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Ishikari-class Anti-Aircraft Cruiser (1944)

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The Ishikari-class was the pinnacle of IJN anti-aircraft cruiser design. A massive twenty-four 3.9-inch guns were mounted, for twelve twin mounts total. There were five ships in all, with lead ship Ishikari laid down in mid-October 1942. She was launched in late December 1943, and was commissioned in late November 1944, thereby missing the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which would've been a prime chance to prove herself against enemy aircraft. She and sister ship Abashiri steamed with Yamato on the Okinawa relief mission, but as VADM Ito's fleet was coming out of the Inland Sea on the evening of 6 April 1945, it was sighted by submarines Threadfin and Hackleback. Hackleback was unable to close to target range, but Threadfin snap-shot a spread of six torpedoes at the large group of Japanese warships. Two hit Abashiri, touching off her starboard magazines and blowing her apart. As dusk became mid-morning, chaos descended on the Japanese fleet, and Abashiri quickly sank with most of her crew, Threadfin successfully escaped.

The following day, Ishikari gave a good account of herself; most USN aircraft veered away from attacking her due to the amount of antiaircraft fire being put up by her. However at least three TBM "Avengers" got close enough to drop their torpedoes, and eventually progressive flooding caused the cruiser to capsize. The design of the class remained virtually unchanged for most of the war; as heavily-armed as these ships were, there was no real need to attempt to cram more anti-aircraft guns aboard. Shizunai, Kushida, and Kumozu all participated in the Battle off Northern Honshu in May 1946; Kushida and Kumozu survived, albeit damaged, but Shizunai was torn apart by four torpedoes dropped by "Avenger" torpedo planes.
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