Did the ship Ise sink?
976833#12
On 12 April 1922, while at Yokohama, "Ise" hosted a delegation which included the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII), who was accompanied by his second cousin, the future Lord Mountbatten of Burma. Captain Kanna Norikazu relieved Nagasawa on 1 December. The ship aided survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in September 1923. From the early 1920s through the late 1930s, "Ise" mostly cruised off the coast of China. Little detailed information is available about her activities during the 1920s, although she helped sink the obsolete destroyer during gunnery training on 10 August 1926. The ship was overhauled in 1928–1929, during which her forward superstructure was enlarged and her aviation facilities improved.
Japanese battleship Ise
976833#0
Despite the expensive reconstruction, the ship was considered obsolete by the eve of the Pacific War, and did not see significant action in the early years of the war. Following the loss of most of the IJN's large aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in mid-1942, she was rebuilt with a flight deck replacing the rear pair of gun turrets to give her the ability to operate an air group of floatplanes; lack of aircraft and qualified pilots meant that "Ise" never actually operated her aircraft in combat. She participated in the Battle of Cape Engaño in late 1944, where she decoyed the American carrier fleet supporting the invasion of Leyte away from the landing beaches. Afterwards the ship was transferred to Southeast Asia; in early 1945 "Ise" participated in Operation Kita, where she transported petrol and other strategic materials to Japan. The ship was then reduced to reserve until she was sunk during American airstrikes in July. After the war "Ise" was scrapped in 1946–1947.
Japanese battleship Ise
1844560#32
Although they had lost contact during the night, the Americans did find the Japanese carriers at 07:35. They had already launched an airstrike of 180 aircraft that was orbiting ahead of the American carriers while waiting for the Japanese ships to be located. This was just the first of a total of five airstrikes that the Americans launched that day. The sisters were not heavily engaged by the early airstrikes, which instead focused on Ozawa's fleet and light carriers, sinking carriers "Zuikaku", "Chitose" and "Zuihō", and the destroyer , while the carrier "Chiyoda" and the cruiser were crippled. "Ise" claimed to have shot down five attacking dive bombers from the second wave and one small bomb detonated on Turret No. 2. "Hyūga" was lightly damaged by near misses that ruptured some hull plating in her bulge and peppered her superstructure with splinters. She took on a 5-degree list that was quickly corrected before she was ordered to tow "Chiyoda" to safety. Her attempt was unsuccessful and "Chiyoda" had to be abandoned, eventually sunk by additional USN cruiser shellfire and destroyer-launched torpedoes.
Ise-class battleship
1844560#19
The sinking of the British capital ships "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" by Japanese land-based aircraft on 10 December 1941 led the IJN to realize that battleships could not operate in the face of enemy aircraft and required friendly air support to protect them. The loss of four Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in June 1942 severely limited the ability of the IJN to provide any air cover and alternatives were sought. Earlier proposals to convert one or more battleships into carriers had been made and rejected at the beginning of the war, but they were revived after Midway. Plans for more elaborate conversions were rejected on the grounds of expense and, most critically, time, and the IJN settled on removing the rear pair of turrets and replacing them with a flight deck equipped with two catapults to launch floatplanes. The "Ise"-class ships were selected for the conversion because "Hyūga" had suffered an explosion in Turret No. 5 in early May that virtually destroyed the turret and their Turret No. 6 could not elevate to the full +43 degrees deemed necessary for the long-range engagement anticipated by the IJN. The "Fusō"s were scheduled to follow once the first two were completed.
Ise-class battleship
976833#22
The ships of the Fourth Carrier Division were assigned to the Main Body of the 1st Mobile Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa. The Main Body's role was to act as decoys to attract attention away from the two other forces approaching from the south and west. All forces were to converge on Leyte Gulf on 25 October and the Main Body left Japan on 20 October. By the morning of 24 October, the Main Body was within range of the northernmost American carriers of Task Force 38 and Ozawa ordered an air strike launched by the Third Carrier Division ("Ise" and "Hyūga" had no aircraft aboard) to attract the attention of the Americans. This accomplished little else as the Japanese aircraft failed to penetrate past the defending fighters; the survivors landed at airfields on the Philippine island of Luzon. The Americans were preoccupied dealing with the other Japanese naval forces and defending themselves from air attacks launched from Luzon and Leyte and could not spare any aircraft to search for the Japanese carriers until the afternoon. They finally found them, but Admiral William Halsey, Jr., commander of Task Force 38, decided that it was too late in the day to mount an effective strike. He did, however, turn all of his ships north to position himself for a dawn attack on the Japanese carriers the next day.
On the morning of 25 October, "Ise" was positioned astern of the carriers and to protect them with her anti-aircraft guns. Her radar picked up American aircraft at a range of at 07:39, but the first attack did not begin until 08:20. The battleship engaged them with San Shiki anti-aircraft shells from her main guns with unknown effect. She was not heavily attacked at that time and was near missed by two bombs. The second wave of aircraft attacked at 10:05 and the ship's gunners claimed to have shot down five out of ten attacking dive bombers. "Ise" was near missed eight times, although one small bomb struck No. 2 turret. The third wave was detected by her radar at 12:28, but it did not attack the battleship, sinking the damaged "Zuikaku" and "Zuihō" instead. "Ise" rescued 98 survivors from "Zuihō" before the next attack began around 17:26. She was the primary focus of this wave and was attacked by about 85 dive bombers and at least 11 torpedo bombers. Saved by heavy anti-aircraft fire and expert manoeuvering, the battleship dodged all of the torpedoes, and was only struck once, near the port catapult. Roughly 34 near misses damaged her hull plating near the waterline and started a small leak that contaminated a small oil tank and caused minor damage to the port boiler rooms. Splinters from the near misses and the single hit killed 5 crewmen and wounded 71.
