IJN Auxiliary Carrier Yamakawa Maru, Janaury 1943.

[nönöbär]

IJN Auxiliary Carrier Yamakawa Maru, Janaury 1943.

The ship:
Japan invested a lot in building up a carrier fleet before WW2. While the main focus was on designing and building fleet carriers, other facets of this buildup are rather unknown.
Operating fleet carriers was quite expensive, therefore the Imperial Navy decided to build a small "carrier" for crew training of aircraft maintenance material. The intention was to have a small, cheap vessel which could be used for basic training on sea.

The Yamakawa Maru was a smaller transport ship with a length of 125m, built in 1921, and it was selected to be converted into a ship that would be quite similar to a CVE during wartime.
The superstructure of the Yamakawa Maru was removed and a open hangar deck was put on the ships hull. Above, a wooden flight  deck and a small island structure completed the ship.  No armament was added as the focus was to train the technical personal.

A second ship, the Kobiashi Maru, was converted in a similar way, but was lost after a collision in 1939.

Between 1937 and 1941, a huge percentage of the aircraft maintenance personal on Japanese fleet carriers got their basic training on the Yamakawa Maru.

With outbreak of WW2 in the Pacific, the Yamakawa Maru was equipped with some light AA guns for protection. Besides its original role as a training ship, it was also used as an aircraft transport for damaged and repaired aircraft.

Then came early June 1942, the Battle of Midway.

After the loss of the four main fleet carriers, Japan needed additional carriers, therefore the Yamakawa Maru had to be used for "normal" fleet operations. While the AA armament was increase by some mid-sized guns, the small size and slow speed of only 16kn did not help in using the ship for fleet operations. Stationed in Rabaul in September of 1942, the ship supported the operation if the IJN during the Battle of Guadaldcanal.
However, in January 1943, carrying five A6M Zero fighters and four Aichi D3A dive bombers while escorting a small convoy of three transports and two destroyers, the convoy was attacked by 6 USN dive bombers. Caught by surprise, the Yamakawa Maru was not able to launch its fighter planes and was this by three bombs. Heavily damaged it had to be beached at Mbulo Island, while another bomb hit one of the transport ships.

The model shows the  Yamakawa Maruin Janaury 1943 at the time when it got lost.




Flight deck details:




Hangar deck:



Together with a IJN destroyer:


The model:
This is the first of my set of three different CVEs. When creating the model, I could not decide which country variant I should choose, so I printed all of them. The model is complete 3D printed in 1/700 scale except a few smaller parts like AA guns.

The hull is base on the 3D model "1/350 WW1 US Cargo ship (EFC 1020) "Laker" by decapod on Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3422471). I re-scaled the model to 1/700 and removed the superstructure.

The ship hull, hangar deck and flight deck are all printed with a FDM printer, all other parts are made with a Resin printer. The aircraft are 3D printed as well.

Guns and mast are taken from the spare part box, all other parts are designed and printed by me. Additional PE crew was used.

The model is painted with Revel Aqua Color.

[zenrat]

Awesome work.  So tiny.

[NARSES2]

Awesome work.  So tiny.

Totally agree