IJN Kumano - “If there was a Japanese ship I could feel sorry for...”
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- Опубликовано: 27 дек 2023
- Voice is still a bit rough, but I did the best I could with what I have.
Now, Kumano is an interesting case. Sometimes called a ship with nine lives, she actually had a pretty easy career for the most part. Light duty, very little damage, and generally a quiet time of things. All of which came crashing down, over the course of a month.
First her bow was blown off. Then she was subjected to air attack. Then yet more damage and yet more air attacks.
A conga line of every American attack short of running into a shore battery or a battleship. When it reaches the point that Bull Halsey, of all people, reportedly felt sorry for her?
You know things got bad.
Mikuma Video:
• IJN Mikuma - The First...
Mogami Video:
• IJN Mogami - "Friendly...
Further Reading:
www.combinedfleet.com/atully04...
www.amazon.com/Warships-Imper...
www.amazon.com/Japanese-Cruis...
www.amazon.com/Battle-History...
I was well into my second "spicy" eggnog when I heard "25mm morale boosters"....I laughed so hard that you, sir, owe me a rum-fortified eggnog!
Hahaha,I about fell out of my seat.25 mm morale boosters!!!
Good grief.
Yes,you are owed an Eggnog
IKR 😂😂😂😂
The Japanese eventually realized the main problems with the 25mm, and issued orders that the guns should hold fire until the target came within 1,500 meters. After that the 25mm became considerably more effective.
Its biggest issues were vibration in the gun mounts causing inaccurate fire (just like the similar US 1.1"), and inability to reload while firing. This meant that when the gunners opened up at long range the initial shots would miss because of the vibration, and then they would have to stop and reload just as the aircraft closed to attack range.
Holding fire until 1,500 meters meant that the target was close enough for the deflection caused by vibration to be insignificant, and the gun would not run out of ammo until the plane was passing over. This caused the gun's accuracy to increase to about a 14% hit rate, or about 1 out of 7 shells, with good gunners. That's quite acceptable.
One slight matter they seemed to have overlooked is that holding fire until 1,500 meters means the gunners have about 6 seconds to get on target and do significant damage before the plane is dropping its load.
I never realized that Kumano was an upgraded Mogami class. I always had her confused with one of the Takao Sisters. Poor girl...it's like she had a good luck charm with her until she hit the Philippines, and then she was just bombarded from the air until she rolled over. I admittedly find it hard to believe that the man who was quoted as saying 'the only place the Japanese language will be spoken is in Hell', held such sentimentality to a singular heavy cruiser. It's a nice personal anecdote if its real, but I suspect someone made that story for him so as to not paint him as just a rabid anti-Japanese Warhawk.
Another great vid about a ship I didn't know much about! That pic of Kumano at anchor with a seaplane onshore, and the leaves of the tree just peeking into the photo is gorgeous! Hopefully someone colorizes and restores that photograph, because that is a postcard worthy shot of a Japanese heavy cruiser. I've lost count of how many photographs I have seen of the Pacific war, so I always love seeing new photographs, like the aforementioned postcard shot, and the photo of Kumano limping away after the Battle of Samar while being bombed by American aircraft. I didn't think any pictures of her existed in the immediate aftermath of that battle, so I guess that photo must have come from one of her escorts.
Hope you start to feel better soon! Take as much time as you need to focus on recovery, your health is more important than our attention. Can't wait for more, keep it up!!
The quote does say "if there was a Japanese ship I could feel sorry for at all", which implies that he wasn't capable of feeling sorry for any of them. Just, if there was one, then it would be Kumano.
All else aside, the Japanese sure built pretty.
Kumano used up most of her luck in having still been on the slipway when the 4th Fleet Incident happened, thus sparing her the damage and rebuilding that Mogami and Mikuma incurred.
USS Johnston: "To show you the power of Flex Tape
*launches torpedoes*
I sawed this bow in half!!"
Order placed by Mr. Samuel B. Roberts for a package deal
Very interesting and documented video, Skynea! Thank you! Your vids are absolutely well made! Thank you again!👋👋👋👍
The photo at beginning around 10.14 is IJN Mikuma after being bombed by the US fliers in the closing action of the Battle of Midway in June, 6 1942. It not the Kumano.
Another brilliant video 📹 & thank you for sharing.
Also, a big 'Hello' 👋 from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. 🏴
Nice video! I particulsrly appreciated all the photos you shared, many were new to me.
I’m kinda wonder why no pictures of her wreck were ever being taken (yes, she’s still there, not being salvaged or robbed like Java wrecks, I guess sinking in rather busy shipping lanes does help), she’s pretty shallow wrecks. Even a team from USS Chanticleer that found her hadn’t published any.
Excellent presentation. Fantastic story of this ship.
