Fuso class battleship

The "Fusō" class (Japanese: 扶桑, an old name for Japan), was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed before the First World War.

Design

Their convert|14|in|mm|0|adj=on main gun turrets were placed in an unorthodox 2-1-1-2 style (The "Yamashiro" having her third turret reversed when compared to the "Fusō") and with a funnel separating the middle turret placement. This placement was not entirely successful as the armoured section was needlessly lengthened and the middle guns had trouble targeting. However, Fusō's relatively fine hull form allowed her to obtain a speed of convert|23|kn|km/h as completed.

Modifications

Between the wars, "Fusō" and "Yamashiro" received major modifications, in common with all of the Japanese battleships in service. "Fusō" was lengthened by an additional convert|25|ft|m, the twin funnels trunked together, the original 24 mixed-firing boilers replaced by six new oil-fired Kampon boilers and the ships' control tops dramatically added to produce the characteristic "pagoda" foremast which typified Japanese ships of the period. Armour protection was both increased in quantity and improved in quality on both ships, especially over the machinery spaces and below the waterline, a response to British capital ships' experiences against torpedoes (for example, HMS|Marlborough|1912|6 was almost sunk by a single German torpedo just after the Battle of Jutland). The improvements included heavier armour belting over the midships machinery spaces, made possible by the opening out of these areas when the original boilers were replaced, and the addition of a torpedo bulge. The "Fusōs" were capable of convert|25.4|kn|km/h|0 by the time these modifications were completed, a testament to the vastly improved efficiency of boilers in the 1930s.

ervice

Despite these modifications, the IJN considered that the "Fusōs" were inadequately protected and too slow to be of any great use, and thus "Fusō" and "Yamashiro" were both kept in the Inland Sea as a strategic reserve force (which, as it turned out, was unnecessary) at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack and for some time afterwards, mainly being employed on training duties.

Both ships of the class were sunk by US Navy forces at the battle of Surigao Strait on 25 October 1944.