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Photo # NH 48203:  Japanese cruiser Furutaka in 1926, soon after she was completed.

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- JAPANESE NAVY SHIPS --

Furutaka (Cruiser, 1926-1942)

Furutaka, lead ship of a class of two 7100-ton heavy cruisers, was built at Nagasaki, Japan. Commissioned in March 1926, she spent the next five years as a unit of the Fifth Squadron (Sentai), making several cruises to Chinese waters as well as participating in the rigorous combat exercises conducted in peacetime by the Japanese Navy. Furutaka was in reserve, mainly receiving repairs and alterations, from late 1931 until mid-1933. She then resumed her previous pattern of fleet maneuvers and operations off China, serving with the Sixth Squadron and later with the Seventh. Late in 1936, she was inactivated and early in the next year began a major reconstruction.

When this work was completed in mid-1939, Furutaka had been significantly altered. Her six-gun main battery was now carried in twin turrets instead of the original single gun mounts. Her hull was wider, displacement greater, torpedo battery rearranged and boilers replaced with newer types. Improved gunfire controls and anti-aircraft batteries contributed to her changed appearance. She thereafter served with the Sixth Squadron, which operated primarily in home waters until shortly before the outbreak of the Pacific War.

During the first ten months of the war with the United States and its allies, Furutaka and the rest of the Sixth Squadron traveled widely. They participated in the capture of Guam and Wake islands in December 1941 and were engaged in offensive operations in the New Guinea and Solomon Islands area in March-May 1942. Early in the latter month, Furutaka took part in the Battle of the Coral Sea. When the Allies seized Guadalcanal and Tulagi in August 1942, the Sixth Squadron was sent on a counter-assault mission, forming the majority of Japanese forces engaged in the highly-successful night Battle of Savo Island on 9 August.

Furutaka and her companions served as a covering force for Japanese efforts to retake Guadalcanal during the rest of August and into October 1942. On 11 October they steamed southwards on a mission to bombard enemy positions on that island, not realizing that a strong U.S. Navy cruiser-destroyer force was also in the area. The resulting Battle of Cape Esperance, on the night of 11-12 October 1942, repulsed the Japanese ships. Furutaka was gravely damaged, with her crew suffering heavy casualties. After efforts to control flooding and get underway proved futile, her surviving crew members was taken off. Furutaka sank soon thereafter.

This page features all our images related to the Japanese cruiser Furutaka.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 48203

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photograph taken in 1926, showing the ship as first completed with short smokestacks.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97705

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photographed in 1926, soon after completion and before any modifications had been made.

The original print, with a vertical seam in the center as clipped from a publication, came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 285 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97706

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Underway in 1926, soon after completion and before her smokestacks had been raised.

The original print, clipped from a publication, came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 47KB; 740 x 240 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97695

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photograph taken in 1927-29, when she was the 4th unit of the Fifth Sentai (squadron), as indicated by the white stripes painted on her after smokestack.
Identification of this view is based on funnel bands and the appearance of the ship, as she was prior to her 1931-33 refit.

The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 310 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97704

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photographed circa 1927-28, while she was the 4th ship of the 5th Sentai (squadron), as signified by the two bands (one wide, one narrow) painted on her after smokestack.

The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 35KB; 740 x 285 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97700

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Underway after her smokestacks were raised and other early modifications completed, circa the later 1920s.
Note the similarity between this photograph and that seen in Photo # NH 97703, which indicates that this one may be a skillfully retouched version of the latter.

The original print, clipped from a publication, came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 340 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97703

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photographed circa 1930, while she was the 2nd ship of the 5th Sentai (squadron), as indicated by the two white bands painted on her after smokestack.

The original fine-screen halftone print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 315 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97702

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

With her rails manned, probably during the naval review off Yokohama on 25 August 1933.
Three white bands on her after smokestack signify that she is the third ship of the 6th Sentai (squadron).
Note the aircraft catapult amidships, installed in 1932-33.

The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 47KB; 740 x 250 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 75481

Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

At anchor off Shinagawa, Japan, on 4-10 October 1935.
The three bands painted on her after smokestack signify that she is the third ship of the 6th Sentai (squadron). The cruisers Aoba and Kinugasa, also members of Sentai 6, are in the left distance.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 


The drawings presented below depict Furutaka as she was during World War II, with her main battery carried in twin gun turrets and other appearance changes resulting from her 1937-39 reconstruction.

Photo #: NH 86308

Kako
and Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruisers, 1926) -- upper drawings;
and
Aoba
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1927) -- lower drawing

World War II era recognition drawings, showing Kako and Furutaka after their late 1930s modernization and Aoba as she was in 1945.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 134KB; 1200 x 850 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97698

Kako
and Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruisers, 1926)

World War II era recognition drawings, showing the ships as they were after their late 1930s modernization.

The original photographic print was taken from Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's World War II working files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 46KB; 740 x 540 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97699

Furutaka
and Kako
(Japanese Heavy Cruisers, 1926)

World War II era recognition silhouette and deck plan drawing, showing the ships as they were after their late 1930s modernization.

The original photographic print was taken from Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's World War II working files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 52KB; 740 x 580 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 26 October 2001