I've always wondered why Kumano and most of the other ships of the centerforce ship failed to score a single hit on Johnston until her end, even at point blank range, in starch contrast to Yamato scoring three first salvo hits with her 18.1-inch guns, followed by three first salvo hits with her 6.1-inch guns at 20,300 yards. Sometimes it feels like Yamato vampirically sucked out the good aim from most of the other Japanese warships. Seems like IJN Haguro was the only other ship in the centerforce that could aim to a degree better than "semi decent", hitting the escort carrier Kalinin Bay ten times at 18,000 yards, before helping to sink Hoel.
Pretty sure it had something to do with Yamato having radar
The Japanese also thought they were fighting cruisers and fleet carriers, so were using AP ammo instead of HE ammo. Hits that were made just passed through the ships without exploding, or exploded after they had exited the other side.
Mind, battleships tended to be more accurate by default, because, generally speaking, the bigger your optical rangefinder, the better it works, and battleships had much bigger rangefinders on average.
The other factor is that some people are just better at using optical rangefinders, their eyes naturally able to make the distinctions that make the difference, and so a lot of the time a ship had better "aim," it was because the rangefinder (the man, not the machine) just happened to have exceptionally good eyes.
Yamato, unsurprisingly, was assigned the best sailors as a matter of course, so it shouldn't be surprising that she was quite accurate the few times she actually fired her guns at ships.
The USN destroyers were in a "do or die" situation, and fired over 1,000 5 inch shells and at least 60 torpedoes.
They were being punished with aircraft as well. They dropped over 150 torpedoes and over 500 large (500+ lb.) bombs.
As the destroyers rushed the heavier Japanese ships with smoke and torpedoes, they got close enough that the Japanese couldn't depress their guns low enough to achieve hits. It was, however, only a matter of time.
Watching in 1.25x makes it a lot easier to listen to
There was a certain degree of drudgery to the narration, wasn't there?
😮 A new video up! Automatic thumbs up.😊 thank you for posting. Your channel has great content!
Awesome video's mate, subscribed and liked.
25 mm morale boosters had me rolling on the floor😂
🥰🥰🥰🥰 Feel better!
I realise that it probably would have made no real difference in the end but I wonder if these ships would have been more effective fighting ships if they'd retained their six inch guns. I know the British thought the smaller calibre was preferable due to a higher rate of fire, hence the Town class ships.
very good video yeah i would feel sorry for her too. going through all that then have a big string of bad luck. in month. and the two other ships in class would be in battle of Samar as well. both being sunk Mogami would be damage and withdrawn but finish off by planes, plus she would collide with Suzuya, trying not to crash into damage Kumano, and Suzuya would be hit by near miss losing a screw and that sealed her fate being hit by bombs in bad area her torpedo's tubes setting off a chain of explosions.
Thanks for the video, as an American my sympathy to the Japanese sailors is all I can muster for the Kumano because they would have no pity for the US ships if the situation were reversed.
Have a Happy New Year 🎉! Try not to get hit with too many Kamikazes on New Year’s eve😂😂😂😂!
In my opinion the best looking of the heavy cruisers, in service they could take some damage.
Got to admire the commitment or Insanity of the crew of the ship maybe the only reason why they hung around is because it didn't sink for most of the war.
There's one class that I can think of that had just as bad luck, including the half sister- the collier class(I forgot the class name) that includes the Cyclops and the converted Jupiter, known at the end of her life as the Uss Langley
It feels like the IJN had the worst luck. Either they would launch a complicated operation only to have the decoy force get spotted last. Or they kept on getting their ships damaged in unique and interesting ways, or launching very successful torpedo attacks on "friendly" ships. The only ones that seemed to have some degree of luck were the Takao's, at least until they got wiped out in the course of a couple of days, and yukikaze and Shigure.
Nagato Ise and Hyuga were lucky. So were Junyo and Ryuho. Zuikaku also until Cape Engano. Takao, Myoko, Aoba and Tone survived the war damaged in port. Also Sakawa and Oyodo. Shigure was sunk eventually.
@@VersusARCH Ushio and Hibiki were considerably lucky as well, and Suzutsuki wasnt so much lucky as just tough. as far as i remember, she was on her 3rd bow and 2nd stern by wars end. i can agree Junyo is one of the IJNs forgotten lucky ships, Sakawa wasnt really in service long enough to qualify i think, though Nagato more then qualifies
Some ships were just cursed at birth. Regardless, just like her Mogami Class sisters, Kumano was a gorgeous lady.
Not gonna lie, her death ride is definitely my all-time favorite sea story.
Are you sure you're not lying?
In only a 108 feet of water I wonder if she is still there or has been salvaged?
Where is @Gaijin at i wonder if they watch this stuff #Gaijin needs to watch a lot of this for ships to add onto warthunder that would be cool
Well we can blame on Yukikaze due to she stole all of the luck from the IJN.
Ive never felt sorry in ww2 for the Japanese military navy airforce or army. All 3 branches commited war crimes.whether it was against pows or civilians of other countries .i did hear of two in the military who tried to do the right thing and act like human beings.