Japanese 7,000 ton cruisers under construction in 1940

Imaginary pocket battleship Kadekuru or Kazekuru. ©Warshipsresearch.blogspot.com

An item reported that there were at least 5-7,000 ton cruiser under construction but no design details were known. Two unidentified ships, the Hasidate (1), launched towards the end of last year, and the Kasino (2), launched at Nagasaki on January 26 1940, may belong to those cruisers.

Notes

1. She was a gunboat and not a cruiser, ordered under the Maru-3 Naval Expansion Budget 1937, laid down by Osaka Iron Works on 20 February 1939, launched on 23 December 1939, completed on 30 June 1940, torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine USS Picuda (SS-382) on 22 May 1944 and stricken on 10 July 1944.

2. Also called an armoured ship with a displacement varying between 12,000-14,000 tons with the German pocket battleship look alike design but faster, slightly better armour and heavier armed with 6-12” and 12-5” guns and launched at the Mitsubishi Company yard at Nagasaki on 26 January 1940. The German panzerschiffe were reclassified as heavy cruisers in February 1940, they were called abroad pocket battleships.

Sources

Brassey’s Naval Annuals 1940-1942

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