Battleships of Japan. Battleships and battleships

I bring to your attention a magnificent book dedicated to the Japanese battleships of the Russo-Japanese War. Navarnoe, this is the most detailed monograph on this topic.

Annotation :

The Japanese naval miracle of the early 20th century, which turned the Land of the Rising Sun into a superpower, became possible only thanks to the amazing rationalism of the Teikoku Kaigun (Imperial Navy). In contrast to the confusion and vacillation that prevailed in the naval headquarters and admiralties of many countries (and especially in Russia), the Japanese made practically no mistakes, adopting from the British allies all the most advanced - equipment, tactics, combat training, basing and supply systems - and in the shortest possible time creating "from scratch" a modern fleet that dominates the Far Eastern waters. And its core and main striking force were six excellent British-built battleships, which played a decisive role in the war against Russia. True, Hatsuse and Yashima did not live to see the general battle, having been blown up by mines near Port Arthur in May 1904, but Fuji, Shikishima, Asahi and the flagship of Admiral Togo Mikasa became the main victors of Tsushima . It was they who went at the head of the 1st combat detachment, shooting the Russian battleships one by one. It was their 12-inch, 400-kilogram "suitcases" that inflicted extensive damage on our ships, turning their superstructures and unarmored ends into piles of scrap metal, causing numerous fires, floods and capsizing. However, the phenomenal blasting action of shimoza had to be paid for by an increased risk of self-detonation - just a week after the signing of the peace treaty, Mikasa sank from the detonation of ammunition and returned to service only three years later. And in 1926, the famous battleship was turned into a museum - introduced into a specially dug pit in Yokosuka and covered with earth along the waterline, it remains in this form to this day ...
In the new book by the leading naval historian, you will find comprehensive information about the creation, combat use and post-war fate of all Japanese battleships without exception. Collector's edition on top quality coated paper illustrated with hundreds of exclusive drawings and photographs.

3. Europe is building a Japanese fleet

In the dispute with Russia for supremacy in the Far East, Japan used English traditions, culture, science and technology with exceptional vigor. English were the rules of service in the navy, uniforms, the art of shooting, weapons and ships. And it was not a simple borrowing of customs. With art that distinguishes the Land of the Rising Sun from all countries of the world, the Japanese even then showed an amazing ability to find the most appropriate application for all the achievements of world civilization that fell into their hands. It was that Japanese phenomenon that remains incomprehensible today, which first manifested itself in the war with Russia and continues to amaze the world today.

In the meantime, the Japanese began with a careful study and development of the English experience. The combat effectiveness of the ship and squadron was the main criterion. Accordingly, training was introduced in the speed of loading guns, 19-knot speed was achieved from armadillos, in successive cycles of loading towers, those mechanized stages that could be faster carried out manually were eliminated. Thanks to this, the "obsolete", but much simpler, and therefore reliable installations with hydraulic drives surpassed the latest Russians with electric drives in the rate of fire. Where manual drive or ammunition feeding provided time savings, they were irrevocably preferred.

Without falling into Hamlet's doubts, the Naval Technical Committee (MTC) made it a rule to supply each ship with exactly 25, not 20 boilers. The Vickers system shutters for the British Armstrong guns turned out to be just as highly productive on Japanese ships. In contrast to the Kane shutters for 152-mm French guns and the Russian Rosenberg shutters for 305-mm guns, the English shutters provided almost 2 times higher rate of fire.

The Japanese treated with the same care the novelties that had just appeared (after the American-Spanish war, 1898) in equipping the fleets: optical sights and basic rangefinders. Unlike the Russian fleet, which by 1900 was able to purchase six rangefinders through a stump-deck (thanks to the "savings of Admiral V.P. Verkhovsky"), and did not even think about optical sights, Japan immediately began mass orders, which had the goal of immediately to equip all new ships with priceless instruments. The Japanese were not embarrassed by the use in English projects of ships, as it were, listed as barbette, but in reality full-fledged turret installations of 305-mm guns. In general, with sufficiently high tactical and technical characteristics of the ships and always providing for reinforced artillery weapons, the Japanese did not pursue dubious novelty, preferring solutions proven by experience.

