Kaba-class destroyer

Kaba departing Ryojun, 1925
Class overview
Operators	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by	Urakaze class destroyer
Succeeded by	Isokaze class destroyer
Subclasses	French Navy Arabe class
In commission	1915-03-15 – 1932-04-01
Completed	10
Active	0
Lost	0
Retired	10
General characteristics
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	655 long tons (666 t) normal, 810 long tons (820 t) full load
Length	79.2 m (260 ft) pp, 83.6 m (274 ft) overall
Beam	7.3 m (24 ft)
Draught	2.3 m (7.5 ft)
Propulsion	3-shaft reciprocating, 2 heavy oil-fired + 2 oil/coal-fired boilers 9,500 ihp (7,100 kW)
Speed	30 knots (56 km/h)
Range	1200 nm @ 12 knots
Complement	94
Armament	1 × QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I - IV 4 ×3 inch 12 pounder guns 4 × 53cm torpedoes

The Kaba class destroyers (樺型駆逐艦, Kabagata kuchikukan) were a class of ten destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Each was named after a variety of tree.

Background

At the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy had a total of two modern destroyers capable of overseas deployment: the Sakura-class Sakura and Tachibana. It was clear that this force would not enable Japan to fulfill its obligations under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, so the Japanese government pushed through an Emergency Naval Expansion Budget in fiscal 1914 to allow for the construction of ten new destroyers. As speed was of the essence, the orders were given to both government and civilian shipyards (as was the case with the construction of the Russo-Japanese War vintage Kamikaze-class).

Twelve more vessels were built by the same shipyards in Japan per an order from the French Navy, where they were designated the Tribal-class (or Arabe class named Algérien, Annamite, Arabe, Bambara, Hova, Kabyle, Marocain, Sakalave, Sénégalais, Somali, Tonkinois, and Touareg, they were the most advanced destroyers in the French inventory in World War I

Design

The ten Kaba-class vessels were built simultaneously at eight different shipyards around Japan. As there was no time to design a new vessel, plans for the previous Sakura-class destroyers were distributed to each shipyard, with the instructions that the power plant was to be a conventional coal-fired triple expansion steam engine, and not a steam turbine.

Armament was the same as that of the Sakura-class, with one QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I - IV, mounted on the deck forward of the bridge, and four 3 inch 12 pounder guns, mounted one on either side and two towards the stern of the ship, with two torpedo launchers.

Operational history

Given the speed of construction and the fact that eight different shipyards were used, it is a tribute to the Japanese shipbuilders that all ten vessels produced were uniform in appearance and capabilities, and performed reliably in their overseas deployment to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea in combat operations in World War I. This deployment began with Rear Admiral Kozo Sato arrived in Malta in mid-April 1917, with the cruiser Akashi as his flagship and eight Kaba-class destroyers. The Japanese fleet was nominally independent, but carried out operations under the direction of the Royal Navy command on Malta, primarily in escort operations for transport and troopship convoys and in anti-submarine warfare operations. Sakaki was damaged by the Austro-Hungarian Navy U-boat U-27 on 11 June 1917 off of Crete with the loss of 68 of her 92 crewmen. She was salvaged and repaired.

All ten vessels survived the war, and were retired on April 1, 1932.

List of ships

Kanji	Name	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Completed	Fate
樺	Kaba	Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan	1914-12-01	1915-02-06	1915-03-05	retired 1932-04-01
柏	Kashiwa	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nagasaki, Japan	1914-11-03	1915-02-14	1915-04-04	retired 1932-04-01
桂	Sakaki	Sasebo Naval Arsenal, Japan	1914-12-01	1915-03-04	1915-03-31	retired 1932-04-01
榊	Katsura	Kure Naval Arsenal, Japan	1914-11-05	1915-02-15	1915-03-26	retired 1932-04-01
杉	Sugi	Osaka Iron Works, Japan	1914-11-24	1915-02-16	1915-04-07	retired 1932-04-01
楓	Kaede	Maizuru Naval Arsenal, Japan	1914-10-25	1915-02-20	1915-03-25	retired 1932-04-01
梅	Ume	Kawasaki Shipbuilding, Kobe, Japan	1914-11-10	1915-02-27	1915-03-31	retired 1932-04-01
桐	Kiri	Uraga Dock Company, Japan	1914-11-24	1915-02-28	1915-04-22	retired 1932-04-01
楠	Kusunoki	Kawasaki Shipbuilding, Kobe, Japan	1914-11-10	1915-03-05	1915-03-31	retired 1932-04-01
松	Matsu	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nagasaki, Japan	1914-11-03	1915-03-05	1915-04-06	retired 1932-04-01

See also

Media related to Kaba class destroyer at Wikimedia Commons

References

Books

• Cocker, Maurice (1983). Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981. Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1075-7.
• Evans, David (1979). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
• Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-11402-8.
• Halpern, Paul G (1994). A Naval History of World War I. Routledge. ISBN 1-85728-498-4.
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
• Tucker, Spencer (1996). The European Powers in the First World War. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8153-3351-X.

External links

• Nishida, Hiroshi. "Materials of IJN: Kaba class destroyer". Imperial Japanese Navy.
• Globalsecurity.org. "IJN Kaba class destroyers".
• French Arabe class