The was a class of minesweepers of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

(IJN), serving during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. 22 vessels were planned and built in 1941–43 under the Maru Rin Programme (Ship # 251–256) and the Maru Kyū Programme (Ship # 480–495).

Background

* In 1938, the IJN was troubled by drifting contact mines from the

National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

. The IJN dispatched a lot of minesweepers and paravane equipment vessels (minelayers, torpedo boats and more) to Yangtze River, but they were damaged by a drifting contact mines too. * The IJN wanted a small and light-footed minesweepers. The IJN already commandeered a lot of fishing boats and gave minesweeping operations to them. The Kampon designed minesweeper similar to the trawlers. It is ''No.1''-class auxiliary minesweeper (Project Number I5). * They have begun to be commissioned from 1942. However, all of them was dispatched to Pacific front, and they were no match for the magnetic mine because their hull was made by steel.

Ships in class

Photos

Image:IJN No11 Auxiliary Minesweeper 1943.jpg, ''Auxiliary Minesweeper No.11'' on 24 February 1943 at Osaka Bay. Image:ROCS Saolei-202.jpg, ROCS ''Sao Lei 202'' in 1947.

Notes

Bibliography

*, History of Pacific War Vol.51 ''The truth histories of the Japanese Naval Vessels Part-2'',

Gakken is a Japanese publishing company founded in 1947 by Hideto Furuoka, which also produces educational toys. Their annual sales is reported at ¥ 90 billion ($789 million US). Gakken publishes educational books and magazines and produces other ...

(Japan), August 2005, . *Ships of the World special issue Vol.45, ''Escort Vessels of the Imperial Japanese Navy'', , (Japan), 1996. *The Maru Special, Japanese Naval Vessels No.50, ''Japanese minesweepers and landing ships'', (Japan), 1981. {{DEFAULTSORT:1 World War II mine warfare vessels of Japan Minesweepers of Japan Mine warfare vessel classes