Airwing was updated to three Nakajima E8N, degaussing cable installed and light anti-aircraft armament argumented with the fitting of ten twin 25mm machine gun mounts.
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Posts:5376 Joined: July 27th, 2010, 3:02 am
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Wow, that's a crap-load of wires
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Nothing much had changed on Mutsu by 1943, with the most notable difference beign the airwing updated once again, and now composed of Mutsubishi F1M2 "Pete"; on Tuesday 8 June 1943 while she was moored near Hashirajima island in the inland sea her aft magazine detonated (faulty ammunition might be the culprit) sinking her with the loss of 1.121 of her 1.321 crew and 153 cadets and instructors from the Tsuchiura Naval Air Group on a familiarization tour.
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What always amazed me is that, for a naval power that makes claims about pioneering air power as an offensive force, they kept giving their capital ships such poor AA fit. American capital ships were almost invulnerable to air attacks (USS South Dakota in particular shot down many aircraft in a few battles) but Japanese vessels were almost always toast, even their largest ones.
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Most of Mutsu's command staff perished in the disaster, including CO Captain Miyoshi Teruhiko, XO Captain Ono Koro, Chief Engineer Captain Yoshimura Kishaku, and Chief Gunnery Officer Cdr Hajii Kitaro. All were posthumously promoted; Miyoshi, Ono, and Yoshimura to RADM, and Hajii to Captain. Her XO, Captain Ono, had also been XO of BB Kirishima when she was sunk off Guadalcanal on 15 November 1942. None of the posthumous flag officers had even been with the ship a year; Chief Engineer Yoshimura had joined the ship on 1 November 1942, XO Ono on 10 January 1943, and CO Miyoshi on 10 March 1943. Miyoshi's body was recovered from his sea cabin during the investigative dives on the wreck; he had been there having lunch when the explosion occurred. The senior survivor was Chief Navigator Cdr Okihara Hideya, who was on the main deck walking forward when the explosion occurred, and was blown overboard by the shockwave. Knocked unconscious by the blast, he awoke aboard destroyer Tamanami with no clue as to how he got there.