World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

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

ww2dbaseThe Izumo-class armored cruisers were British-built ships similar to the Asama-class predecessors, which were also built by the same firm Armstrong Whitworth. They were ordered after the First Sino-Japanese War, and were built in time for the Russo-Japanese War, with the lead ship Izumo participating in the decisive Battle of Tsushima on 26 May 1905. By the 1930s, they were rather outdated, but Izumo still acted as the flagship of the China Area Fleet based out of Shanghai, China. When the Pacific War began, they were equipped with some anti-aircraft weapons nevertheless to serve as training ships. Both were destroyed by American carrier aircraft by the end of the war.

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