Just as responsibly, comprehensively weighing and carefully checking all technical solutions, the Japanese evaluated and weighed the ships they ordered. All battleships were ordered with the terms of execution in the shortest 30-month period for those times. The ships were supposed to arrive in Japan by 1902. British loans and the huge indemnity collected from China (Russia paid the money) made it possible to carry out the first major program of 1895 (95 million yen) on time and in 1896 to undertake the construction of the second half of the fleet ( 145 million yen), which included six first-class armored cruisers, a series of light cruisers, and a large number of destroyers. (Another significant difference from the Russian program) the necessary expenses for comprehensive combat training and a fleet repair system were provided.

Always striving for accelerated readiness of ships, they did not insist on the Krupp armor that had already appeared instead of the garvey one, and were content with a slight improvement in the projects of the British fleet's battleships already built earlier. It can be said that English battleships built by English engineers at English shipyards were supposed to resist the Russian ships on the side of Japan. So, the first Japanese battleship of a new construction (launched in 1896), repeating the main design solutions of the English battleship Majestic (1895), with the same incomplete Harvey armor belt, had its thickness increased to 407 mm, elongated to 40 calibers four 305 mm guns, 10 152 mm guns, increased speed. Due to the reduced width of the hull (22.27 m instead of 22.86 m) and the use of forced air, the speed of the Japanese ship reached 18.5-19.2 knots, instead of 17-17.9 on the Majestic.

As usually happened with foreign orders, the Fuji type (Blekwell shipyard) and later laid down, but earlier (February 28, 1896) launched Shikishima (Armstrong shipyard in Elswick) were improved by the British, bringing the displacement to 15,000 tons and adopted for the construction in 1898-1899 of a series of three battleships of the Formidable type. This project, in turn, was finalized for the construction in the same 1898 and 1899 of two Japanese battleships Shikishima and Asahi. With the same 15,000-ton displacement and increased width from 22.86 to 23.16 m, they had a smaller number of 152-mm guns (14 instead of 16), a reduced supply of coal and 229-mm Harvey armor instead of Krupp's. The speed of the first (16907 hp) was 18.78, the second (16360 hp) -18.3 knots.

Closely copying the finished samples of the best British battleships (it was decided not to spend money on an experiment with the type of the German "Braunschweig"), the Japanese also ordered their armored cruisers according to English models. Of the projects that the most reputable cruising company in Elswick could offer, the choice was made in favor of ships of moderate displacement, which, having increased speed against battleships and outperforming Russian cruisers, had strong artillery and reliable armor protection, which would allow them to operate in conjunction with armadillos.

Having rejected the too bulky, ocean-going, high-sided, 11-14 thousand-ton cruisers of the Royal Navy of the Powerfull and Argonaut types (respectively, the type of Russian Rurik and Rossiya), the Japanese recognized two Elswick cruisers built by in 1896 and in 1897 for the Chilean government. Of these, "Esmeralda" (7000 tons) belonged to the class of high-speed (23 knots) ocean raiders. And soon it became a prototype for cruisers of the same class, but only with 152-mm artillery of the Monmouth type, built to counter the Russian 23-knot cruisers of the Varyag, Askold, Bogatyr types.

The second - "O'Higgins" (8500 tons) had a speed of only 21 knots, but was distinguished by reinforced artillery: (4 203 mm and 10 152 mm) and armor (belt along the waterline 178 mm instead of 152 mm). Recognized as the best, this project became the prototype for the head "Asama" built at the same Elswick plant. For confident actions together with battleships in the project, the number of 203-mm guns (in two towers) was increased to four, 152-mm guns to fourteen. The absence of a forecastle, the rejection of cruising wooden (with copper) plating and the use of Krupp armor made it possible to provide for an upper armor belt with a thickness of 152 mm.

