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TAKAO
CRUISER MODEL
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Takao
was the first of four Takao-class heavy cruisers,
designed to be an improvement over the previous Myōkō-class cruisers.
The Takao class ships were part of the Imperial Japanese
Navy's strategy of the Decisive Battle and of forming
the backbone of a multipurpose long-range strike force.
At the
start of World War II, the Takao cruiser was assigned to Vice Admiral Kondo Nobutake's Cruiser Division 4 together with her sister
ships Atago and Maya. In late December 1941,
Takao
provided gunfire support for the landings at Lingayen
Gulf on Luzon in the Philippines.
In
early 1942, the Takao cruiser operated in the Battle of the Java
Sea in early March. On March 1, one of Takao's
floatplanes bombed the Dutch merchant ship Enggano. The
next night, Takao and Atagocruisers sank the destroyer USS Pillsbury with no survivors.
On March 4, Atago, Maya,
Takao cruisers and two destroyers attacked
a convoy near Tjilatjap. The Royal
Australian Navy sloop Yarra defending the convoy
was sunk with 34 survivors of her crew of 151. The Japanese
cruisers then sank three ships from the convoy: the
tanker Francol, the depot ship Anking, and a
minesweeper. Two Dutch freighters were also captured.
In June
1942, Maya and Takao cruiser supported the invasion of the
Aleutian Islands. On June 5, Takao shot down a B-17
Flying Fortress.
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The cruiser Takao
participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on
October 26. A determined attempt to shell the US base
at Henderson Field led to the Naval Battle of
Guadalcanal: early in the morning of 15 November 1942,
the battleship Kirishima, supported by cruiser Takao and Atago,
engaged the American battleships Washington and South
Dakota. All three Japanese ships hit South
Dakota multiple times with shells, knocking out her
radar and fire controls. However, Kirishima was quickly
disabled by Washington and sank a few hours later. Atago was
damaged. Takao cruiser escaped unharmed.
On 22 October 1944, Takao
cruiser joined the "Centre Force". On October 23, as she
was passing Palawan Island, the force came under attack
from two US submarines. Takao was hit by two torpedoes
from USS Darter, which shattered two shafts, broke
her fantail and flooded three boiler rooms. She turned
back to Brunei, escorted two destroyers.
Takao cruiser was so badly damaged that it was
considered impossible to send her back to Japan any time
soon for repairs. So the stern was cut off and shored up,
and she was moored as an anti-aircraft battery for the
defense of Singapore. While berthed there, she was
attacked on July 31, 1945 by the British midget
submarine HMS XE3. The submarine attached six limpet
mines to Takao's hull using a piece of rope (the hull
was covered with thick layer of seaweed, and the magnets
of the limpet mines would not hold them on the hull.)
When the mines exploded, they blew a hole 20 m by 10 m.
Most of Takao's guns were put out of action, the
rangefinders were destroyed.
On 5
September 1945, the Straits of Johor naval base was
surrendered by the Japanese to the British and the
formal boarding of the still partially manned Takao cruiser took
place on 21 September 1945. She was finally towed to
the Straits of Malacca to be used as a target
ship for HMS Newfoundland and sunk on October 19, 1946.
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We build this
primarily wood TAKAO cruiser model in two sizes:
40" (1/200 scale)and 55" (1/144 scale). Contact us for prices.
Learn more about the
TAKAO cruiser
here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takao-class_cruiser
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