Aoba class heavy cruiser, IJN Kinugasa

de_Radio_Demon · August 15, 2023, 11:12pm

Would you like to see Kinugasa added to the game?

Yes
Maybe
Unsure
No

0 voters

What refit should she be added in?

As built
1928 Refit
1930 Refit
1933 Refit
1938 - 1940 Modernization
Any of the above
Unsure
I said no to the first question

0 voters

Aoba class heavy cruiser, IJN Kinugasa

Note - Sadly I couldn’t find too many images of Kinugasa directly, so a few of the images just include her in the background

Background

IJN Kinugasa was the 2nd ship of the Aoba class heavy cruiser or Aoba-gata jun’yōkan, she was one of the earliest Japanese heavy cruisers seeing as she was the fourth to enter service. The Aoba class itself was a very similar design to the preceding class, the Furutaka class as in-fact they were originally going to be of the Furutaka class. During construction however the IJN Naval general staff pressured the acting head of the Basic Design Section to instead use the new twin gun mounts for the 20 cm gun, this was accepted and the Aoba and Kinugasa were modified during construction to allow for the turrets to be compatible with their hulls, however both Furutaka and Kako were too far ahead to be modified to take the C type turret, as such the 4 ships were split into 2 classes, the Furutaka and Aoba class which is why beyond the Ibuki during the second world war the Furutaka and Aoba heavy cruisers would be the only classes to not consist of 4 ships, though to be fair the Ibuki class was the only one which from the start was not planned to consist of 4 vessels, due to later modernizations both Furutaka and Aoba classes would become fairly similar in their design again, especially since the Furutaka class in it’s modernization also put it’s gun in twin mounts.

Unlike Aoba, Kinugasa had a much shorter career owing to the USS Enterprise whose aircraft during the earlier part of the war would sink the Kinugasa. In terms of armament Kinugasa had originally been armed with 6 20 cm/50 (7.9") 3rd Year Type No. 1 (Note - the No. 1 designation is only started to be used in the 1930’s when the 8 inch gun is introduced into the IJN) naval guns in 3 twin Type C mounts however during their careers they would see a major modernization prior to the Second World War which saw the guns replaced with more modern and powerful 20 cm/50 (7.9") 3rd Year Type No. 2 guns which were placed in the older Type C turrets which had been modified to take them, the dual purpose armament was consistent over their service careers as they had 4 12 cm/45 10th Year Type in single mounts, the ships original AA armament was originally just 2 7.7mm machine guns however in service the AA armament would increase with 8 13.2mm machine guns added in 2 quad mounts replacing the 7.7mm machine guns and with one last modernization she would receive in her career which saw it increased to a total of 8 25mm Type 96 AA guns in twin mounts and 4 13.2mm machine guns in twin mounts like other Japanese cruisers around the time of the modernization, the ship as with every Japanese cruiser also came with torpedo tubes in the form of 12 24 inch (610mm) torpedo tubes in 6 pairs in the hull as the Furutaka class had but with the modernization this was replaced with 8 24 inch torpedo tubes in 2 quad mounts with a reload carried for each tube as had been previously with the hull mounted tubes.

History

Kinugasa was laid down on October 24th, 1924, she was launched 2 years later in 1926, and was commissioned on September 30th, 1927. One month after entire service her first activities would see her join her sister in a naval review in Yokohama after which in December she was assigned to cruiser division 5 where she became the flagship of the formation. With the Start of a new year in 1928 the Kinugasa would take on a major role as she became the first Japanese warship to be equipped with a floatplane and catapult but other than that didn’t do too much beyond another fleet review taking place in December. In July of 1929 while off Kyushu she took part in a simulated submarine attack with the Kinugasa acting as the simulated target for the submarine I-55, but during this the sub would accidentally end up being rammed by the bow of the cruiser while trying to surface resulting in major damage to both vessels. During this later part of her career in the 1920’s between 1928 to 1929 she would also be found operating off the Chinese coast, in 1930 she have her secondary gun shields modified and upgraded with gun shields and electro-hydraulically operated sponson mounts and in 1931 the ship had its original float plane catapult replaced with a new one and between 1932 to 1933 the ship would undergo a refit which replaced her 7.7mm AA guns with quad 13.2mm machine guns as well as replace her floatplane with a newer one.

