Japanese Battleship Nagato

was a super-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Completed in 1920 as the lead ship of her class, she carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. The ship was modernized in 1934–1936 with improvements to her armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. ''Nagato'' briefly participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during the attack on Pearl Harbor. She covered the withdrawal of the attacking ships and did not participate in the attack itself.

Other than participating in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, where she did not see combat, the ship spent most of the first two years of the Pacific War training in home waters. She was transferred to Truk in mid-1943, but did not see any combat until the Battle of the Philippine Sea in mid-1944 when she was attacked by American aircraft. ''Nagato'' did not fire her main armament against enemy vessels until the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October. She was lightly damaged during the battle and returned to Japan the following month. The IJN was running out of fuel by this time and decided not to fully repair her. ''Nagato'' was converted into a floating anti-aircraft platform and assigned to coastal defense duties. She was attacked in July 1945 as part of the American campaign to destroy the IJN's last remaining capital ships, but was only slightly damaged and went on to be the only Japanese battleship to have survived World War II. In mid-1946, the ship was a target for nuclear weapon tests during Operation Crossroads. She survived the first test with little damage, but was sunk by the second.

Description

''Nagato'' had a length of between perpendiculars and overall. She had a beam of and a draft of .Skwiot 2008, p. 4 The ship displaced at standard load and at full load.Whitley, p. 200 Her crew consisted of 1,333 officers and enlisted men as built and 1,368 in 1935.Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 28 The crew totaled around 1,734 men in 1944.Stille, p. 34

In 1930, ''Nagato''s bow was remodeled to reduce the amount of spray produced when steaming into a head sea. This increased her overall length by to . During her 1934–1936 reconstruction, the ship's stern was lengthened by to improve her speed and her forward superstructure was rebuilt into a pagoda mast. She was given torpedo bulges to improve her underwater protection and to compensate for the weight of the additional armor and equipment. These changes increased her overall length to , her beam to and her draft to . Her displacement increased over to at deep load. The ship's metacentric height at deep load was . In November 1944, the tops of ''Nagato''s mainmast and funnel were removed to improve the effective arcs of fire for her anti-aircraft guns.

Propulsion

''Nagato'' was equipped with four Gihon geared steam turbines, each of which drove one propeller shaft. The turbines were designed to produce a total of , using steam provided by 21 Kampon water-tube boilers; 15 of these were oil-fired while the remaining half-dozen consumed a mixture of coal and oil. The ship could carry of coal and of fuel oil, giving her a range of at a speed of . The ship exceeded her designed speed of during her sea trials, reaching at .

Funnel smoke would often choke and blind crewmen on the bridge and in the fire-control systems so a "fingernail"-shaped deflector was installed on the fore funnel in 1922 to direct the exhaust away from them. It was less than effective and the fore funnel was rebuilt in a serpentine shape in an unsuccessful effort during a refit in 1924. That funnel was eliminated during the ship's 1930s reconstruction when all of her boilers were replaced by ten oil-fired Kampon boilers, which had a working pressure of and temperature of . In addition her turbines were replaced by lighter, more modern, units. When ''Nagato'' conducted her post-reconstruction trials, she reached a speed of with .Skwiot 2008, p. 78 Additional fuel oil was stored in the bottoms of the newly added torpedo bulges, which increased her capacity to and thus her range to at 16 knots.

Armament

''Nagato''s eight 45-caliber 41-centimeter (16 inch) guns were mounted in two pairs of twin-gun, superfiring turrets fore and aft. Numbered one through four from front to rear, the hydraulically powered turrets gave the guns an elevation range of −2 to +35 degrees. The rate of fire for the guns was around two rounds per minute. The turrets aboard the ''Nagato''-class ships were replaced in the mid-1930s with the turrets stored from the unfinished s. While in storage the turrets had been modified to increase their range of elevation to –3 to +43 degrees,Skwiot 2008, p. 19 which increased the gun's maximum range from .Friedman, p. 269

The ship's secondary armament of twenty 50-caliber 14-centimeter guns was mounted in casemates on the upper sides of the hull and in the superstructure. The manually operated guns had a maximum range of and fired at a rate of six to 10 rounds per minute. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by four 40-caliber 3rd Year Type three-inch AA guns in single mounts. The high-angle guns had a maximum elevation of +75 degrees, and had a rate of fire of 13 to 20 rounds per minute.Campbell, p. 198 The ship was also fitted with eight torpedo tubes, four on each broadside, two above water and two submerged.

