User:Strunke

Japanese battleship Yamashiro

The Fusō-class battleships were a pair of dreadnoughts built for the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during World War I: Fusō was launched in 1914, and Yamashiro (pictured) in 1915. During the 1930s, both ships underwent a series of modernizations and reconstructions. This increased their armor, replaced and upgraded their machinery, and rebuilt their superstructures into a distinctive pagoda-mast style. Despite the expensive reconstructions, both vessels were considered obsolescent by the eve of World War II, and neither saw significant action in the early years of the war. In 1944 both underwent upgrades to their anti-aircraft suite before transferring to Singapore. Fusō and Yamashiro were the only two Japanese battleships at the Battle of Surigao Strait, the southernmost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and both were lost in the early hours of 25 October 1944 to torpedoes and naval gunfire. Only ten crewmembers from each ship survived. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battleships of Japan.)