Ukuru Class Escort Ship

Ukuru Class Escort Ship

The Ukuru class escort ships (鵜来型海防艦, Ukuru-gata kaibōkan?) were a class of ships in the service of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

The Japanese called these ships Kaibōkan, "ocean defence ships" (Kai = sea, ocean, Bō = defense, Kan = ship), a name used to denote a multi-purpose vessel. The twenty-nine ships of the Ukuru class were a major part of Japan's escort force from the middle of World War II. They were denoted "Modified Type B"(改乙型 (Kai-Otsu-gata?)) ships, and they were the fourth class of Kaibokan.

The Ukurus, like the Mikura-class, were dedicated to the anti-aircraft and anti-submarine role. The Ukuru class was a further simplification of the Mikura design. The Ukurus were constructed using prefabricated sections that enabled them to be built in as little as four months. Despite being easy to build, they proved quite durable, with 11 occurrences of the class striking mines and only 3 sinking, one of which was after the war. Ikuna survived being torpedoed by the USS Crevalle and striking a mine as well.

The Ukuru class was initially armed with 120 depth charges with 2 Type 94 depth charge projectors, sixteen Type 3 depth charge throwers and two depth charge chutes and would later receive an 8 cm trench mortar. The number of AA machine guns was increased to 16 to 20 25mm. They received Type 22 and Type 13 radars, and Type 93 or Type 3 sonar in 1943-1944.

Okinawa was the most successful ship of the class, helping to sink two US submarines, the USS Snook on April 14, 1945 with the kaibokans CD-8, CD-32, and CD-52; and USS Bonefish on June 19, 1945 with kaibokans CD-63, CD-75, CD-158, and CD-207