The was a class of amphibious assault ships 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, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

(IJN), serving during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The IJN also called them .

Background

The IJN lost too many destroyers while employed as transporters (" Tokyo Express") in the

Guadalcanal Campaign The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by the United States, was an Allies of World War II, Allied offensive against forces of the Empire of Japan in the Solomon Islands during th ...

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

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 rank, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commanding officer, commander of a ...

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 × depth charges 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 is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the prede ...

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 The Bonin Islands, also known as the , is a list of islands of Japan, Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and Island#Tropical islands, tropical islands located around SSE of Tokyo and northwest of Guam. The group as a whole has a total ...

. By that time, the IJN already lost air superiority and

thalassocracy A thalassocracy or thalattocracy, sometimes also maritime empire, is a state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea, or a seaborne empire. Traditional thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories. Examples o ...

(naval superiority) in those areas and these vessels suffered heavy losses. 5 vessels survived war and were surrendered to the Allies.

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