Around 1926, the four above-water torpedo tubes were removed and the ship received three additional 76 mm AA guns that were situated around the base of the foremast.Skwiot 2008, p. 70 They were replaced by eight 40-caliber 12.7-centimeter Type 89 dual-purpose (DP) guns in 1932, fitted on both sides of the fore and aft superstructures in four twin-gun mounts.Whitley, p. 202 When firing at surface targets, the guns had a range of ; they had a maximum ceiling of at their maximum elevation of +90 degrees. Their maximum rate of fire was 14 rounds a minute, but their sustained rate of fire was around eight rounds per minute. Two twin-gun mounts for license-built Vickers two-pounder light AA guns were also added to the ship that same year. These guns had a maximum elevation of +80 degrees which gave them a ceiling of . They had a maximum rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute.Campbell, p. 200

When the ship was reconstructed in 1934–1936, the remaining torpedo tubes and the two forward 14 cm (-inch) guns were removed from the hull. The remaining 14 cm guns had their elevation increased to +35 degrees which increased their range to . An unknown number of license-built Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun in twin mounts were added. The maximum range of these guns was , but the effective range against aircraft was . The cyclic rate was adjustable between 425 and 475 rounds per minute, but the need to change 30-round magazines reduced the effective rate to 250 rounds per minute.

The unsatisfactory two-pounders were replaced in 1939 by twenty license-built Type 96 Hotchkiss Type 96 light AA guns in a mixture of twin-gun and single mounts. This was the standard Japanese light AA gun during World War II, but it suffered from severe design shortcomings that rendered it a largely ineffective weapon. According to historian Mark Stille, the twin and triple mounts "lacked sufficient speed in train or elevation; the gun sights were unable to handle fast targets; the gun exhibited excessive vibration; the magazine was too small, and, finally, the gun produced excessive muzzle blast".Stille, p. 11 These 25 mm guns had an effective range of , and an effective ceiling of at an elevation of 85 degrees. The maximum effective rate of fire was only between 110 and 120 rounds per minute because of the frequent need to change the fifteen-round magazines. Additional Type 96 guns were installed during the war; on 10 July 1944, the ship was reported to have 98 guns on board. An additional 30 guns were added during a refit in Yokosuka in November. Two more twin 12.7 cm (5 inch) gun mounts were added at the same time abreast the funnel and her 14 cm guns were removed as she was by then a floating anti-aircraft battery.

Armor

The ship's waterline armor belt was thick and tapered to a thickness of at its bottom edge; above it was a strake of armor. The main deck armor was while the lower deck was thick. The turrets were protected with an armor thickness of 305 mm on the face, on the sides, and on the roof. The barbettes of the turrets were protected by armor 305 mm thick, while the casemates of the 1 guns were protected by armor plates. The sides of the conning tower were thick.Whitley, p. 200

The new 41 cm turrets installed during ''Nagato''s reconstruction were more heavily armored than the original ones. Face armor was increased to , the sides to , and the roof to . The armor over the machinery and magazines was increased by 38 mm on the upper deck and on the upper armored deck. These additions increased the weight of the ship's armor to , 32.6 percent of her displacement.Stille, p. 32 In early 1941, as a preparation for war, ''Nagato''s barbette armor was reinforced with armor plates above the main deck and plates below it.

Fire control and sensors

When completed in 1920, the ship was fitted with a rangefinder in the forward superstructure; and anti-aircraft rangefinders were added in May 1921 and 1923, respectively. The rangefinders in the second and third turrets were replaced by 10-meter units in 1932–1933.

''Nagato'' was initially fitted with a Type 13 fire-control system derived from Vickers equipment received during World War I, but this was replaced by an improved Type 14 system around 1925. It controlled the main and secondary guns; no provision was made for anti-aircraft fire until the Type 31 fire-control director was introduced in 1932. A modified Type 14 fire-control system was tested aboard the ship in 1935 and later approved for service as the Type 34. A new anti-aircraft director called the Type 94 that was used to control the 127 mm AA guns was introduced in 1937, although when ''Nagato'' received hers is unknown. The Type 96 AA guns were controlled by a Type 95 director that was also introduced in 1937.

While in drydock in May 1943, a Type 21 air search radar was installed on the roof of the 10-meter rangefinder at the top of the pagoda mast. On 27 June 1944, two Type 22 surface search radars were installed on the pagoda mast and two Type 13 early warning radars were fitted on her mainmast.

Aircraft

''Nagato'' was fitted with an aircraft flying-off platform on Turret No. 2 in August 1925. Yokosuka Ro-go Ko-gata and Heinkel HD 25 floatplanes were tested from it before it was removed early the following year. An additional boom was added to the mainmast in 1926 to handle the Yokosuka E1Y now assigned to the ship. A Hansa-Brandenburg W.33 floatplane was tested aboard ''Nagato'' that same year. A catapult was fitted between the mainmast and Turret No. 3 in mid-1933,Hackett, Kingsepp, & Ahlberg a collapsible crane was installed in a portside sponson, and the ship was equipped to operate two or three floatplanes, although no hangar was provided. The ship now operated Nakajima E4N2 biplanes until they were replaced by Nakajima E8N2 biplanes in 1938. A more powerful catapult was installed in November 1938 to handle heavier aircraft, such as the one Kawanishi E7K that was added in 1939–1940. Mitsubishi F1M biplanes replaced the E8Ns on 11 February 1943.