The construction of these 9800-ton, 21 knots cruisers - in 1898 "Asama", "Tokiva" (Elsvik, Armstrong), in 1899 and 1900 "Izumo", "Iwate" (ibid.), in 1899 - "Yakumo", ("Volcano", Germany) and "Azuma" (Saint-Nazaire, France) should have alerted the Russian Naval Ministry no less than the construction of formidable 15,000-ton battleships. Together, they could easily paralyze Russia's remaining naval superiority. Against such ships, battleships of a clearly reinforced class were required.

The task of increasing their fire and speed characteristics, armor and mine protection became obvious. This was also prompted by the composition of the rest of the ships created by the hands of Europe of the Japanese (to the envy of everyone balanced) fleet. Indeed, in it even ships of the second plan - light cruisers and destroyers were deeply thought out optimal types.

The order of the previously built Elswick cruisers (from the series that won at Yalu in 1895) was continued with a displacement limited to 4800 tons, powerful weapons, including 203-mm guns, an armored deck and increased (against the previous 18 knots) 22 knots speed. Now they could play the role of long-range scouts with the squadron. In 1898, one of these cruisers, the Chiyoda, was built in England, the other Kassagi in the USA, becoming the prototype for the Russian cruiser Varyag. Modeled on the famous Elswick cruiser "Esmeralda" (in 1883 after the purchase from Chile - "Izumo"), which S.O. Makarov called "an excellent fighting vehicle", Japan from 1890 to 1906 built six of these small cruisers (five at its own shipyards) with lightweight artillery (120-152 mm), intended for patrols and reconnaissance. These ships fully corresponded to the type of squadron cruisers (Emden, Breslau, Magdeburg) that were consistently developed in the German fleet (up to World War II). 30-knot, 380-ton destroyers ("fighters") were ordered in England according to the best projects of the Yarrow company. This is their main speed, and often artillery superiority made essentially useless all the then built and exclusively 26-27-knot, 240-ton ("economy"!) Russian destroyers.

It is impossible not to recognize the exceptional, one might say, ideal thoughtfulness of the Japanese program, in which each class of ships had a clearly defined purpose and in which attack ships - battleships - were provided only with especially favorable conditions for the development of their characteristics. The order for the majority of the ships in Europe meant that Russia, developing a response program, willy-nilly entered into competition with all the scientific and industrial potential that had undertaken to serve Japan. After all, already once - in the Eastern War of 1854-1856. (Yes, perhaps, in the war with Turkey in 1877-1878) Russia lost such a competition. And, therefore, special efforts of intellect, organization and foresight were needed in order not to lose this time.

Thus, by virtue of the laws of logic and elementary concepts of strategy, a picture of the events of those years is presented today. But something prevented people from correctly assessing the situation and drawing the right conclusions. It is extremely difficult to penetrate into this mysteriously programmed phenomenon of the inferiority of human consciousness, but this is the eternal attraction of history, which requires finding at least a partial explanation for this phenomenon.

The ancestors of the armored fleet of the Land of the Rising Sun were the small corvettes Kotetsu (later renamed Azuma) and Ryujo, bought in 1867-1869, respectively, in the USA and England. True, their normal displacement did not exceed 1.5 thousand tons, and they, in essence, were modest floating batteries. The very first ship that can be considered a real battleship, the casemate frigate Fuso, was laid down in England in 1875. Its creator, the famous designer E. Reed, "did not philosophize slyly" over the Japanese order, but simply made a reduced repetition of the British battleship Iron Duke. In 1894, the Fuso lost its sailing armament, becoming a two-masted one, and received a new armament of eight 152-mm guns, several shotguns and two torpedo tubes. He participated in the battle with the Chinese fleet at the mouth of the Yalu River, escaped with minor injuries, but three years later - oh, grimaces of fortune! - sank off the coast of Shikoku, colliding with the cruiser Matsushima. For 11 months the battleship lay at the bottom, but in September 1898 it was raised. The repair, during which the artillery was again replaced by two 152-mm, four 120-mm and 11 small guns, took two years. "Fuso" survived until the Russo-Japanese War and was used in combat operations, carrying out the blockade of Port Arthur. He was excluded from the lists of the fleet in 1908.