In 1936 the ship would run into another accident which saw her sister Aoba had missed a signal from Kinugasa which resulted in the Aoba grazing her sister which caused minor damage to both ship however later that year both ships participated in another fleet review without incident and in 1937 the Kinugasa is temporarily placed in the reserves in order to begin modernizing the ship which sees the ships armament updated to 8 inch guns from the 7.9 inch guns from before, her AA armament increase to 8 25mm guns and 4 13.2mm guns, torpedo armament relocated from the hull into 2 quad mounts which have reloads, and conversion of some of her mixed firing boilers to oil firing boilers, the replacement of her turbine blades, as well as another upgrade to her float plane catapult and the switch to 2 newer floatplanes. In 1941 the Kinugasa was reassigned to the 6th cruiser division and days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while in Haha Jima, Bonin Islands on December 2nd, 1941 the cruiser division receives the signal for the day the war will commence for Japan and 2 days after the signal is given cruiser division 6 deploys in preparation for invasion of Guam and would be apart of operations during the invasion with the start of hostilities and following that the Kinugasa took part in the invasions of Wake island before ending up in Truk naval base where she would operate out of as she contained to support Japanese invasion efforts. Due to her presence in the area she would take part in the battle of the coral sea which saw her act as one of the escorts for the light carrier Shōhō which was then later sunk by aircraft from the USS Lexington and Yorktown, later during the battle after the loss of the light carrier Kinugasa helped with escorting the damaged fleet carrier Shōkaku back to Truk after the carrier received major damage from the same American carriers, after this she was recalled home for repairs, after which she returned to Rabaul and was incorporated into the newly formed 8th fleet.

In August of 1942 cruiser Division 6 along with the heavy cruiser Chōkai, the light cruisers Tenryū and Yubari and destroyer Yūnagi engaged allied warships during the night battle of Savo island which saw the allied forces heavily caught off guard as the Japanese initiated as torpedo attack which caused major losses on the part of the allies as they loss 3 of the 7 New Orleans class heavy cruisers as well as the Australian county class cruiser HMAS Canberra as well as damage to the heavy cruiser USS Chicago and 2 destroyers, the Japanese cruisers could have easily went on and destroyed the nearby US transports off Guadalcanal however the Japanese admiral of the operation ordered the force pull back before sunrise as he did not want to risk allied air attacks from the US carries which while a fair reason to do so was not aware that the US carriers had been pulled away from the area out of range though the captain of the Kinugasa who was up to this point frustrated ordered torpedos fired at the direction of the transports which were in the distance and while they were in range all failed to hit, during the battle the Japanese sustained minimal damage as Chōkai was hit 3 time and Kinugasa hit twice with the ship hit in engine room 1 and one of the ships ammo stores which was flooded, the following day however would see the Kako loss to a US submarine despite the ship avoiding damage during the night action. Following the battle of Savo island the next action Kinugasa would take part in was the Battle of Cape Esperance where she along with the 2 other remaining cruiser of cruiser division 6 blue 2 destroyers set out to cover troop reinforcements on Guadalcanal, however unlike the last night action it would be less one-sided as the Japanese ships would be spotted by OS2U kingfishers which resulted in the allied forces sending the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco, Boise, Salt Lake City, the light cruiser Helena and five destroyers and this lead to the battle taking place at night again, however this time the US ships were more prepared and would be able to make up for their infer night fighting skills as the formation did have ships which had radar however as would occur multiple times the US commanding officer of the ship formation would use the ship which lacked search radar as their flagship which lead to the other US cruisers detecting the Japanese ships before the flagship and due to confusion as the US cruiser with radar opened fire on the Japanese ships as they believed correctly to be the Japanese ships however the US admiral would order them to cease fire after uncertainty if they were instead friendly destroyers, around the same time before the US ships opened fire the Japanese had spotted the US ships but tried to confirm their identity and ordered a signal light be used to try identified the ships though as they started to do so the first US salvos were fired. After the US ships stopped fire they resumed after they managed to confirm who was friendly but by this point. Throughout the battle Kinugasa would land multiple hits of US vessels as she went through the battle without serious damage in return however the Japanese would lose the Furutaka due to major damage from the US cruisers. By the following morning another US attack would occur as US aircraft attempted to hit the Kinugasa however she managed to avoid all hits.

