as a development of the previous Nayoro class light Cruisers, the kitakami class was a class of 10 light Cruisers built from 1911 to 1920, being a development of the previous class of light Cruiser the kitakami class in terms of displacement and overall dimensions wasn't that much of Leap, however the improvements were mainly implemented in the main battery specifically the number of main battery turrets carried, one of the flaws of the previous class of light Cruiser was it's small number of main guns, this was fixed in the kitakami class by increasing the number of main guns from 3 to 7 for a total broadside of 5 guns, several other small improvements over the previous class were also made particularly the crew accommodations and general functionality, this helped to make the kitakami class a truly successful and effective design
Ordered: 10 February 1906
Laid down: 12 April 1908
Launched: 10 May 1910
Commissioned: 7 July 1911
Decommissioned: 26 February 1922
Struck: 21 April 1923
Fate: converted to Minesweeper
Status: sunk 1934
General characteristics
Displacement: (4,664 tons) 5,182 tons full load)
Length: 136. m (453 ft)
Beam: 14.3 m (47 ft)
Draft: 4.5 m (15 ft)
Installed power: 4-shaft Direct turbines, 12 water tube boiler 23,427 shp
Speed: 25 knots (28 mph; 46 km/h)
Armament: as commissioned 1911-Kitakami
7 x single TYPE 5 14cm (5.5 inch guns)
4 x single TYPE 5 10cm (3.9 inch guns)
Armament: as sunk 1934-Muko
3 x twin TYPE 18 MOD-1 14cm (5.5 inch guns)
2 x single TYPE 21 MOD-3 12cm (5 inch DP guns)
2 x twin TYPE 25 3cm (1.1 In autocannons)
2 x single TYPE 28 2cm (0.7 In autocannons)
Armour:
Main Belt: 3 inches
Ends: 1 inches
Conning tower: 5 inches
Armored Deck: 3 inches max
Main Battery: 3 inches face
kitakami was commissioned on the 7th of July 1911, she did remarkably well on her sea trials managing to achieve a top speed of 26.5 knots a full 1.5 knots faster than her original design speed, a another notable thing about her trials was the accuracy of her guns, even though her crew was still cadets fresh out of the naval academy. Her guns were found to be extremely accurate and precise, upon her commissioning she was placed into the first Cruiser Squadron alongside the Nayoro and toyo. with the Outbreak of the First World War, the first Cruiser Squadron was requisitioned by Royal Navy to Bolster its cruiser force in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. during the early stages of World War 1 the first Cruiser Squadron was detached to help support for the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force in capturing and destroying German wireless stations in German New Guinea and the southwest Pacific. kitakami would also take part in the final stages of the the battle between the German light Cruiser SMS Emden and the Australian light Cruiser HMAS Sydney, a as well as a fellow Squadron member KNT Nayoro. after this however the first Cruiser Squadron would spend the remainder of the war patrolling Indian and southwest Pacific Ocean
at the start of 1920s the for original kitakami class cruises beginning to look their age, with all four of them seeing extensive use in the First World War, they were all extremely out and in 1921, the naval committee decided that it was more cost effective to simply decommissioned ships then for them to go through a prolonged and expensive refit. In addition with the four Hozu subclass been completed, all four of the original kitakami class cruisers would be decommissioned by 1922.
in 1923 the Yahagi underwent a experimental refit, this refit entail the removal of all of her pedestal mounted deck guns, as well as the complete rebuilding of her superstructure. her deck guns were replaced with two experimental twin 14cm gun turrets. a very visible and drastic change was also made her forward most funnel it was was replaced with a large trunk funnel, this funnel bending back and being attached to the second most funnel, she emerged from the refit looking like a completely different ship from how she had gone in. However several issues would be noted upon her rejoining of the fleet, the biggest one of which being the two twin gun turrets, it was found that whenever the guns were fired on anything other than a broadside, they had a bad tendency to damage the superstructure with their muzzle blast, as well as shattering Windows on the bridge on several occasions. starting in 1925 the rest of the class would also go in the yards to refit, however it was decided that the twin gun turret would not be fitted to the other members of the class due to the problem it had caused the Yahagi, so instead the rest of the class would simply keep their twin pedestal mounted 14 cm gun. however the other additions such as a block superstructure and trunk Funnel did make it into their refits, with all of the ships being refitted between 1924 and 1928.
At The Turn of the 1930s all four of the Hozu subclass would definitely beginning to look their age, much like their long departed sisters did in the 1920s,even with the extensive refit that all four ships had undertaken, the navy began to decommission them with the first of the class Hozu been decommissioned in 1932 followed by Yahagi in 1933. However by 1934 two of the class were still in commission these being the Muko and Kumano,both of which had been reassigned in 1933 to 2nd Cruiser Squadron Station at Tajima naval base. Much like many other older ships stationed at Tajima. they would both go on to be sunk during the Japanese surprise attack upon the naval base. Muko would be sunk by two torpedoes delivered from to Japanese torpedo bombers, she would quickly take a huge amount of water and wood capsizes in the shallow water of the Harbour. Kumano would manage to get underway but would be hit by 2 High explosive bombs from Japanese dive bombers, one of these causing a massive explosion, this explosion being from her rear most magazine, she would quickly lose control and founder in the shallow Waters of the harbour much like her fallen sister, under the Japanese occupation both wrecks would be raised in 1938 and subsequently scrapped.
Ships in class: (laid down-launched-commissioned - fate)
Original batch (built 1908-1914)
Kitakami (CL11) 1908-1910-1911 - Decommissioned 1922
Kochiya (CL12) 1909-1911-1912 - Decommissioned 1922
Kushida (CL13) 1910-1912-1913 - Decommissioned 1922
Abe (CL14) 1911-1913-1914 - Decommissioned 1922
Hozu batch (built 1915-1918)
Hozu (CL15) 1914-1916-1917 - Decommissioned 1932
Yahagi (CL16) 1915-1917-1918 - Decommissioned 1933
Kumano (CL17) 1915-1917-1918 - sunk 1934
Muko (CL18) 1915-1917-1918 - sunk 1934
unnamed - /-/-/ - Reordered to a different design in 1918
unnamed - /-/-/ - Reordered to a different design in 1918
unnamed - /-/-/ - Reordered to a different design in 1919
unnamed - /-/-/ - Reordered to a different design in 1919