Yamashio Maru-class escort carrier

Yamashio Maru
Class overview
Builders	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Operators	Imperial Japanese Army
Preceded by	Akitsu Maru class
Succeeded by	Kumano Maru
Built	1944–1945
In commission	1945
Planned	2
Completed	1
Cancelled	1
Lost	1
General characteristics
Type	Escort carrier
Displacement	16,119 t (15,864 long tons)
Length	157.5 m (516 ft 9 in)
Beam	20.48 m (67 ft 2 in)
Draught	9 m (29 ft 6 in)
Installed power	2 boilers 4,500 shp (3,400 kW)
Propulsion	1 shaft; 1 geared steam turbine
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Range	9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement	221
Armament	16 × 25 mm (1 in) AA guns 120 depth charges
Aircraft carried	8

The Yamashio Maru class (Japanese: 山汐丸) consisted of a pair of auxiliary escort carriers operated by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. They were converted from tankers. Only the name ship was completed during the war and she was sunk by American aircraft before she could be used.

Construction

In 1944, the Japanese Army, which had already converted two passenger liners into combined assault ship and aircraft carriers, decided to acquire its own escort carriers to provide aerial anti-submarine cover for troop convoys. It therefore chartered two partly built Type 2TL Tankers, Yamashio Maru and Chigusa Maru, for conversion to auxiliary escort carriers.^[1]

The conversion was extremely simple, with a 107-metre (351 ft 1 in)-long flush flight deck added. There was no hangar, the ship's eight Ki-76s being stored on deck. Defensive armament consisted of sixteen 25 mm anti-aircraft guns, with a depth charge projector forward.^[2]

Operational history

Yamashio Maru commissioned on 27 January 1945 and was sunk at Yokohama harbor by US aircraft on 17 February.^[2][3] Plans were drawn up for conversion to a coal-burning freighter,^[1] but she was never used as a carrier. Her sister ships, Chigusa Maru and Zuiun Maru, were incomplete when Japan surrendered and served after the war as tankers:^[2]

Chigusa Maru was sunk in 1945. The ship was repaired as tanker in 1945 and scrapped in Sasebo in June 1963. Zuiun Maru was scrapped in Oskata on 15 June 1964.

Photo

• 
  Chigusa Maru postwar (2nd sister)
• 
  Zuiun Maru postwar (3rd sister)

See also

• Imperial Japanese Army Railways and Shipping Section

Notes

Bibliography

• Chesneau, Roger (1995). Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (New, revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-902-2.
• Fukui, Shizuo (1991). Japanese Naval Vessels at the End of World War II. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-125-8.
• Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter & Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
• Lengerer, Hans (2023). The Aircraft Carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army: Technical and Operational History. Vol. II. Katowice, Poland: Model Hobby. ISBN 978-83-60041-71-0.
• Polmar, Norman; Genda, Minoru (2006). Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events. Vol. 1, 1909–1945. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 1-57488-663-0.
• Sturton, Ian (1980). "Japan". In Chesneau, Roger (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 167–217. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.

External links

• Escort Aircraft Carriers