YourChair
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This "design" apparently did exist as a specification for the Maru 6 program -- but since the plan was pretty much shelved with the defeat at Midway, nothing came of it. Assumedly, most (if not all) records of its existence were destroyed. Certainly, no official drawings survived (if they ever existed)
So, I was wondering what is known about this design, and how much of the information floating around about it is true.
Apparently, in the book "未完成艦隊 1917～1950" (Unfinished Fleet 1917-1950, published in 2000), this cruiser (dubbed "Unzen") was meant to be an improvement of prior cruiser designs, created to cope with the Baltimore class (and other new US cruisers). The dimensions and displacement of the design was increased, and it was also intended to reduce the length of the citadel by using only 3 triple turrets (which, for the first time in a Japanese heavy cruiser, were to have been armored well, with 150mm on the face, since there were fears that concentrating the armament might make it easier to know out). This shorter citadel could also be armored more heavily.
Then, another turret was apparently added to counter the Des Moines class (which is strange, since that design hadn't even gotten to the "gunswapped improved Oregon City" stage yet), and turret armor was reduced back to the anti-splinter level due to stability concerns.
Main data is given as
"Standard displacement 14,580t Total length 218.3m Maximum width 21.2m Draft 7.2m
8 Ro-type shipbuilding boilers, 4 shipbuilding turbines, 4-shaft engine output 152,000hp speed 31kt
Armament: 4 x 20.3 cm triple guns (55 caliber), 6 x 10 cm twin anti-aircraft guns, 10x3 25mm, 4 x 61 cm quadruple torpedo tubes
Armor side 152mm (assumedly at 20 degrees angle as always, and I have also heard that over the machinery, the thickness was only 140mm), deck 40mm (unknown thickness of slopes/whether thickness changes over magazines), turret 25mm (in draft: 150mm)"
(highest-res version of that image I can find)
All of this data has been said to be fake/speculation, which I can believe -- a lot of the design data doesn't make much sense. But this is the only data that exists.
Similarly, the only drawing of the ship I can find is that one above (also said to be fake), which obviously made a large number of "artistic liberties" (errors) -- just compare this drawing to Ibuki and you can see a massive number of fundamental changes that don't make sense (like the relocation of aviation facilities and torpedoes aft). Maybe this can be explained as measures to shorten the citadel, but more likely it is due to speculation.
(Zao from World of Warships is directly based on this drawing, so I would assume that even Wargaming wasn't able to find any sekrit documents on this design)
What does everybody think? And does anybody have a higher-res version of that image?
So, I was wondering what is known about this design, and how much of the information floating around about it is true.
Apparently, in the book "未完成艦隊 1917～1950" (Unfinished Fleet 1917-1950, published in 2000), this cruiser (dubbed "Unzen") was meant to be an improvement of prior cruiser designs, created to cope with the Baltimore class (and other new US cruisers). The dimensions and displacement of the design was increased, and it was also intended to reduce the length of the citadel by using only 3 triple turrets (which, for the first time in a Japanese heavy cruiser, were to have been armored well, with 150mm on the face, since there were fears that concentrating the armament might make it easier to know out). This shorter citadel could also be armored more heavily.
Then, another turret was apparently added to counter the Des Moines class (which is strange, since that design hadn't even gotten to the "gunswapped improved Oregon City" stage yet), and turret armor was reduced back to the anti-splinter level due to stability concerns.
Main data is given as
"Standard displacement 14,580t Total length 218.3m Maximum width 21.2m Draft 7.2m
8 Ro-type shipbuilding boilers, 4 shipbuilding turbines, 4-shaft engine output 152,000hp speed 31kt
Armament: 4 x 20.3 cm triple guns (55 caliber), 6 x 10 cm twin anti-aircraft guns, 10x3 25mm, 4 x 61 cm quadruple torpedo tubes
Armor side 152mm (assumedly at 20 degrees angle as always, and I have also heard that over the machinery, the thickness was only 140mm), deck 40mm (unknown thickness of slopes/whether thickness changes over magazines), turret 25mm (in draft: 150mm)"
(highest-res version of that image I can find)
All of this data has been said to be fake/speculation, which I can believe -- a lot of the design data doesn't make much sense. But this is the only data that exists.
Similarly, the only drawing of the ship I can find is that one above (also said to be fake), which obviously made a large number of "artistic liberties" (errors) -- just compare this drawing to Ibuki and you can see a massive number of fundamental changes that don't make sense (like the relocation of aviation facilities and torpedoes aft). Maybe this can be explained as measures to shorten the citadel, but more likely it is due to speculation.
(Zao from World of Warships is directly based on this drawing, so I would assume that even Wargaming wasn't able to find any sekrit documents on this design)
What does everybody think? And does anybody have a higher-res version of that image?