Japanese battleship Ise
976833#27
The 4th Carrier Division was disbanded on 1 March and "Ise" was reduced to first-class reserve. From this time until the surrender of Japan, "Ise" remained docked at Kure, without fuel or aircraft, and repainted in an olive green camouflage with vari-coloured splotches. The camouflage was not effective against American carrier-based aircraft from Task Force 58 (TF 58) on 19 March, when more than 240 aircraft attacked Kure and "Ise" was hit by two bombs. Re-designated as a fourth-class reserve ship on 20 April, "Ise" was towed to the island of Ondo Seto (between Kure and Kurahashijima) to serve as a floating anti-aircraft battery. She was attacked again on 24 July by 60 carrier-based aircraft, whose bombs hit the starboard bow, flight deck, main deck, No. 3 turret and bridge, killing Mutaguchi, other bridge personnel, and around 50 crewmen; many other crewmen were wounded. The ship settled by the bow and it took three days to pump her dry and the IJN planned to drydock "Ise" for repairs. On 28 July she was struck by five bombs dropped by F4U Corsair fighters from , and eleven more bombs dropped by other aircraft from TF 58. Later that day an attack by 18 USAAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers was unsuccessful. "Ise" took on a 15° list to starboard and sank in shallow water. Salvage efforts were abandoned that same day, although some AA guns were stripped from her wreck. The ship was struck from the Navy list on 20 November. The underwater portion of "Ise"s wreck was ignored until the following year and she was scrapped in place by the Kure Dockyard of the Harima Zōsen Corporation from 9 October 1946 to 4 July 1947.
Japanese battleship Ise
1844560#26
Upon commissioning, the sister ships were assigned to the 1st Battleship Division of the 1st Fleet. "Hyūga" had an explosion in one of her main gun turrets that killed 11 men and injured 25 in 1919; the following year she accidentally collided with and sank a schooner, losing two crewmen. Before the start of the Pacific War, both ships frequently exercised off the coasts of the Soviet Union, Korea and China in addition to training in Japanese waters. "Ise" hosted Edward, Prince of Wales, and his aide-de-camp Lieutenant Louis Mountbatten in 1922 during the prince's visit to Japan. In Korea Bay when the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake struck, they sailed to Kyushu where they loaded supplies from for the victims on 4 September. Together with two other battleships and a pair of light cruisers, "Ise" sank the destroyer in 1926 during gunnery practice. "Ise"s AA armament was upgraded in 1931 and "Hyūga"s two years later. The latter ship was modernized in 1934–36 and "Ise" in 1935–37, both at Kure Naval Arsenal. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the sisters frequently patrolled the Chinese coast in support of the blockade imposed by Japan. In August 1937 "Hyūga" ferried two battalions of Special Naval Landing Forces to Port Arthur. Three years later, she served as the flagship for the Emperor of the puppet state of Manchukuo, Henry Pu-yi, during his state visit to Japan in June 1940. On 15 November the ships were transferred to the 2nd Battleship Division of the 1st Fleet. The sisters were refitted in late 1940 in preparation for war, which included the fitting of external degaussing coils and additional AA directors.
Ise-class battleship
976833#13
Between 20 November 1931 and 10 February 1932, "Ise" had her anti-aircraft armament entirely replaced, her forward superstructure was further enlarged so that it became a pagoda mast, and her stern was modified in preparation for a catapult and crane at Kure Naval Arsenal. These were installed between 14 May and 6 June 1933. On 15 November, she became a training ship. "Ise"s crew participated in the state funeral of Marshal-Admiral The Marquis Tōgō Heihachirō, victor of the 1905 Battle of Tsushima, on 15 June 1934.
Beginning on 1 August 1935, "Ise" was drydocked at Kure Naval Arsenal and underwent an extensive reconstruction and modernisation that lasted until 23 March 1937. On 9 April 1938, the ship began the first of her patrols off the southern Chinese coast during the Second Sino-Japanese War that lasted until early 1941. She was transferred to the 2nd Division of the 1st Fleet on 15 November 1940 and became its flagship on 15 November 1941. Captain Takeda Isamu assumed command of "Ise" on 25 September 1941.
Japanese battleship Ise
32412498#30
According to what Shahab told the prosecutors, when the "Iohan" hit the "F174", the small ship circled for more than an hour before sinking. That kept it from reaching shallower waters, if not the coastline. Passengers alerted the captain, Eftychios Zervoudakis, that the ship was taking water, but all he did was call the "Iohan" via cellphone and, after five minutes, jump into the cold water to be picked up by the larger ship. Shahab stated that the "Iohan"s captain, Youssef El Hallal, prohibited his passengers from throwing ropes to the drowning people. A young Indian was thrown back into the sea at his order.
Sinking of F174
976833#14
To provide distant support for the 1st Air Fleet attacking Pearl Harbor on 8 December, the division, reinforced by the battleships and and the light carrier , sortied from Hashirajima to the Bonin Islands and returned six days later. "Ise" had a minor refit at the Kure Naval Arsenal in 19–25 February 1942. Together with the rest of the division, she pursued, but did not catch, the American carrier force that had launched the Doolittle Raid on 18 April. On 11 May "Ise" had an accident which flooded her No. 2 engine room. While under repair, the ship was fitted with one of the first experimental Type 21 early-warning radar sets in the IJN, but it was removed shortly afterwards.
Japanese battleship Ise