The victory over China replenished the Japanese fleet with several captured ships, among which was the rather powerful Chin-Yen battleship. However, he no longer satisfied the appetite of the samurai: now the mighty Russian Empire came to the fore among the opponents of Japan. And the admirals of the Yamato country set about creating a powerful battle fleet with an eye on a new, much more serious war.

In 1894, even before the start of hostilities against China, Japan ordered the first two full-fledged squadron battleships Fuji and Yashima, the contractors for the construction of which were the British firms Thames Iron Works in Blackwall and Armstrong in Elwick. The British Royal Sovereign was chosen as their prototype. True, the Fuji and Yashima were 2,000 tons lighter, could carry less coal, and carried modern 305 mm main battery guns instead of the obsolete 343 mm ones. Lighter (albeit more powerful) weapons made it possible to significantly increase the armor. In particular, the barbettes of 305-mm guns were equipped with armored turrets with a plate thickness of 152 mm, but the protection of medium artillery was unsuccessful: there were only four 152-mm guns in the armored casemate, and the remaining six stood openly on the deck behind thin anti-fragmentation shields. According to official reports, the battleships during the tests developed an excellent speed of 18.5 knots (Yashima even at 19.23 knots), but it should be noted that the tests were carried out in the most favorable conditions with ships underloaded. The actual operational speed of the Fuji-class battleships did not exceed 16 knots. "Yashima" differed from its "sistership" in an increased number of cylindrical steam boilers (14 versus 10) and a slightly different shape of the underwater part of the aft end. The latter, by the way, provided much better maneuverability.

In 1896, even before the commissioning of the Fuji-class ships, Japan adopted a 10-year fleet development program, according to which it was necessary to build 4 more battleships, 6 armored and 6 armored cruisers, 23 large and 63 small destroyers. At the same time, the modernization of naval bases, arsenals, shipyards, and the system of education and training of naval officers began. Looking ahead, we note that, unlike Russia, the Japanese shipbuilding program was completed ahead of schedule and even overfulfilled.

The next pair of battleships - Shikishima and Hatsuse - were ordered by the same firms that built their predecessors. The new ships also belonged to a purely English school. They again had a clearly expressed prototype in the British Navy - "Majestic"; however, many improvements were made to the project. This mainly concerned armor protection and mechanical installation.

First of all, the Japanese - in contrast to many foreign colleagues - abandoned the unreasonable limitation of displacement, which made it easier to eliminate many of the shortcomings of the Fuji type ships (without much risk of getting excessive overload). The weight of the armor of the new battleships exceeded 30% of the normal displacement (versus 24% on the Fuji), and due to the use of Harvey plates (thinner, but with increased resistance), it was possible to significantly increase the armor area. The Shikishima and Hatsuse hulls had a double bottom and a bracket system consisting of numerous watertight compartments and cages (there were 261 in total), some of which could be used for additional coal intake. (It is not surprising that the maximum fuel supply was 1772-1900 tons against 1100-1200 tons for their predecessors). The new battleships received more modern Belleville water-tube boilers (25 pieces), which ensured a stable 18-knot speed and a cruising range of 5,000 miles at an economic speed. Finally, the artillery installations of the main caliber were equipped with an electric drive instead of outdated hydraulics. By the way, now their design made it possible to load at any angle of elevation of the trunks and the position of the tower. As a result, the Japanese fleet was replenished with two very advanced battleships, claiming to be the strongest in the world. Perhaps the only thing in which they were inferior to the Russian and French ships being built at that time was that they did not have any mine protection.

