Hiburi-class escort ship

The was a sub-class of the s of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), serving during and after World War II.
Background.
In the Rapid Naval Armaments Supplement Programme of 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered the construction of thirty escort vessels ("kaibōkan") - designated as #310 to #339 of that Programme, to provide escort ships for the Navy. Fourteen of these were planned as (Escort ship Type-A) of 860 tons standard displacement and sixteen as (Escort ship Type-B) of 940 tons, although in the Budget (for which 153,360,000 yen was provided for the ships, or 5,112,000 per ship) they were all stated to be of 1,200 tons. However, three of the "Mikura" class (ships #328, #333 and #339) were subsequently designated as to be built to the "Hiburi" design.
In the next year's Modified 5th Naval Armaments Supplement Programme, the IJN ordered the construction of another thirty-four ships to a modified version () of the Type-B design; these were designated as #5251 to #5284 of that Programme. However, eight of these ship (ships #5252, #5254, #5257, ##5259 and #5263 to #5266) were subsequently designated to be built to the "Hiburi" design. Only six of the eight were so completed, with #5265 and #5266 being incomplete at the end of the Pacific War and broken up.
The eleven ships were all ordered from the Hitachi Zōsen shipbuilding concern at Sakurajima, which had also received other orders for ships completed to the "Etorofu", "Mikura" and "Ukuru" designs. The "Hiburi" design used the same hull as the "Ukuru" class, but with different fittings. In 1943, the Japanese Navy General Staff (Gunreibu) promoted the building of Escort ship Type-A, the and Escort ship Type-B, the and . However, the Navy General Staff also noted that too many man-hours of work were needed for their building.
Ships in class.
Of the nine ships completed, three were sunk by US submarines and two by naval mines. 