To preface, I'm basing my question on a few things that I'm not 100% sure about.
-First, in official documentation the IJN appears to refer to cruisers as "1st Rate" or "2nd Rate" cruisers, instead of a Light "CL" or Heavy "CA" designation.
-Second, it appears that when WW2 started, all cruisers launched in 1923 or earlier (i.e. Sendai Class, Nagara Class, Kuma Class, etc) are classed as 2nd Rate, whereas the newer cruisers (Myoko, Takao, Mogami, etc) are classed as 1st Rate.
-Finally, it appears that "2nd Rate Cruisers" were predominately being used as leaders of Destroyer Divisions & fleet escorts, while the "1st Rate Cruisers" are being placed in Cruiser Divisions and are being given roles more typically associated with what we expect from the class.
So based on this, was there an intent for the earlier Cruiser designs like the Sendai Class to serve in Escort/ASW roles as the lead of a DesDiv, or are they simply placing the oldest usable Cruiser models in this role?
Additionally, following the construction of the Tone Class, there appears to be a shift in design for Cruisers to be more focused towards purpose built escort/command ships with the Agano and Oyodo class. What is the reason for this change in design philosophy?
Thanks in advance!
> SS Tjisalak was a 5,787-ton Dutch freighter with passenger accommodation built in 1917 for the Java-China-Japan Lijn and used by the Allies during World War II to transport supplies across the Indian Ocean between Australia and Ceylon. On 26 March 1944, she was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-8 while traveling unescorted. The freighter's crew were subsequently massacred in an infamous naval war crime.
> Tjisalak was sailing from Melbourne and Colombo with a cargo of flour and mail.[1] The crew of 80 consisted of Dutch, Chinese and English merchant seamen, plus ten Royal Navy gunners manning the ship's four-inch gun. Also on board were five passengers (including an American Red Cross nurse, Mrs. Verna Gorden-Britten) and 22 Laskar sailors returning to India after the loss of their ship. Tjisalak had been travelling for 19 days, when her captain became confused by an unusual wireless message from Perth, and changed his course, sailing at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) to conserve fuel. At 5:45 am on 26 March 1944, she was struck by a torpedo from I-8.
> One passenger, a Lieutenant Dawson from Australia, was killed instantly, and the ship began to list to port. The order was given to abandon ship. Most of the crew obeyed, taking to the ship's boats and liferafts, but the British gunners and the Dutch gun commander, second officer Jan Dekker, remained on board, waiting for the Japanese submarine to appear and opened fire. I-8 responded with her own deckgun, forcing the gunners to abandon ship.
> Once in the water, the 105 survivors were collected by the Japanese, who placed them on I-8's deck and ordered Captain Hen into the conning tower to confer with the Japanese commander, Tatsunosuke Ariizumi. Survivors reported Hen as shouting "No, no, I don't know." At that moment, a Chinese sailor slipped into the water and was shot.
> The Japanese then tied the survivors together in pairs and walked them aft around the conning tower, where they were attacked with various weapons. Four men jumped or fell from the submarine while being attacked and survived the random gunfire from three Japanese sailors seated behind the conning tower. These were Chief Officer Frits de Jong, Second Officer Jan Dekker, Second Wireless Operator James Blears and Third Engineer Cees Spuybroek. A Laskar named Dhange also survived the massacre.
> After the Japanese had killed all but about twenty of the prisoners, they tied the remainder to a lo
... keep reading on reddit β‘^- ^WW2 ^Tweets ^from ^1941 ^(@RealTimeWWII) ^| ^June ^3, ^2019
I know the Allies made use of radar technology and improved tactics like convoy protection in the Atlantic against the German U-boats. Were the Japanese effective at stopping American submarines in the Pacific theater?
I was just thinking that in earlier history, it would not have been so easy to study such a problem.
In particular, were any battles or wars lost for this reason?
