The , also called was a pair of large, aircraft-carrying
cruiser submarine
A cruiser submarine was a very large submarine designed to remain at sea for extended periods in areas distant from base facilities. Their role was analogous to surface cruisers; 'cruising' distant waters, commerce raiding, and otherwise operatin ...
s built for 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) during World War II.
Design and description
The Type A Mod.2 submarines were versions of the preceding
A2 class with the command facilities replaced by an enlarged aircraft
hangar
A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
, which was fitted for a pair of
Aichi M6A1 floatplane
A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...
bombers.
[Layman & McLaughlin, p. 176] They
displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a
beam of and a
draft
Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
of . They had a diving depth of .
[Bagnasco, p. 189]
The machinery was reduced in power from the A2-class boats. For surface running, the boats were powered by two
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...
s, each driving one
propeller shaft
A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power, torque, and rotation, usually used to connect o ...
. When submerged each propeller was driven by a
electric motor
An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...
. They could reach on the surface and underwater.
[Chesneau, p. 200] On the surface, the ''AM''s had a range of at ; submerged, they had a range of at .
[
The boats were armed with six internal bow ]torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s and carried a total of a dozen torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...
es. They were also armed with a single /40 deck gun
A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret.
The main deck gun was a dual-purpose w ...
and two triple and one single mount for Type 96 anti-aircraft gun
Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...
s.[Carpenter & Dorr, p. 110]
In comparison to the A2 class, the aircraft hangar
A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
was enlarged to accommodate two aircraft. It was offset to the right of, and was faired into the base of, the conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armoured, from which an officer in charge can conn (nautical), conn (conduct or control) the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for t ...
which protruded over the left side of the hull. A single catapult
A catapult is a ballistics, ballistic device used to launch a projectile at a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden rel ...
was positioned on the forward deck. Two folding cranes on the forward deck were used to recover the floatplanes.[
]
Name Translation
Sources also refer to this class of ships as the "Type AM" (standing for the "Type A Modified"), or "Type AM2" (for "Type A Modified 2"), contrasting with two other sub-classes of the type, the ''I-9''-class (Type A/''A1'') and ''I-12''-class (Type AM1/''A2''). As the I-12 submarine was only a minor evolution of the ''I-9''-class as well as being the sole ship of its class, it may also be considered as part of the ''I-9''-class, making the ''I-13''-class the only sub-class of the type, hence the ''I-9''-class "Type A" and the ''I-13''-class of the "Type AM".
"Type AM" might also be a miss-translation of (equivalent to 2nd remodel/modification) being interpreted as "Mark 2" in the sense of the 1st remodel/modification.
As the original Japanese name () is better translated as either "Type A Mod.2 Submarine Cruiser" or "Junsen Type A Kai 2 Submarine ", the "Type A Mod.2" designation is used here.
Boats
Seven units were ordered, but only two were completed, while construction of two more was abandoned in March 1945. Construction of the remaining three submarines never started.[
* was sunk on 16 July 1945 by the destroyer escort USS ''Lawrence C. Taylor'' and aircraft action from escort carrier USS ''Anzio'' about east of ]Yokosuka
is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
, the city has a population of 373,797, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th-most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region. The city i ...
.
* surrendered at sea at the end of the war, and was scuttled off Oahu in 1946. In 2009, researchers at the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory
The Hawaiʻi Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) is a regional undersea research program within the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, in Honolulu. It is considered one of the more impor ...
found ''I-14'' at a depth of about .
See also
* I-400 class submarine
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) submarines were the largest submarines of World War II, with the final completed submarine being finished roughly a month before the end of the war. The ''I-400s'' remained the largest submarines ever built until ...
- 3-aircraft submarine with catapult launcher
* Submarine aircraft carrier
A submarine aircraft carrier is a submarine equipped with aircraft for observation or attack missions. These submarines saw their most extensive use during World War II, although their operational significance remained rather small. The most fam ...
Notes
References
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{{Type A submarine
Submarine aircraft carriers
Submarine classes