History of the Fuso Class Japanese battleships, consisting of Fuso and
Yamashiro. Both
Battleships were sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf from shell fire from
American Battleships.
The Japanese Imperial navy
requested these ships in 1910 but the finance was not approved until 1911.
Both ships were designed by Vickers in the UK but the Armament and
Turbines were produced in Japan. Initially the design was to use
12-inch Guns but this was changed to twelve 14-inch guns in turrets of
three guns. Their boiler configuration was mad eup of 18 Coal burning
boilers and six, oil fired boilers.. Both Fuso and Yamashiro survived
world war one and wer emodernised in the 1920's and reconstructed in
the 1930's, including changing the boilers to all oil fired. this also
increased their cruising range.
Fuso. Built by the Kure Naval Yard, and was launched on the 28th
of March 1914. The Fuso underwent extensive modernization during 1932. One
difference between the two ships was the Aircraft catapult which was on the top
of C Turret of Fuso compared to being at the stern of Yamashiro. It was
planned to turn the Fuso into a Aircraft Carrier but this idea was
scrapped after the heavy loss of Pilots after the Battle of The Marianna's. Sunk
during the Battle of Leyte Gulf on the 25th October 1944.
Yamashiro. Built at the Yokosuka Naval Yard. and launched on the 3rd of
November 1915, she was heavily modernized in 1935. due to their relatively slow
speed at the outbreak of world war two, she served mostly in home waters,
finally being Sunk on the 25th
October 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, by 6 US Battleships fire.
Battleship Displacement. 34,700 tons. Speed 24.75 knots.
Compliment 1396 crew
Armament. twelve 14 - inch guns in pairs in six turrets, fourteen 6 -inch
guns in single gun turrets and eight 5 - inch anti aircraft guns in pairs.
This was altered after the battle of Midway with an extra twenty one 25mm AA
Guns. Each battleship had three aircraft
