The , also called was a pair of large, aircraft-carrying
cruiser submarines built for the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
(IJN) during World War II.
Design and description
The Type AM submarines were versions of the preceding
A2 class with the command facilities replaced by an enlarged aircraft
hangar
A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
, which was fitted for a pair of
Aichi M6A1 floatplane
A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...
bombers.
[Layman & McLaughlin, p. 176] They
displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a
beam of and a
draft of . They had a diving depth of .
[Bagnasco, p. 189]
The machinery was reduced in power from the A2-class boats. For surface running, the boats were powered by two
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
s, each driving one
propeller shaft
A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...
. When submerged each propeller was driven by a
electric motor
An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate forc ...
. They could reach on the surface and underwater.
[Chesneau, p. 200] On the surface, the ''AM''s had a range of at ; submerged, they had a range of at .
[
The boats were armed with six internal bow ]torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed abo ...
s and carried a total of a dozen torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...
es. They were also armed with a single /40 deck gun
A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret.
The main deck gun was a dual-purpose ...
and two triple and one single mount for Type 96 anti-aircraft guns.[Carpenter & Dorr, p. 110]
In comparison to the A2 class, the aircraft hangar
A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
was enlarged to accommodate two aircraft. It was offset to the right of, and was faired into the base of, the conning tower which protruded over the left side of the hull. A single catapult was positioned on the forward deck. Two folding cranes
Crane or cranes may refer to:
Common meanings
* Crane (bird), a large, long-necked bird
* Crane (machine), industrial machinery for lifting
** Crane (rail), a crane suited for use on railroads
People and fictional characters
* Crane (surname), ...
on the forward deck were used to recover the floatplanes.[
]
Boats
Seven units were ordered, but only two were completed, while construction of two more was abandoned in March 1945. Construction of the remaining three submarines never started.[
* was sunk on 16 July 1945 by the destroyer escort USS ''Lawrence C. Taylor'' and aircraft action from escort carrier USS ''Anzio'' about east of Yokosuka.
* surrendered at sea at the end of the war, and was scuttled off Oahu in 1946. In 2009, researchers at the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory found ''I-14'' at a depth of about .]
See also
* I-400 class submarine - 3-aircraft submarine with catapult launcher
* Submarine aircraft carrier
Notes
References
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{{Type A submarine
Submarine aircraft carriers
Submarine classes