Author: Xiao Yu
The Japanese Combined Fleet originated from the merger of the "Standing Fleet" and the "Garrison Fleet" before the Sino-Japanese War, and was a campaign corps in the Imperial Japanese Navy that carried out mobile combat missions.
From the formation of the standing fleet to the disbandment on May 1, 1945, the combined fleet existed for a total of 56 years, and after the Sino-Japanese, Russo-Japanese, and Pacific Wars, there were various ships such as Matsushima, Mikasa, Shikishima, Asahi, Kongo, Yamashiro, Nagato, Mutsu, Yamato, Musashi, and Odo, who served as flagships of the fleet at different times, leaving a deep mark on history as a symbol of the Japanese Navy.
So why did these ships become flagships, and what was their ultimate fate?
Battleship Yamato
Ammunition is not sinking, and life is hard
The Matsushima, with a displacement of more than 4,000 tons, is the first flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and is one of the "Three Scenic Ships" specially built by the Japanese Navy to deal with the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ironclad ships of the Chinese Navy, equipped with 1 French-made 320mm main gun, 11 120mm rapid-fire guns, and 4 360mm torpedo tubes.
In the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the ship, as the flagship of the Japanese Navy, was hit by the Beiyang Naval Division and was shot 13 times. Among them, the 260mm main gun of the Pingyuan destroyed the ship's main gun after firing a gun that penetrated the side armor of the Matsushima. Soon, Matsushima was hit by two 305mm shells fired by the Zhenyuan, the first solid bullet was not destructive, and the second high-explosive grenade exploded, causing the ship's ammunition to explode.
Seeing that Matsushima was about to be finished, a strong wind suddenly blew on the sea surface, blowing away the poisonous gas in the ship, and the Japanese sailors rushed into the cabin to fight the fire, so that the almost dead Matsushima was saved from destruction.
Matsushima
Throughout the naval battle, Matsushima killed 35 people and wounded 78 people, completely losing combat effectiveness. If the Beiyang Marine Division had been able to sink Matsushima at that time, perhaps the war situation would have changed greatly. But Matsushima's life is so hard, and it can still stand firm in the case of ammunition explosion, which is indeed a miracle within a miracle.
In the naval battle, matsushima's proud 320mm caliber main gun frequently failed and did not play much role, but a large number of Armstrong rapid-fire guns inflicted heavy damage on the Beiyang Marine Division. It can be seen that Japan has indeed kept up with the trend of the times in the procurement of naval equipment.
Battle of the Yellow Sea
After the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese felt that the devastated Matsushima was no longer necessary to spend money on overhauls, and simply used it as a training ship to exert its residual heat. In April 1908, the Matsushima ammunition depot exploded, killing 223 sailors and sinking the ship. The cause of the Matsushima explosion in Japan has been investigated for 10 years without any results, and it has become a mystery case ever since.
The star of the era of "big ships and giant guns"
During the Russo-Japanese War, the flagship of the Combined Fleet was the British-built Shikishima-class battleship No. 4 Mikasa, which Washihachiro Togo commanded the Japanese Navy to victory in the Battle of Tsushima.
After the Sino-Japanese War, Japan used all the huge indemnities of the Qing government to expand its armaments and create a "66 Fleet" equipped with 6 battleships and 6 armored cruisers. Mikasa was one of the fleet's six battleships, which cost more than £1.2 million to purchase a single ship, which was purchased by The Minister of the Navy, Yamamoto Yoshibei, through unconstitutional acts of illegally misappropriating the budget.
Mikasa
The ship has a displacement of more than 15,000 tons, is equipped with two twin 305 mm main guns, and for the first time uses the latest radio equipment, especially the armor using the world's most advanced Krupp hardened steel at that time, regardless of tonnage, firepower, and protection, it is more than one grade higher than Matsushima.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Mikasa faced off against the flagship battleship Mikasa in the Yellow Sea, and Mikasa hit Mikasa several times, but was never able to penetrate its Krupp steel armor plate. However, the sharp artillery fire of the Mikasa severely damaged the Taiko. The Russian commander was killed in a fierce battle, and the Russian fleet collapsed.
In the Battle of Tsushima, the flagship Mikasa was hit by 10 shells and was able to maintain its armored superiority despite heavy casualties. After 5 hours of fierce fighting, 7 Russian warships were sunk on the spot, and the "big ship cannon" of the Japanese fleet fought the peak battle.
Battle of Tsushima
Incredibly, the Mikasa eventually had a sudden explosion of the ammunition depot, as was the case with the Matsushima explosion, for unknown reasons. Both Japanese flagships suffered the same accident, reflecting serious problems in the management of the Japanese Navy during this period.
Mikasa was salvaged and put back into service a year later, and was soon scrapped, and the flagship of the combined fleet was the first ship of its class, Shikishima. The ship's performance was obsolete at the time, becoming a training ship from 1921, officially decommissioned in 1926, and dismantled in 1947.
Battleships that sank aircraft carriers
After Shikishima, the flagship of the Combined Fleet was the battleship Asahi and the battleship Kongo, and was one of the last ships ordered by Japan from abroad.
Still ordered from Britain, the Asahi entered service in 1900 and fought in the Russo-Japanese War, but due to its old performance, it was re-defined as a coastal defense ship early on, and was even disarmed and converted into a submarine salvage ship. During the war of aggression against China, Asahi was converted into repair ships and undertook the task of transporting troops. In late May 1942, Asahi was sunk by a torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine.
