W-233 IJN LIGHT CRUISER 'YUBARI 1944'

The Yubari was a Japanese small light cruiser the keel of which was laid in 1922, launched in March 1923, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in July 1923. At the time of launching, the ship was 139 m long, 12.04 m wide, and her full displacement was 4,450 tons. The maximum speed of the Yubari cruiser was 34.7 knots. The main armament at the time of the launch was 6 140 mm guns in twin turrets, and the secondary armament included: 4 25 mm cannons and 4 610 mm torpedo tubes. The Yubari was the only ship in her class and was built as an experimental unit, acting as an interface between large destroyers and light cruisers. First of all, efforts were made to check the optimal artillery and torpedo armament for a light cruiser. New methods of hull construction, internal layout of the ship and construction of superstructures were also applied. Many of the solutions that were tested on the Yubrai cruiser were later used on other Japanese ships - especially the Furutaka type. The combat career of cruiser Yubari began during the Sino-Japanese fights in the 1930s, especially in the period 1937-1940. The Yubari combat trail in World War II began in December 1941 with support for the Japanese attack on Wake Island. In January and February 1942, he supported the Japanese landings at Rabaul and in the New Guinea region. From August to October 1942, he was involved in the fighting in the area of the Gudalcanal Island. In the period from December 1943 to March 1944, the Yubari underwent modernization, which mainly consisted in strengthening its anti-aircraft weapons and installing a radar. The cruiser Yubari was sunk on April 28, 1944, torpedoed by an American submarine.