Mogami-class Heavy Cruiser


So sorry; no picture
MogamiMikuma
SuzuyaKumano
(Model kits manufactured by Tamiya)

These ships win the prize for "Egregious Treaty Violation." The London Naval Treaty of 1930 (a follow-on to the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922) specified that cruisers of all signatory nations were to be held to displacements of 10,000 tons. Mogami, when first built, weighed in at about 13,400 (although I should also mention that some other Japanese CAs had been rebuilt by that point to exceed even this displacement). Not surprisingly, foreign naval observers were a little suspicious about her. Turns out that even given her extra displacement, she was overloaded. When she began running trials, it was discovered that firing all the guns of her main battery simultaneously had the unpleasant effect of popping the welds along her sides. Hmmm... When first launched, these ships were officially classified as light cruisers, because they were armed with 15 x 6" guns. They had been cleverly designed so that the turret base rings would also accept a dual 8" turret when the time came, and all were re-armed this way shortly before the war. Very sneaky...

At the battle of Midway, Mogami was very nearly sunk, and it was decided to rebuild her as an a hybrid cruiser/carrier to carry additional float planes. As you probably gathered from my comments on Ise and Hyuga, I'm not very impressed with this move, because none of these hybrid ships were very useful as aviation vessels. I find it ironic that Mogami's last action was to be sunk at the hands of the same U.S. battleships that sank Fuso and Yamashiro in Surigao Strait. Apparently, she was useless enough as an aviation vessel that she wasn't even included in Ozawa's sacrificial carrier bait force, but was relegated to surface combat duty with the two oldest BBs in the Japanese Navy.

Kumano is shown here as she appeared at the time of her building, armed with 6" guns in triple turrets.

Model-ship note: I have no picture of Mikuma, because Tamiya doesn't make a kit of her, for reasons unknown.

Year CompletedMogami: 1935
Mikuma: 1935
Suzuya: 1937
Kumano: 1937
Displacement13,440 tons
Dimensions649'10" x 66'3" x 19'4"
Speed35 knots
Armament 10 x 8"/50
8 x 5"/40 DP
up to 50 x 25mm AA
12 x 24" TT
Crew850

Additional Info
Mogami Tabular Record of Movement (TROM)
Mikuma Tabular Record of Movement (TROM)
Suzuya Tabular Record of Movement (TROM)
Kumano Tabular Record of Movement (TROM)

Links From Related Partner Sites
Mogami-class Heavy Cruiser
  * Mogami
  * Mikuma
  * Suzuya
  * Kumano

See all photos of Mogami-class Heavy Cruiser on WW2DB






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