Kinugasa’s final actions would come in November of that year in 1942, following the Battle of Cape Esperance she was used for escorting more troop convoys which were being sent to reinforce Guadalcanal, and this would also see her sent in support of a bombardment force against US forces on November 14th before attempting to pull back, by daybreak the US began sending out aircraft to chase down and try to sink the Japanese ships that were pulling away, during this the Kinugasa’s luck finally ran out as aircraft from the USS Enterprise managed to land hits on the cruiser causing major damage which also killed the ships commanding officer and resulted in both flooding and fire which resulted in the ship later capsizing taking most of her crew with the ship.

Specifications

Displacement:

As built

7,100 tons standard

8,900 tons full load

1938 - 1940 Modernization

9,088 tons standard

11,660 tons full load

Length: 185 m (607 ft) (overall)

Beam: 16 m (52 ft) (Increased to 17.6m post modernization)

Draft: 5.8 m (19 ft) (reduced to 5.6 m post modernization)

Propulsion:

4-shaft Parsons geared turbines

12 Kampon boilers

102,000 shp (110,000hp shp post modernization)

Speed: 34 knots (63 km/h) (dropped to 33 knots post modernization)

Complement: 625 (Later 657 post modernization)

Armament:

As built

Main armament:

6 × 20 cm/50 (7.9") 3rd Year Type guns (200mm) (3 × 2 Model C mounts)

Secondary armament:

4 × 12 cm/45 10th Year Type DP guns (4 x 1 B mounts)

AA armament:

2 x 7.7 mm/80 Type 92 machine guns (2 x 1)

Torpedo tubes:

12 × 61 cm (24 in) torpedo tubes (6 × 2) (24 Type 8 torpedos carried total)

1930 Refit

Main armament:

6 × 20 cm/50 (7.9") 3rd Year Type guns (200mm) (3 × 2 Model C mounts)

Secondary armament:

4 × 12 cm/45 10th Year Type DP guns (4 x 1 B2 mounts) (These mounts were improved as the received gun shields and were now electro-hydraulically operated sponson mounts)

AA armament:

2 x 7.7 mm/80 Type 92 machine guns (2 x 1)

Torpedo tubes:

12 × 61 cm (24 in) torpedo tubes (6 × 2) (24 Type 8 torpedos carried total)

1933 Refit

Main armament:

6 × 20 cm/50 (7.9") 3rd Year Type No. 1 guns (200mm) (3 × 2 Model C mounts) (These are the same guns as before, the name was changed in 1931 in order to give diffrent designations between the 7.9 inch and 8 inch guns)

Secondary armament:

4 × 12 cm/45 10th Year Type DP guns (4 x 1 B2 mounts)

AA armament:

8 x 13.2 mm/76 Type 93 machine guns (2 x 4)

Torpedo tubes:

12 × 61 cm (24 in) torpedo tubes (6 × 2) (24 Type 8 torpedos carried total)

1938 - 1940 Modernization

Main armament:

6 × 20 cm/50 (7.9") 3rd Year Type No. 2 guns (203mm) (3 × 2 Modified Model C mounts)

Secondary armament:

4 × 12 cm/45 10th Year Type DP guns (4 x 1 B2 mounts)

AA armament: