Re: BB & 18-in. Gun Tubes (Response)

[<CavKVet50@aol.com>]

It is not very well known in Navel circles, but the IJN secretly built one 
more ship of the ICHIBON class, called the AH SO DESUKA.  This ship was 
constructed as a super-battlesub, one which looked like a battleship but 
could also be mistaken for a cruiser. 

Shaped like a giant sake bottle, it had new triple 6.9in. automatic AAAA 
turrets and the number of such mounts increased to 24 3/4 on the design. Same 
design as used on the Type B-1/ "ASAHI BIRU" fleet destroyer, then currently 
in mothballs, in the Sino-Nipponese war. 

The vessel had a cruising speed of 21.2 knots. Unfortunately on the day 
before the ship's sea trials it skipper, Rear Admiral Takusan Bakadare (who 
at one time considered 18" whole guns), while on liberty in a Korean 
Restaurant in Yokosuka one night, tripped on a fallen bowl of possam kimchi 
and suffered terminal nasal trauma from which he never recovered. 
 
The Admiralty considered this a tremendous loss of face and had the ship 
scuttled the very next day, explaining to the Japanese people that it was 
going on its maiden cruise. 

Marty