The last two battleships of the "program of 1896" essentially repeated the design of their predecessors. So, "Asahi" differed only in the number of watertight compartments increased to 288, in a different layout of the boiler room and some minor improvements. In the literature of that time, it was especially noted that the design of the ship was completely absent from wood: cabinets, washbasins, book shelves and lockers - everything was made of thin steel sheets. And the deck, instead of the traditional boardwalk, was covered with a special material based on cork chips - "corticin".

On the battleship Mikasa, the armor scheme was somewhat changed: the upper belt was shortened, but a third belt was introduced, which covered the entire central part of the ship with armor up to the upper deck. A battery of ten 152-mm guns, thus, ended up inside a continuous casemate-citadel instead of separate casemates on previous ships. In general, Mikasa's defense was considered very powerful. In addition, the artillery of the main caliber on the last battleship had an increased rate of fire (3 shots per 2 minutes per barrel), and also received three duplicated drive systems: hydraulic, electric and manual.

All six new battleships formed the main core of the Mikado fleet during the Russo-Japanese War. Two of them were very unlucky: "Hatsuse" and "Yashima" on May 15 (2nd according to the old style), 1904, died from a mine explosion near Port Arthur - this was one of the few cases during the war when fortune betrayed the admiral Togo. The rest of the ships actively fought in both main battles - in the Yellow Sea and at Tsushima, while showing good fighting qualities.

On the night of September 11-12 (August 30-31), 1905, the battleship Mikasa sank from an explosion of ammunition, but a year later was raised, repaired and recommissioned in August 1908. She was listed as a battleship until September 1921, when she was reclassified as a coastal defense ship. It is curious that just a few days after its "demotion" "Mikasa" ran into the stones near Askold Island near Vladivostok and was heavily damaged. The battleship was towed to Japan and soon disarmed. In 1926, Mikasa was turned into a museum: it was brought into a specially dug pit in Yokosuka and covered with earth along the waterline. In this form, it remains to this day - like its opponent in the Tsushima battle - "Aurora". True, as on the Aurora, the guns on the Mikas are completely different, and the main caliber is generally simulated extremely roughly.

"Fuji", "Sikisima" and "Asahi" before the conclusion of the Washington Agreement also served first as battleships, then as coastal defense battleships. In 1923, the first two were disarmed, turned into training blocks and dismantled for scrap only in 1947-1948. But "Asahi" had a completely different fate. In 1926-1927, this battleship was converted into a rescue ship for lifting submarines. Two heavy booms were installed on both sides of the ship, and two powerful winches were installed on the deck. Lifting slings were equipped with the so-called "Yamataka brackets" - devices for quickly engaging a wrecked submarine. Alas, despite the successfully completed tests, Asahi never managed to raise a single submarine from the bottom, although the latter sank quite regularly as a result of various accidents. In 1938, the former battleship changed his profession again - he became a repair ship. During the Second World War, he was brought right up to the shores of Indochina, where he was overtaken by the end of his career: on May 25, 1942, the Asahi was torpedoed by the American submarine Salmon.

warships of the world

On the 1st page of the cover: The battleship "Shikishima" on the way from England to Japan;

on the 2nd page: on the deck of the battleship "Asahi"; on the 3rd page Battleship "Fuji";

on page 4. Battleship "Mikasa" in England before leaving for Japan.

Popular science edition

Those. editor V.V. Arbuzov

Lit. editor E.V. Vladimirova

Proofreader S.V. Saturday

In the second half of the XVIII century. the rulers of Japan, not possessing a strong will, did not differ in the ability to govern the country, but only sought to personal enrichment. Bribery, embezzlement, and the arbitrariness of those in power flourished in the country. The emperor, as it were, reigned, while disposing of anyone and nothing, had no real power, of course, for his own benefit - there is no need for a divine person to bother with worries about everyday affairs, it is enough to distribute court positions and awards. But people have already appeared who not only understood that it was impossible to live like this any longer, but also began to act.

