Japan - Agano Class Light Cruiser.

BB1987

Post subject: Japan - Agano Class Light Cruiser.

Posted: November 29th, 2012, 11:00 pm

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

Agano 1942:
When the lead ship was completed armament was comosed of six 152mm/50 (6-inch) Type 41 guns in three twin turrets, wich were leftover from the Kongo class reconstruction and fitted in turrets with only splinter protection armour; four 76mm/60 (3-ich) Type 98 in two shielded mounts fitted abaft the bridge, six 25mm machine guns in two trimple mounts fitted on sponsons forward of the bridge and four 13mm machine guns in twin mounts fitted near the mainmast.
Torpedo outfit consisted in two quadruple rotating mounts fitted on centerline with reloads, two Aichi E13A1 floatplanes makes up for the airwing.
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Noshiro 1943:
Identical to Agano for armament and airwing Noshiro sported a slighty different shape for the main guns director, while it was rounder on agano here it had a more angular shape, wich was retained for the subsequent two sisters; she was also fitted with a type 21 air search radar when commissioned.
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Yahagi 1943:
Commissioned in late december she looked immediately different from her first two sisters, the number of portholes was vastly reduced, also the aircraft handling deck was longer in its aft portion, the midship directors where positioned forward with the searchlights sponsons fitted differently, draining pipes on the hull also followed a different scheme, and the bridge has no windbreaks below the windows; anti-aircraft armament was composed of two triple and four twin 25mm machine guns
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Agano 1944:
By February 1944, when sunk during the raid on Truk, Agano had it's anti-aircraft suite increased to four triple and two twin 25mm machine guns, the twin mounts replaced the older 13mm ones near the mainmast, the triple ones where instead fitted on sponsons at the aft edge of the aircraft platform; a type 21 air search radar was fitted in june 1943.
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Noshiro 1944:
By october 1944 anti-aircraft armament was increased to reach a maximum of ten triple and 18 single 25mm machine guns, the rangefinders previously placed at the fore-end of the aircraft platform where moved forward abaft the funnel where the two searchlights previously stood, the twin searchilights where in turn replaced by a single one, fitted on a lattice platform on centerline, between the foremast and the funnel itself; radar suite was argumented with the fitting of type 22 sruface search and type 13 air search radars, the former in a twin pair on each side of the bridge near themain gun directors, the latter on the foremast, the bridge structure was also expanded aft in order to make space for the radar room; finally all portholes on the lower decks and some on the upper decks of the hull where plated over in order to increase watertight integrity.
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Sakawa 1944:
When commissioned by november 1944 she looked even more different from her sisters, while the reduced number of portholes and hull draining pipes where the same as Yahagi Sakawa had the the aircraft handling platform vastly cut down, with the entire roof over the fore quadruple torpedo launcher gone; the whole radar suite of type 13 and 21 air search and type 22 surface search radars where fitted at completion, with the radar room beign slighty bigger than the one previously fitted on noshiro and Yahagi, anti-aircraft armament was composed of 10 triple and 18 single 25mm machine guns.
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Yahagi as of april 7th 1945:
By the time she was deployed with battleship Yamato and destroyers Asashimo, Isokaze, Hamakaze, Suzutsuki, Kasumi, Fuyuzuki, Yukikaze and Hatsushimo for Operation Ten-Go Yahagi had her appearance changed again, tough for the last time; midship rangefinder and searchlight positions where changed with the searchilight reduced to one and beign fitted onc enterline, and the director towers beign enclosed in a wider structure comprising a platform for anti-aircraft machine guns.
other modifications where the fitting of a type 13 air search radar on the foremast and two type 22 surface search radars abaft the bridge near the main gun director, a control room for the radars was also added aft of the bridge; anti-aircraft armament was increased to 10 triple and 28 single 25mm machine guns, for a total of 58 barrels, a single Aichi E13A1 semms to have been retained untill her sinking.
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Sakawa 1945:
By the time Japan surrender Sakawa had served only has a training cruiser for newly commissioned destroyers, mainly because of extreme lack of fuel; Seaplanes and boats where landed and anti-aircraft armament increased with the addition of 24 more single 25mm machine guns for a total of 72 barrels (10 triple and 42 singles).
After the War sakawa was handed over to US navy and sunk during Opereation Crossroads nuclear tests held in 1946 at the Bikini atoll.
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Sources and documentations are the most welcome.

-Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)
-Koko's carrier-based aircrafts of WWII
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Last edited by BB1987 on August 30th, 2016, 7:31 pm, edited 9 times in total.

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Japan - Agano Class Light Cruiser.

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