_-_NH_2716_-_cropped.jpg) Nagato at sea
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Nagato class |
| Builders | |
| Operators |  Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Preceded by | Ise class |
| Succeeded by |
|
| Built | 1917–1921 |
| In service | 1920–1945 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Lost | 1 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type | Dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 215.8 m (708 ft) (o/a) |
| Beam | 29.02 m (95 ft 3 in) |
| Draft | 9.08 m (29 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 4 shafts; 4 × geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph) |
| Range | 5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement | 1,333 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
| General characteristics (Nagato, 1944) | |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 224.94 m (738 ft 0 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 34.6 m (113 ft 6 in) |
| Draft | 9.49 m (31 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Speed | 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) |
| Range | 8,650 nmi (16,020 km; 9,950 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement | 1,734 |
| Sensors and processing systems |
|
| Armament |
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| Armor | |
| Aircraft carried | 3 × floatplanes |
| Aviation facilities | 1 × catapult |
The Nagato-class battleships (長門型戦艦, Nagato-gata senkan) were a pair of dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) towards the end of World War I, although they were not completed until after the war. The last of Japan's pre-Treaty capital ships, they were the first class to carry 41 cm (16.1 in) guns, the largest afloat at the time and the first bigger than 15 inches (381 mm). Nagato, the lead ship of the class, frequently served as a flagship. Both ships carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. They were modernized in 1933–1936 with improvements to their armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. Nagato and her sister ship Mutsu briefly participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and Nagato was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 that began the Pacific War.
The sisters participated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, although they did not see any combat. Mutsu saw more active service than her sister because she was not a flagship and participated in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August before returning to Japan in early 1943. One of Mutsu's aft magazines detonated in June, killing 1,121 crew and visitors and destroying the ship. The IJN conducted a perfunctory investigation into the cause of her loss and concluded that it was the work of a disgruntled crewmember. They dispersed the survivors in an attempt to conceal the sinking to keep up morale in Japan. Much of the wreck was salvaged after the war and many artifacts and relics are on display in Japan.
Nagato spent most of the first two years of the 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 1944. She was lightly damaged during the battle and returned to Japan the following month for repairs. 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. After the war, the ship was a target for U.S. nuclear weapon tests during Operation Crossroads in mid-1946. She survived the first test with little damage, but was sunk by the second test.