Construction and career

''Nagato'', named for Nagato Province, was ordered on 12 May 1916 and laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal on 28 August 1917 as the lead ship of her class. She was launched on 9 November 1919 by Admiral Katō Tomosaburō, completed on 15 November 1920 and commissioned 10 days later with Captain Nobutaro Iida in command. ''Nagato'' was assigned to the 1st Battleship Division and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Sōjirō Tochinai. On 13 February 1921, the ship was inspected by the Crown Prince, Hirohito. Captain Kanari Kabayama relieved Iida on 1 December 1921. The ship hosted Marshal Joseph Joffre on 18 February 1922 and Edward, Prince of Wales, and his aide-de-camp Lieutenant Louis Mountbatten on 12 April during the prince's visit to Japan.

After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, ''Nagato'' loaded supplies from Kyushu for the victims on 4 September. Together with her sister ship , she sank the hulk of the obsolete battleship on 7 September 1924 during gunnery practice in Tokyo Bay in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was transferred to the reserve of the 1st Division on 1 December and became a gunnery training ship. In August 1925, aircraft handling and take-off tests were conducted aboard ''Nagato''. She was reassigned as the flagship of the Combined Fleet on 1 December, flying the flag of Admiral Keisuke Okada. Captain Kiyoshi Hasegawa assumed command of the ship on 1 December 1926.

''Nagato'' was again placed in reserve on 1 December 1931 and her anti-aircraft armament was upgraded the following year. In August 1933 the ship participated in fleet maneuvers north of the Marshall Islands and she began her first modernization on 1 April 1934. This was completed on 31 January 1936 and ''Nagato'' was assigned to the 1st Battleship Division of the 1st Fleet. During the attempted coup d'état on 26 February by disgruntled Army officers, the ship was deployed in Tokyo Bay and some of her sailors were landed in support of the government. In August, she transported 1,749 men of the 43rd Infantry Regiment of the 11th Infantry Division from Shikoku to Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Her floatplanes bombed targets in Shanghai on 24 August before she returned to Sasebo the following day. ''Nagato'' became a training ship on 1 December until she again became the flagship of the Combined Fleet on 15 December 1938. The ship participated in an Imperial Fleet Review on 11 October 1940. She was refitted in early 1941 in preparation for war.

World War II

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto issued the code phrase "''Niitaka yama nobore''" (Climb Mount Niitaka) on 2 December 1941 from ''Nagato'' at anchor at Hashirajima to signal the 1st Air Fleet (''Kido Butai'') in the North Pacific to proceed with its attack on Pearl Harbor. When the war started for Japan on 8 December,Japan Standard Time is 19 hours ahead of Hawaiian Standard Time, so in Japan, the attack on Pearl Harbor happened on 8 December. she sortied for the Bonin Islands, along with ''Mutsu'', the battleships , , , of Battleship Division 2, and the light carrier as distant cover for the withdrawal of the fleet attacking Pearl Harbor, and returned six days later. Yamamoto transferred his flag to the new battleship on 12 February 1942. ''Nagato'' was briefly refitted 15 March – 9 April at Kure Naval Arsenal.

In June 1942 ''Nagato'', commanded by Captain Hideo Yano, was assigned to the Main Body of the 1st Fleet during the Battle of Midway, together with ''Yamato'', ''Mutsu'', ''Hosho'', the light cruiser , nine destroyers and four auxiliary ships. Following the loss of all four carriers of the 1st Air Fleet on 4 June, Yamamoto attempted to lure the American forces west to within range of the Japanese air groups at Wake Island, and into a night engagement with his surface forces, but the American forces withdrew and ''Nagato'' saw no action. After rendezvousing with the remnants of the 1st Air Fleet on 6 June, survivors from the aircraft carrier were transferred to ''Nagato''. On 14 July, the ship was transferred to Battleship Division 2 and she became the flagship of the 1st Fleet. Yano was promoted to rear admiral on 1 November and he was replaced by Captain Yonejiro Hisamune nine days later. ''Nagato'' remained in Japanese waters training until August 1943. On 2 August Captain Mikio Hayakawa assumed command of the ship.

That month, ''Nagato'', ''Yamato'', ''Fusō'' and the escort carrier , escorted by two heavy cruisers and five destroyers transferred to Truk in the Caroline Islands. In response to the carrier raid on Tarawa

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