Ise-class Battleship

Country

Japan

This article refers to the entire Ise-class; it is not about an individual vessel.

The Ise-class battleships were built in the 1910s, and in the 1930s received modernizations that included improved machinery, armor, and fire control. Although the reconstructions in the 1930s were extensive, the most significant conversion that the Ise-class ships saw during their careers was the conversion in 1943 that made them hybrid battleship-carriers. Their two aft turrets (No. 5 and No. 6) were removed to make space for 70-meter flight decks and 40-meter hangars. The flight decks had a 200-milimeter layer of concrete in order to maintain the weight distribution that would otherwise be in imbalance due to the removal of the turrets. In their resulting hybrid forms, they were able to carry 22 aircraft each (9 on flight deck, 11 in hangar, and 2 on catapults). Theoretically the conversion of battleships Ise and Hyuga bolstered the strength of the Japanese Navy in the air, but Japan's lack of sufficiently trained pilots meant that these hybrid ships were never fully used in their new roles.

Source: Imperial Japanese Navy Battleships 1941-45.

Photographs