The was a class of amphibious assault ships of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

which served 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 ...

. The ''SS'' meaning are '' Sensha''-''Small''.

Background

October 1938, the IJA employed the ''Shinshū Maru'' during their successful amphibious operations at Bias Bay. However, a considerable amount of time was needed to complete the operation owing to the low speed of the landing craft, which resulted in considerable damage to the vessels involved. The IJA employed the principles of speed and minimum damage to their amphibious warfare operations. In 1939-1940, the IJA repeated an experiment with ''Gorō Maru'' (300 tons gross) and ''Yorihime Maru'' (526 tons gross) and after analysing the experiment data placed an order for the prototype ''Kōryū'' (later ''SS No.1''). * The IJN was interested in the second prototype ''Banryū'' (later ''SS No.2''). The IJN placed an order for 16 ships. However, thereafter they adopted the ''No.101''-class and the order was cancelled.

Ships in classes

''SS No.1''

''SS No.2''

''SS No.3'' class

* * ''SS No.4'', Sunk in action on 12 October 1944 * ''SS No.5'', Sunk in action on 30 November 1944 * ''SS No.6'', Sunk in action on 7 December 1944 * ''SS No.7'' * ''SS No.8'', Sunk in action on 19 November 1944 * ''SS No.9'', Sunk in action on 6 December 1944 * ''SS No.10'', went missing on the night of December 1-2, and lost with all hands after departing Palompon, Leyte. , , , and , all () did report sinking an enemy vessel in the area the convoy would have been in. * ''SS No.11'' * ''SS No.12'', Sunk in action on 21 January 1945 * ''SS No.13'' * ''SS No.14'', Sunk in action on 22 May 1945 * ''SS No.15'' * ''SS No.16'' * ''SS No.17'' * ''SS No.18'' * ''SS No.19'' * ''SS No.20'' * ''SS No.21'' * ''SS No.22'', Sunk in action on 10 August 1945

Footnotes

Bibliography

*Monthly Armor Modelling special issue, ''Navy Yard Vol.9 Tora! Tora! Tora! part-2'', Dainippon Kaiga (Japan), November 2008 *Rekishi Gunzō, History of Pacific War Vol.37, ''Support Vessels of the Imperial Japanese Forces'',

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), June 2002, *Ships of the World ''No.506'', , (Japan), February 1996 *''50 year History of Harima Zōsen'', Harima Zōsen Corporation, November 1960 {{DEFAULTSORT:SS Landing craft Amphibious warfare vessels of Japan World War II naval ships of Japan Ships of the Imperial Japanese Army