The main ideologists among them were representatives of the school of national sciences, who sought to restore the former influence of Shinto, because it was there that they saw ideas for substantiating the emperor's primordial rights to rule the country. A significant role in this was played by the teachings of Motoori Norinaga, who came to the conclusion that "evil in the lower social classes comes from evil in the upper social circles," and who argued that it was Japan that was the center of the universe, and not China. "We are descended from the goddess Amaterasu," said Norinaga, "which means we stand above other peoples." So he sought to strengthen the Japanese self-confidence, to revive the spirit of patriotism.

The ideas of Norinaga formed the basis of nationalist aspirations, which in the middle of the 19th century. helped the Japanese to defend their independence. The struggle for the unification of the country began. The state did not pursue an active foreign policy, completely switching to domestic affairs. As a result, the country began to resemble a troublesome anthill. New arable lands were developed, tools were improved, and the irrigation system was improved. The plow replaced the hoe, the improvement of agricultural technology and efficient family work made it possible to get two crops a year. The famous Japanese economist Hayami Akira stated that in the 18th century. In Japan there was a "revolution of diligence".

Japanese Navy in the late 19th century from the technical point of view, it had nothing in common with the one that in ancient times undertook campaigns to the shores of China and Korea and, possibly, reached the shores of America. The Japanese even had an inland sea in their archipelago, and therefore the sea element was native to them, to which they managed to adapt from time immemorial, when their ancestors settled the islands, but, unlike the Australian aborigines, they did not lose contact with it. They developed a special type of small ships - fune, which had excellent seaworthiness. It was on fune that the Japanese made their dashing raids on the shores of the Asian mainland, leaving a memory of themselves in Korean fairy tales.

But time passed. The opening of ports for Europeans in the fifties did not happen immediately and not easily. In 1853, when the American squadron threatened Yokohama, there was a debate in Ieddo in which the party, which advised to yield to the demands of the Americans, declared that otherwise Japan would be defeated and would not receive any benefits at all. The representatives of this party, called "Kai-koki", said: "Instead of allowing us to be defeated, since we do not have the technical knowledge that foreigners have, let us better have relations with foreign countries so that we can learn from them military bearing and tactics; and when we are a nation bound together as one family, then only will we be able to go forward and give land in foreign lands to those of our warriors who have distinguished themselves in battle."

Japan opened its ports to the United States, then England, Russia (the so-called Ansei treaties). On February 7, 1855, the first Russian-Japanese treaty of peace and friendship was signed by the Russian envoy Count Putyatin and the maritime border was determined. The ports of Shimoda, Hakodate, Nagasaki were opened for Russian ships.

In 1863, Japanese officers were sent to Holland to study naval affairs. In 1867-68. a bloody war broke out in the country between the spiritual and secular authorities - Mikado and Tykun. The civil strife ended with the victory of the Mikado and the forces supporting him, which the Western countries dubbed the "party of innovators", and the proclamation of autocracy. It is possible that with the victory of the opposing side, in the end it would have been the same - a strong centralized power.

Japan began to firmly and unfailingly implement the Kai-Koki political program. In 1871, the feudal system was finally destroyed, estates were abolished, freedom of occupation and movement was proclaimed, a land reform was carried out, by 1882 there were already 113 newspapers that had strict censorship. The functions of state administration were carried out by a deliberative assembly, and, to top it all off, in 1890 a constitution was adopted that strengthened the imperial power. The European calendar was also introduced.

After internal wars and coups, the Japanese government set about opening European-style schools, and in Tokyo, a university; replacing armor and bows with firearms; construction of railways and other means of communication; telegraph; fleet, by all means encouraging the construction of ships of only European type. The Japanese fleet was organized in the European manner, and England was taken as a model. English instructors were called in for theoretical and practical training.

