Japanese cruiser Aoba

Japanese heavy cruiser Aoba
History
Empire of Japan
NameAoba
NamesakeMount Aoba
Ordered1923 Fiscal Year
BuilderMitsubishi
Laid down23 January 1924
Launched25 September 1926
Commissioned20 September 1927[1]
Out of service1945
Stricken20 November 1945
FateSunk 24 July 1945 by US aircraft, raised and scrapped in 1946–47
General characteristics
Class and typeAoba-class cruiser
Displacement8,300 tons (standard); 9,000 (final)
Length185.17 m (607 ft 6 in)
Beam
  • 15.83 m (51 ft 11 in) (initial)
  • 17.56 m (57 ft 7 in) (final)
Draught
  • 5.71 m (18 ft 9 in) (initial)
  • 5.66 m (18 ft 7 in) (final)
Propulsion
  • 4-shaft Brown Curtis geared turbines
  • 12 Kampon boilers
  • 102,000 shp (76,000 kW)
Speed33.43–36 kn (61.91–66.67 km/h)
Range
  • 7,000 nmi (13,000 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h) (initial)
  • 8,223 nmi (15,229 km) at 14 knots (final)
Complement643 (initial) – 657 (final)
Armament
Armor
  • 76 mm (belt)
  • 36 mm (deck)
Aircraft carried

Aoba (青葉) was the lead ship in the two-vessel Aoba class of heavy cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Launched in 1926 and heavily modernized in 1938-40, Aoba initially served as a patrol craft, largely along the China coast, and saw extensive service during World War II. Repeatedly heavily damaged and repaired, she was finally crippled by bombing and settled on the bottom of shallow Kure harbor in April 1945; two raids in late July reduced her to an unsalvageable hulk. During the attack on 24 July 1945, future Vice admiral Dick H. Guinn dropped the 2,000 lb (910 kg) bomb which contributed to her sinking.[2]

Named after Mount Aoba, a volcano located behind Maizuru, Kyoto, she was formally removed from the Navy List on 20 November 1945, and her wreck scrapped in 1946–47.

  1. ^ Lacroix & Wells, Japanese Cruisers, p. 794
  2. ^ Calloway, James R. (1972). Department of Defense appropriations for 1972: hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations House of Representatives. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. pp. 742–744. Retrieved 9 April 2017.