In service for 42 years, the Asahi was one of the few Japanese warships that participated in both the Russo-Japanese And Russo-Japanese War and the Pacific War.
Asahi
Originally built in Britain, the battleship Kongo, commissioned in 1913, had eight 356 mm guns and was quite powerful. After two major refits in 1931 and 1935, The Kongo had a displacement of more than 30,000 tons and a speed of 30 knots, transforming it into a high-speed battleship.
Everything has a benefit and a disadvantage, King Kong is too pursuit of high speed, will inevitably reduce the strength of the armor, so its protection is very weak, similar to the British Navy's Hood. This weakness determines that its battlefield survivability is inevitably not strong, and it cannot undertake high-intensity combat tasks.
However, the ship's performance in the Pacific War was very active, participating in many major battles such as Midway and Guadalcanal, and the major achievement that finally made it recorded in history was the sinking of the US escort aircraft carrier Gambir Bay with 6 shells in Leyte Gulf, creating the only example of a battleship sinking an aircraft carrier in World War II.
King Kong
During its evacuation to the Philippines, the Kongo was bombed by U.S. aircraft and destroyed by a boiler, and as it staggered all the way to the Taiwan Strait, it was sunk by two torpedoes by An american submarine, killing Lieutenant General Yoshio Suzuki, commander of the Third Combat Team, and 1,200 crew members. Kongo also became the only battleship in the Japanese Navy to be sunk by a submarine.
A target ship capable of fighting nuclear strikes
During the Pacific War, warships such as Yamashiro, Nagato, Yamato, and Musashi also served as flagships at different times. The ending between Yamato and Musashi is already familiar, so it is not necessary to say more here.
The Yamashiro battleship is the second ship of the Fuso-class battleship, and the main gun is the same as the Kongo, which is a 356mm main gun, but there are two more twin turrets than the Kongo, and the protection is greatly enhanced than that of the Kongo, but the speed is correspondingly far inferior.
Yamashiro
Perhaps because of the slowness of the voyage, yamashiro was involved in fewer battles. After the battle of Leyte Gulf broke out in October 1944, Yamashiro became the main flagship of the First Guerrilla Fleet of the Japanese Navy, led by Vice Admiral Shoji Nishimura, who broke into the Surigao Strait and met the American fleet.
In this last battle of giant ships and cannons in the history of human naval warfare, the United States had 6 battleships, 8 cruisers, 29 destroyers and 39 torpedo boats participating in the battle, while the Japanese fleet only had battleships Yamashiro, Fuso, air cruiser Top, and 4 destroyers, which were at an absolute disadvantage in numbers. Not to mention, the radar-equipped U.S. fleet far outperformed the Japanese in terms of artillery hit rate. As a result, yamashiro was hit by a torpedo, and the ammunition depot exploded, eventually sinking to the bottom of the sea.
The Nagato battleship was The first Japanese battleship to carry a 410mm main gun, and due to its excellent performance and fierce firepower, other countries followed suit. At the beginning of the war, nagato had high hopes and was appointed as the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto sent a telegram of the sneak attack on the Nagato.
Nagato participated in few battles, so it was the only Japanese battleship to survive the war and passed it on to the United States as war reparations. On March 18, 1946, the United States held a nuclear detonation experiment at sea at Bikini Atoll, and the Nagato was one of the target ships. The ship's ability to resist blows is indeed good, and it did not sink after the first nuclear strike, and the watertightness remained quite good. It was not until after the second nuclear explosion that the hull was damaged into the water, and it capsized and sank 5 days later.
Battleship Nagato
Used as a living target by the US military
The last flagship of the Combined Fleet was the Ododo, the only light cruiser in the History of the Japanese Navy.
The advantage of the light cruiser is that it is a generalist in naval warfare, with significantly stronger firepower and protection than destroyers, as well as the ability to launch torpedo attacks and the ability to carry a reconnaissance aircraft on the water. To this end, the Japanese Navy usually uses light cruisers to give destroyers and submarine formations as flagships. When the dayi was originally designed, it was designed according to the function of the flagship, so the communication command function was strengthened, and its biggest highlight was that it could carry 6 Ziyun high-speed reconnaissance aircraft.
Oyodo
The Japanese used to use the strongest warships as flagships, so that flagships were often at the forefront and the safety of the headquarters was not guaranteed. As a result, the Japanese changed their thinking and decided to convert Ōdo, who had a powerful communication command function, into the flagship of the combined fleet.
During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Jisaburo Ozawa's fleet successfully lured the "bull" Hal northwest of the sea, at the cost of 4 ships being sunk by American aviation. Ozawa transferred his headquarters to the Ododo and led the remnants of the ships north, fleeing Halsey's pursuit.
Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf
On December 24, 1944, the Japanese launched operation "Rei", which concentrated eight ships, including Odo, and crossed the South China Sea to attack the landing beachhead of Mindoro Island in an attempt to destroy the US airfield on the island. The US military has taken off more than 100 aircraft to intercept, and the Dayian was hit by two 500-pound bombs, and as a result, both bombs were actually unexploded, and the lucky Dayian escaped the disaster.
After returning to its homeland, the Ododo was never involved in the war, and was later defined as a training and garrison ship, and was used as a fixed anti-aircraft gun on the eve of Japan's defeat. On July 24 and 28, 1945, the ship, which was anchored in Kure Harbor, was twice used as a live target for dive bombs by U.S. carrier-based aircraft, and eventually sank due to a large amount of water on one side of the hull.
On 20 November, Ōdo was delisted. Three years later, the ship was salvaged and dismantled.