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Yuzuru Hiraga's Battlefleet.

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Description

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2 Japanese Battleships trying to outrun a Typhoon ca 1936.




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Two ships designed by Yuzuru Hiraga.

[link]

Info on the guns of these vessels can be found here...

[link]



These two ships were designed in 1929 and as such were the prototype of the Modern Japanese Battlefleet.
After this things would never be the same again.
The one in the foreground was armed with 10 x 16 Inch guns and was intended to replace the aging Kongo class.
The one in the background has a more moders armament layout with 9 x 16 Inch guns and was intended to replace the Fuso class battleships.
These ships would have been constructed at the end of the battleship Holiday in 1930...
Too bad the Economic crash hit the world in 1929.
When battleship costruction did commence 5 years later these two vessels were superseded by more powerful designs (aka Yamato).

A first among others is the sporting of triple turrets... The first in a Japanese Battleship... as a weight saving measure.
The second is the use of the Pagoda Tower instead of the Pagoda polemast used in previous Battleship design (Like the Nagato Class).


These battleships were the only Treaty Battleship I know of designed in Japan.
Treaty Battleship means that the MAX Tonnage has to adhere by international treaties signed by leading battleship building navies.
In other words keep your Battleship UNDER 35,000 tons.

Because the Japanese were limited in fewer ships than both Britain and USA she was compelled to make each tonnage count by making their 35K ton ship more heavier armed than it's rivals.
So in fact put as much guns on the hull as possible untill it almost goes belly up... To increase gun power sacrifices has to be made somewhere elso to save weight like for example crew safety facillities.
Japan did that trick too with it's Cruisers and Destroyers and it had it's consequences.
But despite all that weightsaving... Hiraga's vessels have proven to take a huge amount of pounding before sinking.
That's an amazing achievement.

About Yuzuru Hiraga.
His design simply have a stunning appearance.
He put an end to the copy past attitude from British Designs and set out to design ships that are uniquely Japanese.

I mean they are not the best looking. But they are stunning.
Like it's like nothing anybody have ever seen before in this world.
It's like the ship dropped from beyond the stratosphere.
These ships were designed in an age where battleships still had rangefinders on poles.

All the Japanese cruiser design of the 1920 to 1930s and even Yamato owned their looks to this GUY.
Isn't it something that the Design of the Yamato was converted easily in a spaceship with little midification in Starblazers?

Yuzuru Hiraga sense of Design was way ahead of his time and if he was born 100 years later he might have been involved in the Anime industry designing mechs and spaceships.


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ShinSpinosaurus's avatar

FUN FACT:

The Yamato-Class is actually a hybrid of two designs:

A-140 F5 and A-140 F4


I think that’s what they were named