Everything about Japanese Cruiser Tokiwa totally explained
The Japanese cruiser Tokiwa in 1905>
| Career |
|
Built by:
|
Armstrong Whitworth, Great Britain |
Ordered:
|
1897 Fiscal Year |
| Laid down |
6 January 1897 |
Launched:
|
6 July 1898 |
Completed:
|
18 May 1899 |
Fate:
|
Sunk by air attack 9 August 1945 |
| General characteristics (initial) |
Displacement:
|
9,700 tons |
Length:
|
124.36 meters |
Beam:
|
20.45 meters |
Draught:
|
7.43 meters |
Propulsion:
|
2-shaft VTE, 18000 BHP |
Speed:
|
21.5 knots |
| Range: 7000 nautical miles @10 knots |
|
Complement:
|
726 |
Armament:
|
- 4 × 203 mm guns
- 14 × 152 mm rapid fire guns
- 12 x 12 pound rapid fire guns
- 7 x 2.5 pound rapid fire guns
- 5 × 360 mm torpedo tubes
|
Armor:
|
88-180 mm main belt, 125 mm upper belt;
50 mm deck armor;
150 mm barbette, turret, casemate;
75-360 mm conning tower.
|
The was an
Asama class
armored cruiser of the
Imperial Japanese Navy. The IJN
Tokiwa was named after a lake in
Yamaguchi prefecture, near
Ube city. Its
sister ship was the
IJN Asama. The
Tokiwa had one of the longest service lives of any ship in the Japanese fleet.
Background
The
Tokiwa was one of six
armored cruisers ordered to overseas shipyards after the
First Sino-Japanese War as part of the “Six-Six Program” (six
battleships-six
cruisers) intended to form the backbone of the
Imperial Japanese Navy. Construction of the
Tokiwa began as a private venture by the
British shipbuilder
Armstrong Whitworth of
Elswick, and the design had to be modified slightly to meet Japanese requirements. It arrived in
Yokosuka on
17 July 1899.
Service record
The
Tokiwa served an important role in the
Russo-Japanese War, as part of the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Fleet. It was assigned to the force blockading the Russian squadron at
Vladivostok, and also participated in the
Battle off Ulsan, It was at the crucial
Battle of Tsushima where she was damaged by gunfire.
After the end of the war, the
Tokiwa was retrofitted with new coal-fired
Belleview boilers in 1910.
In
World War I, the
Tokiwa was assigned to the 4th Squadron of the 2nd Fleet, and participated in the occupation of the German port of
Tsingtao. It was later assigned to
Pacific Ocean patrols against the
German navy, as part of the Japanese contribution to the Allied ware effort under the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance. .
The
Tokiwa was used as an oceanic
navigation and officer candidate training ship after the end of World War I, cruising between Japan and
Hawaii,
California and to
Shanghai,
Singapore and the
Indian ocean.
The
Tokiwa was re-designated a 1st-Class Coast Defence Vessel on
30 September 1921.
On
30 September 1922, the
Tokiwa was converted to a
minelayer at the
Sasebo naval yards, with the removal of its 200 mm twin mount
gun turrets and its 150 mm secondary batteries. Offensive
mine maneuvers by the Japanese Navy began in the Russo-Japanese War, using modified merchant ships; afterwards cruisers captured from
Russia were modified and used. The use of the
Tokiwa as a minelayer gave the Japanese fleet a ship with an unprecedented large capacity. With mine launching tracks topside and on the mid-deck, the
Tokiwa could deploy over 500 mines at a time.
On
1 August 1927 the
Tokiwa suffered substantial damage in an accidental explosion in
Saiki Bay during which 35 crewmen died and 65 were severely injured, and it was placed in the reserve fleet. In 1937, at the outbreak of the
Second Sino-Japanese War, the
Tokiwa was retrofitted with eight
Kanpon boilers and returned to active duty.
In 1940, the
Tokiwa was assigned to the 19th squadron of the 4th fleet. Its operational area to mid-1943 was in primarily in the Southwest Pacific (around the
Marshall Islands), and it was bombed by the
US Navy on
1 February 1943 at
Kwajalein Atoll, forcing a return to Sasebo for repairs. As the
Pacific War situation deteriorated further for the Japanese, the
Tokiwa was reassigned to mine laying in Japanese territorial waters.
Ironically, the
Tokiwa was herself mined in April 1945, and was later severely damaged by a direct bomb hit and four near misses in an air attack on
9 August 1945 at
Ominato port, northern
Honshū . The ship flooded and had to be beached on the nearby seashore. The wreck was later scrapped after the
Pacific War.
Gallery
Image:IJN Tokiwa 1904.jpg|IJN Tokiwa in 1904
Image:IJN Tokiwa 4.jpg|IJN Tokiwa in 1905 postcard
Image:IJN Tokiwa 1945.jpg|wreck of the IJN Tokiwa at the end World War II
Further Information
Get more info on 'Japanese Cruiser Tokiwa'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://japanese_cruiser_tokiwa.totallyexplained.com">Japanese cruiser Tokiwa Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
