Akitsu Maru 1942
| Name | No | Yard No | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Comp | Fate |
| 秋津丸 [Akitsu Maru] | Harima, Harima | 17.9.1939 | 24.9.1941 | 30.1.1942 | sunk 15.11.1944 | ||
| にぎつ丸 [Nigitsu Maru] | Harima, Harima | 6.1941 | 1942 | 3.1943 | sunk 12.1.1944 |
|
Displacement standard, t |
11800 |
|
Displacement full, t |
|
|
Length, m |
143.8 pp 152.0 wl |
|
Breadth, m |
19.5 wl 23.0 fd |
|
Draught, m |
7.86 |
|
No of shafts |
2 |
|
Machinery |
2 sets geared steam turbines, 4 boilers |
|
Power, h. p. |
7500 |
|
Max speed, kts |
20 |
|
Fuel, t |
oil |
| Endurance, nm(kts) | |
| Armament |
2 x 1 - 75/44 88-shiki, 10 x 1 - 75/30 38-shiki, 20 aircraft (Ki.76 ASW planes and Ka.1 ASW gyroplanes) |
| Military load | 20 14-m Daihatsu landing craft |
| Complement |
Aircraft facilities (fd - 2,768m², ha ? m² / ? m³): Flight deck: 123.0x22.5m. There was small opened hangar. There was 1 lift. Aircraft fuel stowage: ?.
Project history: Laid down as passenger liners Akitsu Maru (9186BRT) and Nigitsu Maru (9547BRT). In the summer 1941 incomplete vessels were requisitioned by Army command for conversion to landing ships with a flight deck. Their basic purpose was disembarkation of marines in distant regions of Pacific ocean and providing of their aircraft support. Conversion consisted in the fitting of a flight deck (at level of the former boat deck), installation of small island and shifting of funnel to starboard side (on some data, funnel could be turned to horizontal position). There was no hangar: instead of it under a flight deck there was an open platform for 20 land-based aircrafts and 20 landing lighters of Daihatsu type. Aircrafts were handled by one aft elevator or crane. Landing was planned on coastal airfields.
Akitsu Maru and Nigitsu Maru submitted to Army command and officially did not enter into IJN structure. The air group also was formed from Army aircrafts.
Modernizations: 1943, both: + 2 x 1 - 75/44 88-shiki, some 25/60 96-shiki
2/1944, Akitsu Maru: flight deck was widened and shortened.
Naval
service: Akitsu Maru was sunk by American submarine
Queenfish in Korea strait 15.11.1944.
Nigitsu Maru was sunk by American submarine
Hake in 700nm E off Formosa 12.1.1944.
Akitsu Maru
© Ivan Gogin, 2008-14