Imperial Japanese Navy

AND OTHERS...

The submarine tender Heian Maru is laying with two submarines in a lagoon, surrounded by small islands,
in the Southpacific. Besides all kinds of store and food, the Heian Maru have also ammunition supplies aboard …

U-Tender

Here a Torpedo is handed over by a derrick.
( a little guessing )

U-Tender

From one of the surrounding beaches we see a full reequipted submarine , wich is heading for the open Pacific .

The Ashizuri was a type of a special supply ship for aircraftcarrier groups. Besides aircraftfuel,
oil and ammunition there were also repair shops for aircrafts aboard.
As a modern ship of her time, she commissioned not before early 1943,
but was already sunk in june of 1944 by an US-submarine.

Ashizuritop

The Kimikawa maru is a seaplane tender converted from a Kombi-passenger-freighter,
which is seen here in the camouflage for the northern pacific operations by the area of the Aleutians.
At starboard of the main deck , is a swivelling catapult, usually aboard cruisers.
There are also the seaplanes type Mitsubishi F1M2 (Pete), and one Aichi E13A1 (Jake) in light-paintings located.

A real specialized ship is the flyingboat tender Akitsushima with a individual camouflage.
The appearance here is the condition of 1943. The forecastle was, like many IJN units
with a red Browne (corticene by Alan Raven ) linoleum planked.
On the afterdeck is a Kawanishi H8K (Emily) flyingboat in maintenance.

The light cruiser Oyodo was the bigger half sister of the Yahagi-class cruisers.
By many of the Japanese capital ships, there was plenty of room for seaplanes, also in this case.
So, there was a big Hangar on Oyodo and the whole afterdeck was projected for the use of seaplanes !

Oyodo

This picture shows this ship with a special large catapult in 1943.
This catapult was necessary, even for a new and heavy aircraft type Kawanashi E15K Shiun ( Norm )
to launch. From 6 E15K which reached the frontline, only 2 were embarked on Oyodo !
So seen here is a rare constellation. The Model Norm is converted from a Neptun Jake.