.

Both Great Britain and Germany built Dreadnought battleship, whose construction had begun right before World War I. Their Russian equivalent was the upgraded battleships of the Sevastopol type. The first ship of this class was the British Royal Navy's HMS Dreadnought, which was launched in 1906, having a displacement of 17,900 tons and a speed of 21 knots. It was fitted with ten 305-mm guns, which were mounted in five twin-turrets, plus twenty four 76-mm guns, which were set up on the ship sides.

To counteract and offset the British Navy increase in naval power with their HMS Dreadnought, the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) built and launched the SMS Nassau, SMS Rheinland, SMS Westfallen, and SMS Posen in 1908, being commissioned all four of them the following year. Thus, when World War I broke out in 1914, Germany had a powerful fleet to counter the British threat in high seas. All four were labeled as the Nassau-class battleship. With a displacement of 18,900 tons, they had a length of 146.1 m and a beam of 27 m. They were armed with twelve 280-mm guns and twelve 150-mm guns, plus sixteen 88-mm guns. Thus, they were literally bristling with guns of all type.

Below, the British HMS Dreadnought in 1915, before the Battle of Jutland.

 

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