Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)

BB1987

Post subject: Re: Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)

Posted: June 20th, 2015, 10:06 am

Posts: 2818
Joined: May 23rd, 2012, 1:01 pm
Location: Rome - Italy

Krakatoa wrote:

Nice work BB1987, that Fleet Review must be difficuilt to keep up to date. You are not allowed to go over your treaty limits or that page is going to be really huge and the maintenance job from hell.

I have a 64kexcel spreadshhet on my pc with the entire Koko's fleet up to 2014/2015, So I took advantage of that and I've written up the fleet reviews up to 1941. it surely makes the work more manageable

now, ships time. This is technicaly the second part of Sato's History, but I've copypasted the first part in it too, so there is a single comprehensive entry for her entire career. (might do the same with other ships with split history).

Sato Class Detroyer:

Originally laid down as the unnamed Kuchikukan 37, Sato was to be the lead unit of a 26-unit strong class of Destroyers. Itself an updated and modified version of the Kuchikukan 27 class, Sato featured the same armament of four 120mm guns and three twin 533mm torpedo tubes but had the hull stretched by 2,1m for an overall lenght of 106,8 and a standard displacement of 1.353Tons. This was meant to allow for extra fuel bunkerage to be carried in order to gain more range over the Kuckicukan 14 class which lacked in this field. The center funnel was also slightly enlarged to allow for a better exhaust from the boiler rooms.
Sato, which being so named during construction became the first Koko no Kaigun destroyer to recieve an actual name, was laid down at Toumachi Naval Arsenal in 1920 and Launched on January 1st 1922. Already almost complete, she was commissioned in record-breaking time just over a month later on february 4th and assigned to Kuchikutai 4 (Destroyer division) even though she was still running her trials.
Her top speed was 34,2knots, some 0,7 less than the Kuchikukan 27 because of the increase of displacement, but range had risen up from 2.600 to 2.800 nautical miles.
When the Washington Naval Treaty was signed, four more units, Destroyers 38 through 41 (still unnamed) were under construction at Hoshiguma Navy Yard (number 39,40), Kousaten navy Yard (number 41) and Kumoi Arsenal (number 38). All the other units up to Destroyer 62 had already been ordered and allocated to their respective building yard.
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Still, a number of coupled factors eventually led to the premature demise of the Sato Class: Firstly, the Washington Naval Treaty itself almost grinded to an halt Koko's capital ship contruction plan, reducing the immediate need of new Destroyers that had to be built. Secondly, Sato sea trials showed that while the range had improved over the previous class it was still lacking when compared to other new classes of Destroyers, and the drop in top speed to just over 34knots when other Navies were developing 36 and 37knots units was deemed unacceptable. Finally, Kuckikukans 27 were already themselves a 7,8m stretch over the Japanese Isokazes on which they were based, Sato then added another 2 meters to that, bringing the total stretch to nearly 10 meters without increasing either beam or draft. This resulted in an extremely long and thin hull that was deemed structuraly unsound for prolonged blue-water operations in rough seas.
So, within two months of the Washington Naval Treaty ratification, the whole Sato Class plan was canceled and shelved: The four units under construction were broken up in the yards, the other 21 units already allocated were reordered on a smaller design that later became the Shion Class and as first batch of the larger Okaze Class. Sato, already in service, was the only ship of her class to survive the axe, and served a long, uneventful second-line career until her first refit.
In 1938, when Battleship Yagumo re-entered active service after her main refit, Sato was withdrawn from active service and refitted. Beign the oldest and most outdated destroyer in Koko no Kaigun's inventory, Sato was modified in order to serve as a training ship: the forward torpedo tubes were removed and replaced with a deckhouse housing the RDF room and cadets space, the guns were given shields and the bridge recieved windows. The 60cm searchlight above the bridge was replaced with an 1,5m rangefinder, with a newer 90cm one installed at midship. The 6,5mm machine guns were removed and replaced with a twin 25mm mount. Two twin 13mm machine guns were added near the fore-funnel and two depth charge throwers were fitted at the stern.
[ img ]

Sato served as a training vessel until early 1945, when mounting losses necessitated her return to frontline service. During her second refit one of the 120mm guns was removed, with anti-aircraft armament increased to twelve 25mm guns (two triples, two twin and two singles) and four 13mm ones. The depth charge complement was increased to two rails and four racks. A trype13 air-searh radar was added to the foremast.
[ img ]

Even with her newly made modifications Sato was still left to operate near home waters, mainly because of her lack of range. When Koko uprising started late that year, Sato was docked at Teshigawa, and remained there until the end of the war, thus escaping damage from sabotage and allied bombings. After the war she briefly operated to repatriate troops, but her age and insufficent range led Sato do be decommissioned in December 1946 and later broken up.

Ships in class: (laid down-launched-commissioned - fate)

Sato 1920-1922-1922 - Decommissioned 1946
Destroyer 38 1921-/-/ - Canceled and scrapped 1922
Destroyer 39 1921-/-/ - Canceled and scrapped 1922
Destroyer 40 1921-/-/ - Canceled and scrapped 1922
Destroyer 41 1921-/-/ - Canceled and scrapped 1922
Destroyers 42 through 62 /-/-/ - Canceled and reordered as Shion and Okaze Class units in 1922

_________________
My Worklist
Sources and documentations are the most welcome.

-Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)
-Koko's carrier-based aircrafts of WWII
-Koko Kaiun Yuso Kaisha - KoKaYu Line (Koko AU spinoff)
-Koko - Civil Aviation

Last edited by BB1987 on June 29th, 2016, 10:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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