Yuku free message boards

If you realy want new ships, consider the limmited capacity of Japanese Industry before 1941. If you cecide to build four replacements for the Kongo's from scratch, you must take away a simmilar amount of buildingmaterials needed for other projects, use four buildingslips in a shipyard, which must be made free for this purpose and cannot be used for other constructions at the same time.

This can be very conclusive, since most attention would normally be given to the two first Yamato class battleships in this period, which consume quiate a lot of energy and materials in the shipbuildingprogramme. If you can delete these, two, you may have more than adequate material left for four new basical battlecruisers, with no nonsence put into them, to simpify the building of these in a shorter period. (Problem may be a tactical use of these ships, since they are not longer to be considered supplementary to the canceled new battlefleet of Yamato's, but will provide fast escortservice for the carriers only most of the time.) The four ships can be constructed lightly with more true battlecruiser thinking than in more contemporary ships of other nations. Try to construct a lightweight 16.1 inch gun, simmilar to the already existing guns of the Nagato's to make use of the same ammunition, if possible. If this is not possible, try the smaller 14 inch gun simmilar to the guns of the Kongo's and other battleships. (Or you need a new stockpile of new ammunition, which is a bit overstraining the Japanese industry.) These existing calibers already are supplied with large amounts of ammunitions, so make to make use of it is wise.

Canceling the Yamato's and building these four replacements of the Kongo's wil need another element however: other new aircraftcarriers, to operate with. So besides these ships, you also need to speed up the construction of the fast aircraft carriers as well, including the Taiho and the Unryu's. This may be a bit too much for the IJN and the Japanese industry, but it should be possible in theory, since the expensive Yamato project has been canceled.

As a design, actually projected the four Kongo replacements could have looked like the B-64/65 project:

B64 class large cruisers

Displ: 32,000 tons standard; 34,800 tons trial
Dim: 802.5 x 89 x 29 feet
Prop: Steam turbines, 8 boilers, 4 shafts, 160,000 hp, 33 knots
Crew: ???
Arm: 3 triple 12.2/50, 8 dual 3.9/65, 12 25 mm AA, 8 13.2 mm AA,
8 24 inch TT
Armor: 7.5 inch belt, 5 inch deck
Cancelled due to war. Plans altered to 3 triple 14.2 inch due to
US Alaska class, designation changed to B65. Officially
classified as "super A-type" cruisers.

Originally the main artillery was to have been tripple 12.2 inch guns, but this was increased to 14.2 inch in the later, as more details of USS Alaska became known. At 33 knots, it is as fast as the fast carriers in the IJN and equal in both speed and concept as USS Iowa, besides being much smaller.

These proposed ships were simmilar im size to the existing Kongos, but more usefull as AA escorts, by their DP nature of the secondary armament. Simmilarly protected, with more attention given to horizontal armor over vertical protection. Design is considered effective as a battlecruiser, with speed to get out of trouble against battleships and firepower against anything smaller, besides good AA capacity. 14.2 inch is also more than adequate to defeat post treaty USN BB's, except the canceled Montana's, so against an Iowa, it still can hurt back, if forced to engage. (although it is wise to avoid a gunneryduel with ships only protected against cruiser sized guns.)

As for the proposed replacements of the old Fuso class (and essentially the Ise Class as well), Japan has no productioncapacity to do this at the same time, so it has to be postponed untill the battlecruisers are finished. You may well have to deal with this for some more years untill you can replace them. (perhaps by the Yamato's???). If you want a design with simmilar 14 inch sized weapons, you can use the same guns as the ones designed for the B-64/65 class. (simplify production, if possible) Also use the same secondary guns as in the Battlecruisers, but possibly in larger hulls. Speed has to match the 30 knot limmit, if possible, so they can keep up to some part with the carriers, making them more usefull. (a slower division can be formed by the Nagato's at 26.5 knots and perhaps the Yamato's of 27 knots if proceded with.) Best option is to increase the design with a fourth tripple turret and perhaps some additional secodnary mountings, plus more deckarmor to make them more resilient against heavy bombingattacks. Belt is not so much an issue, since the ships are mainly designed for longrange gunnery, making belts less effective and decks more important, besides the airial threath. Excelent torpeoprotection is a must, since aircraft can also attack with torpedoes, as do submarines. By giving the vessel massive beam for optimal underwaterprotection this can be achieved, as with estensive internal subdivision of the hull. The proposed vessel may well come in the range of 45,000 tons by doing so, but since the threaty already has been canceled to keep size withing 35,000 ton limmits, this is no problem. Alternatively some ships may be armed with twin 16.1 inch turrets, already available.

That is true, but remember these were also used to build other big vessels, like the large aircraft carriers, so cannot do another project on the same slip at the same time still. During the 1935 - 1940 period there were also the conversions of the large Junyo and Hiyo, lso in these same yards and several cruisers on the way of either building or refitting. (Not even speaking of Hiryu, Soryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku and Taiho, all being laid down before 1940.) In reality only three buildingsites capable of building a total of four ships at the same time longer than 200 meters in length could be used, if the Yamato's were to be canceled before this.