Kairyu class submarine

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Class overview
A Kairyu "Sea Dragon" in the Aburatsubo inlet.
Operators:	Japan
Planned:	760
Completed:	200–213 (sources vary)
Active:	0
General characteristics
Type:	Kairyu (海龍 "Sea Dragon") class midget submarine
Displacement:	19.24 tonnes
Length:	17.35 m (56 ft 11 in)
Beam:	4'3" (1.30m)
Height:	4'3" (1.30m)
Propulsion:	Surface: 85 HP gasoline engine Submerged: 80 HP electric engine
Speed:	Surface speed: 7 knots Submerged speed: 10 knots
Range:	450 nautical miles (830 km) at 5 knots surfaced 36 nautical miles (70 km) at 3 knots submerged
Complement:	2
Armament:	2 × 475mm torpedoes and a 600 kg explosive charge

The Kairyu (海龍, Kairyū^?, "Sea Dragon") was a class of midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed in 1943–1944, and produced from the beginning of 1945. These submarines were meant to meet the invading American naval forces upon their anticipated approach of Tokyo.

[edit] History

A Kairyu in the Yamato Museum.

A Kairyu Midget Submarines

Characters for Kairyu, lit. "Sea dragon".

More than 760 of these submarines were planned and by August 1945 about 213 had been manufactured. Most of them were constructed at the Yokosuka shipyard. These submarines had a two-man crew and were fitted with two torpedoes along with a 600 kg (1,300 lb) explosive charge intended to be used on a suicide mission.

Most of the Kairyu submarines were based at Yokosuka to defend the entrance of Tokyo Bay in the event of a United States invasion of mainland Japan. Some of these subs were also stationed in the Moroiso and Aburatsubo inlets on the southern tip of the Miura peninsula where a training school had also been set-up.

Due to Japan's surrender on August 1945, after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, none of these submarines ever saw action.