Armored casemate corvette "Azuma". 1866

(Displacement 1560 tons, armament: one 229-mm gun, two 160-mm guns, armor: belt along the waterline 114 mm, casemate 102 mm.)

Armored corvette "Hiei". 1885

(Displacement 3718 tons, armament: three 170-mm, two 150-mm guns, armor: belt at the waterline 114 mm.)

But it was not easy to grow a new fleet in this island nation. For example, in 1890, Parliament refused to approve the program of Count Kabayama, who demanded an increase in spending on the fleet. Not limited to simply transferring technical equipment from Europe, the Japanese tried by all means to develop industry at home and achieved excellent results in this direction, for example, by creating arsenals in Tokyo that manufactured firearms and fully provided them with the army and navy. The arsenals in Osaka began to supply ships with artillery. The heyday of their domestic shipbuilding, which reflected both the way of life and the national spirit that gave rise to Japanese traditions in this area, was still ahead, but for now they had to learn and copy someone else's experience.

Until 1885, the casemated frigate "Fuso" was considered the most powerful ships of Japan's few naval forces.

("Fuso") and armored corvettes "Hii" ("ffiyei"), "Kongo" ("Kongo"), "Ryudze" ("Ryujo") and "Azuma" ("Azuma"), but from the same year the fleet began to be actively replenished with new modern ships built in France and England, such as the Naniwa and Takachiho.

In 1886, the first-class French engineer M. Bertin was invited to Japan as the chief naval engineer of the fleet, under whose leadership shipbuilding quickly moved forward. At the same time, another naval arms race began in a number of European states, which did not leave Japan without attention either. The chairman of the shipbuilding committee, Rear Admiral Ajura, at the end of 1888, submitted a note to the government characterizing the state of the fleet, determining its number at 35 ships, of which, in his opinion, only 23 or 24 can be called combat, counting and being built in this time in England, France and Japan.

The evolution of Japanese armadillos

The first of the Japanese battleships "Fuso" had a displacement of 3718 tons, four 240-mm guns of the main caliber in a casemate protected by iron armor, and a horizontally placed double-expansion piston machine that gave it a speed of 13 knots, and the last, "Aki", a displacement of 21800 tons , four 305 mm and twelve 254 mm guns in twin turrets, Krupp armor and steam turbines that gave it a 20-knot speed. The Japanese dreadnoughts, which replaced the battleships, surpassed these parameters a little later.

The 240 mm casemate main battery artillery on the Fuso increased to 305 mm on the Chin Yen and moved to barbettes mounted diagonally to provide maximum fire at sharp bow and stern headings. On the "Fuji" and subsequent battleships, the barbettes were located at the extremities along the diametrical plane, keeping this position unchanged, like the caliber.

The medium artillery on all the ships described was placed side by side, as on sailboats, except for the Chin Yen, where it was in light towers installed at the ends. These guns were in casemates on Fuso, Shikishima, Hatsuse, Asahi, Mikasa, Kashima, Katori, Tsukuba, Ikoma, in casemates and behind shields on Fuji " and "Yashima", in the towers on the "Kurama" and "Ibuki", increasing in caliber to 203 mm. Part of the medium artillery increased to 254 mm (and began to be considered the main one) with the installation first in single-gun turrets on the Kashima and Katori, and then in two-gun turrets on the Sazuma and Aki. Small-caliber artillery from the tops, bridges, superstructures, upper deck on battleships during the war with Russia, having increased from machine-gun caliber to 76 and 120 mm on the Sazuma and Aki, moved to the casemates, replacing the middle one.

The 356 mm surface torpedo tubes on the Fuso and Chin Yen on the Fuji had already begun to move below the waterline, increasing in caliber to 457 mm, creating many problems and not bringing any benefit. Interestingly, already at the beginning of the century, a number of experiments showed that the charging compartments of torpedoes did not explode when fragments and shells hit them, but hitting a compressed air tank caused an explosion. Steel boxes, wire steel mats, with which they tried to close surface vehicles in an artillery battle, only increased the number of fragments. Before the war with Japan, the provisions in force in the Russian fleet required 40-45 mines for a barrage on a squadron battleship. The British and the Japanese had on their ships only the means to destroy the barriers.

