In 2005 a miniature sheet of 5 stamps, showing warships (HMS KING GEORGE V, HMS
WOLVERINE, USS MISSOURI, USS YORKTOWN and BISMARCK), was issued under the name
of the Republic of Congo. In the margins of the sheet are line drawings of 3
further warships – HMS BLACK PRINCE, HMS EURYALUS & IJS KUMANO.
Name: Kumano
Builder: Kawasaki Shipyard, Kobe
Laid down: April 1934
Launched: 15 October 1936
Completed: October 1937
Fate: Sunk, 25 November 1944
Displacement: 13,440 long tons (13,660 t) full load
Length: 201.6 m (661 ft 5 in)
Beam: 22 m (72 ft 2 in)
Draft: 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in)
Propulsion: Four-shaft impulse single geared turbines
10 Kanpon boilers
152,000 shp
Speed: 35 knots (40 mph; 65 km/h))
Complement: 850
Armament: (initial)
15 × 155 mm (6.1 in)/60-cal DP guns (5×3)
8 × 127 mm (5.0 in)/40-cal DP guns (4×2)
4 × 40 mm AA guns
12 × 610 mm (24 in) torpedo tubes (4×3)
(final)[1]
10 × 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval gun‎s (5×2)[2]
8 × 127 mm / 40-cal guns (4×2)
50 × 25 mm AA guns
12 × 610 mm (24 in) torpedo tubes
Armor: Belt: 100 mm (3.9 in)
Deck: 35 mm (1.4 in)
Turrets: 25 mm (0.98 in)
Magazines: 127 mm (5.0 in)
Aircraft carried: 3 × Type 1 scout aircraft
Kumano was one of four Mogami-class heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
From 1939 to 1940 the ship was converted to a heavy cruiser by replacing the
triple 155-cm gun turrets with an equal number of twin turrets for 20 cm/50 3rd
Year Type naval guns.
Present at Midway (4-7 June 1942) as part of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Cruiser
Division 7, along with her sisters Mogami, Mikuma (sunk) and Suzuya, her
war-record is otherwise of little interest until 20 June 1944, when she was
attacked by U.S. carrier aircraft from USS Bunker Hill, Monterey, and Cabot.
During this action, the aircraft carrier Hiyō was sunk and the battleship
Haruna was badly damaged.
Light anti-aircraft armament was increased to thirty 25-mm (1 inch) guns by
January of 1944, and increased again to fifty guns in July. Then on 25 October
1944, Kumano was part of the Japanese Central Force in the Battle off Samar. She
was hit by a Mk-15 torpedo fired by the destroyer USS Johnston which literally
blew off her bow. As Kumano was retiring towards the San Bernardino Strait, she
came under aerial attack and suffered minor damage.
The next day, Kumano was attacked from aircraft launched by the USS Hancock
while in the Sibuyan Sea, and was struck by three 500 lb (226.8 kg) bombs. She
survived and sailed to Manila Bay for repairs on her bow and all four boilers.
She returned to service and on 6 November 1944 Kumano was guarding convoy Ma-Ta
31. The convoy came under attack by a US submarine wolf-pack consisting of the
USS Batfish, Guitarro, Bream, Raton and the Ray. Of the aforementioned US
submarines, the Ray inflicted the most severe damage on the Kumano.
In all, the American submarines launched 23 torpedoes towards the convoy, two of
which struck the Kumano. The first hit destroyed her recently replaced bow, and
the second damaged her starboard engine room, flooding all four of her engine
rooms. She took on an 11-degree list and lost steerage. At 1930, she was towed
to Dasol Bay by the cargo ship Doryo Maru, and from there she was moved to Santa
Cruz on the Philippine Island of Luzon.
While undergoing repairs in Santa Cruz on 25 November 1944, Kumano came under
aerial attack by aircraft launched by the Ticonderoga. Five torpedoes and four
500 pound bombs struck her, and at 1515 she rolled over and sank in about 31 m
(100 ft) of water.
Admiral William "Bull" Halsey reportedly once remarked that "if there was a
Japanese ship he could feel sorry for at all, it would be the Kumano".
Congo 2005 MSsg?, scott? she is in the margin of the sheet.
Ref: Wikipedia. http://www.combinedfleet.com/kumano_t.htm.
http://wikimapia.org/14620262/Wreck-of- ... A%E9%87%8E
Peter Crichton