The ''Yamashio Maru'' class ( ja, 山汐丸) consisted of a pair of auxiliary

escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft ...

s operated by 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 ...

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 ...

. They were converted from

tankers Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanke ...

. Only the

name ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

was completed during the war and she was sunk by American aircraft before she could be used.

Construction

In 1944, the Japanese Army, which had already converted two passenger liners into combined assault ship and aircraft carriers, decided to acquire its own escort carriers to provide aerial anti-submarine cover for troop convoys. It therefore chartered two partly built Type 2TL Tankers, ''Yamashio Maru'' and ''Chigusa Maru'', for conversion to auxiliary escort carriers.Gardiner and Chesneau, p. 213 The conversion was extremely simple, with a -long flush flight deck added. There was no hangar, the ship's eight Ki-76s being stored on deck. Defensive armament consisted of sixteen 25 mm

anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

s, with a

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...

projector forward.Chesneau, p. 186

Operational history

''Yamashio Maru'' commissioned on 27 January 1945 and was sunk at

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

harbor by US aircraft on 17 February. Plans were drawn up for conversion to a coal-burning freighter, but she was never used as a carrier. Her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s, ''Chigusa Maru'' and ''Zuiun Maru'', were incomplete when Japan surrendered and served after the war as tankers: ''Chigusa Maru'' was sunk in 1945. The ship was repaired as tanker in 1945 and scrapped in Sasebo in June 1963. ''Zuiun Maru'' was scrapped in Oskata on 15 June 1964.

Photo

File:ChigusaMaru.jpg, ''Chigusa Maru'' postwar (2nd sister) File:ZuiunMaru.jpg, ''Zuiun Maru'' postwar (3rd sister)

Notes

Bibliography

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External links