The was a class of amphibious assault ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), serving during and after World War II. The IJN also called them .

Background

The IJN lost too many destroyers while employed as transporters ("

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") in the

Guadalcanal Campaign The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in th ...

. Therefore, the IJN wanted a transporter which could penetrate the front line. It was realized rapidly after

Operation Ke was the largely successful withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal, concluding the Guadalcanal Campaign of . The operation took place between 14 January and 7 February 1943, and involved both Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Imperial ...

Design

In April 1943, the

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...

requested a high-speed military transporter to the Technical Department. The requirements were as follows: *Displacement: standard *Propulsion: 1 × geared turbine, 2 × boilers, single shaft *Speed: *Range: at *Capacity: 2 × Landing craft (''Daihatsu'') and 200 tons freight *Armament: 2 × or AA guns, 9 × 25 mm AA guns and 36 ×

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s The General Staff thought it was possible to use a variant of the for this plan, because they aimed to utilise mass production. In this original plan, the requirement for a slope was not considered. They thought about a Japanese version of the High speed transport (APD). The Technical Department, however, did not agree with this plan. They submitted a more aggressive plan to the General Staff. They increased the number of landing craft carried and with the effect of reducing the time for landing operations. In addition, about the mass production effect, they intended to deal with this by reducing the shipyards being used for production. At that time, the stern slope and operating ability of the amphibious tanks were added. In September 1943, the Kure Naval Arsenal finished the detailed design. Her project number was J37.

Construction

The IJN nominated Kure Naval Arsenal as the main builder and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as support builder. Lead ship (''Landing ship No.1'') was constructed at Mitsubishi, laid down on 5 November 1943, launched on 8 February 1944, and completed on 10 May 1944. The Kure Naval Arsenal completed 15 vessels, Mitsubishi completed 6 vessels. The Kure Naval Arsenal was earnest. They made the original sized wooden samples, and learned a work procedure. They used the 's dock and repeated build 2 vessels at the same time. Therefore, most of Kure's vessels were completed within 80 days from being laid down. The completed vessels were sent one by one to the front.

Service

Their primary role was that of a transporter, however since their armaments were strong they were useful as multi-purpose ships at the front, functioning as transporters, as minelayers and as escort ships. Most of these vessels were sent to the Battle of Leyte and transportation duty of the Bonin Islands. By that time, the IJN already lost air superiority and thalassocracy (naval superiority) in those areas and these vessels suffered heavy losses. 5 vessels survived war and were surrendered to the

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Ships in class

Photos

Image:Japanese landing ship LS-5.jpg, ''Landing Ship No. 5'' w/ '' Kō-hyōteki No. 69'' on 17 August 1944 Image:Japanese No1-class landing ship on fire.jpg, ''Landing Ship No. 1'' class in action Image:Japanese landing ship LS-11 partially sunk.jpg, ''Landing Ship No. 11'' at San Isidro

References

Bibliography

* , ''History of Pacific War Vol.37, "Support vessels of the Imperial Japanese Forces"'',

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(Japan), June 2002, * Rekishi Gunzō, ''History of Pacific War Vol.51, "The truth histories of the Imperial Japanese Vessels Part.2"'',

(Japan), August 2005, * The Maru Special, ''Japanese Naval Vessels No.50, "Japanese minesweepers and landing ships"'', Ushio Shobō (Japan), April 1981 * Ships of the World special issue Vol.47, ''Auxiliary Vessels of the Imperial Japanese Navy'', , (Japan), March 1997 * Senshi Sōsho Vol.88, ''Naval armaments and war preparation (2), "And after the outbreak of war"'', Asagumo Simbun (Japan), October 1975 * Shizuo Fukui, ''FUKUI SHIZUO COLLECTION "Japanese Naval Vessels 1869–1945"'', KK Bestsellers (Japan), December 1994 {{DEFAULTSORT:1-class landing ship Landing craft World War II naval ships of Japan