The Fuso body was built of iron. But already in the late 60s of the 19th century, the French artilleryman Martin, by melting scrap iron together with cast iron in special regenerative furnaces proposed by the German engineer Siemens, obtained large quantities of cast mild steel suitable for shipbuilding. The French were the first to switch to steel. "Chin Yen" was built already from steel and iron. All other Japanese battleships, starting with the Fuji, were built of steel.

The iron forged armor that appeared on the battleships had exhausted its capabilities, and it was not advisable to further increase the thickness of the iron plates, but this was not necessary. In 1880, steel-iron armor appeared, obtained by the English industrialist Wilson by pouring molten steel onto a forged iron plate. After hardening the steel, armor was obtained that had a hard, but brittle outer layer and a soft (damping impact of the projectile) inner layer. In terms of resistance, it surpassed iron by 20-25%.

But the resulting gain in weight did not go to increase the booking area: the displacement of the armadillos grew too quickly. Therefore, the first major trophy of the Japanese fleet, the Chin Yen, unlike the Fuso, did not have a fully armored side along the waterline, but had an armored deck, which was installed on all subsequent Japanese battleships.

The experience of the Japanese-Chinese and Spanish-American wars convincingly confirmed the need for reliable armor protection to ensure not only unsinkability, but also the survivability of ships and their weapons. After a little over 10 years, the American Harvey proposed a method for processing case-hardened steel, which made it possible to increase the resistance of new armor by about 30% compared to steel-iron. Fuji and Yashima received such armor, but they also did not have a full belt, because chrome steel shells appeared. Only the citadel had to be defended again.

Soon, nickel additives were added to the steel, which gave the armor a slightly different name: "garveenickel". Shikishima, Hatsuse, Asahi received a full waterline belt from it, on which, for the first time in the Japanese fleet, deck armor in the citadel area was made with side bevels. Armor was installed on the Mikasa from case-hardened and one-sided hardened chromium-nickel steel plates, which were processed according to the Krupp method, and they surpassed the garve ones in resistance by 16%. This type of armor was placed on all other battleships in Japan.

A certain superiority, which at times turned out to be on the side of the armor, led to an insufficiently realistic assessment of the artillery and the distance of the artillery battle. Many experts, including Russians, believed that artillery was capable of causing serious damage to the surface of the ship, but was not capable of destroying it due to the low possibility of influencing its underwater part, which was reflected in the transfer of experience of sailing ships, which were easier to burn than drown.

The horizontally positioned double-expansion machines on the Fuso and Chin Yen provided these ships with a speed of 13.2 and 15.4 knots, respectively, during trials. The vertical installation of triple expansion machines on the Fuji and subsequent ships, the use of Belleville water-tube boilers on the Shikishima, Hatsus, Asahi, Mikasa, Nikloss on the Kashima and Katori, increasing the steam pressure made it possible to achieve speed a little more than 18 knots without any special prospects for its further increase. Increasing the speed required an increase in the power of steam engines, and, consequently, an increase in the weight of machines and boilers, which was difficult to do with the determined weight load standards for armadillos.

Further improvement of machines and boilers, an increase in their power made it possible to achieve a speed of 21.9 knots on the Ikoma, and 22.5 on the Kurama. The installation of Curtis turbines on the Ibuki and Aki did not allow this value to be surpassed, and the honor of speed records remained with the dreadnoughts.

On Ikoma, in addition to coal, oil also appeared for the first time as fuel, which was repeated on two battleships of the Kurama type and on the last two of the Sazuma type. Three wars showed how important the Japanese attached to the predominance of the sea from the very beginning of hostilities, and the battleships played a decisive role in gaining this superiority ...