IJN Maya - Anti-Aircraft Cruiser Ended by Undersea Attack

[@alephalon7849]

One of Admiral Togo's grandsons died aboard Maya, too, lending additional credence to your idea that her service life was a microcosm of the IJN during World War II.

[@AugmentedGravity]

The Takao class was one of the most beautiful cruisers ever made. They just look so damn good

[@marchellochiovelli7259]

That ship has very nice lines and a beautiful bow.

[@thunderK5]

Mentioning the AA was appropriate since Maya was the only ship of her class to have main guns capable of 70 degrees of elevation, though in practice this didn't work well (as you noted).

[@gregorylumpkin2128]

IJN cruisers certainly wreaked havoc on the allies in the first half of ww2. Check out how they carried their torpedo launchers in the raised sides of the hull amidships. If you check out photos of Mikuma after being bombed at Midway, you can see what looks like a torpedo hanging out of one of the launchers on the port side.

[@aidancarlton7931]

Really cool video, Maya definitely needed some spotlight since her sister are more famous.

[@metaknight115]

Especially Chokai, who led the devastating battle of Savo Island, directly sinking a US heavy cruiser with torpedo hits and helping to sink two others with gunfire

[@stuartpeacock8257]

Brilliantly detailed, to the point and more than a dash of irony. Thank you for making an interesting topic for modelling in 1/350th and 1/700th. She certainly was a topic for developments throughout her career

[@jasonsmith1143]

thank thanks for the video love this IJN Maya, Chokai, Takao class heavy cruiser

[@jonathonhass4178]

One would think that the IJN would’ve figured out fairly early how terrible those 25mm AA guns were and just went with 40mm Pom poms or something

[@Steelshadow104]

Japan was very stubborn in it's decision making. Rarely addressed known issues until too late, and kept holding out for that one big decisive battle that would never come. But that's also all in hindsight, many things could've ended up differently.

[@jonathonhass4178]

@@Steelshadow104 Very true. The inadequacy of the 25mm was EXCEEDINGLY glaring though…IE: their ships under constant air attacks and they shoot down only a small handful of attackers each time or sometimes not at all.. A lot of other things didn’t have such immediate proof of failure, at least not as immediate as the lack of effect with the 25 mm

[@joehuang6098]

The 25mm guns were copied from the French Hotchkiss 25mm. Their main deficiency was the use of 6-round clips instead of a continuous feed belt, so they could only fire bursts at a time. There’s too much after-the-fact ridicule of the gun on these threads. Keep in mind AA gunnery only got tested in combat after WW2 got going. Both the US and British navies quickly found their AA guns (Chicago piano 1.1” and Pom-poms, respectively) to be inadequate and replaced them with licensed Swedish 40mm Bofors or else they would have been in even worse situation than the Japanese. The IJN couldn’t do the same and developing a whole new gun would have taken years. As for heavy AA, the IJN developed a 3.9 in twin mount during the war years that was used in the Akizuki class destroyers, the Taiho carrier, and Oyodo light cruiser but it was too few and too late to affect the war. You US navy Fanboys should feel lucky and thankful to the Swedes for the 40-mm Bofors and the Swiss for the 20-mm Oerlikons.

[@Straswa]

Great work Skynea, thanks for adding the discovered wreck information as well.

[@k3D4rsi554maq]

Indeed!

[@JamesSavik]

Maya and her sisters were beautiful and nasty. They were probably Japan's best class of heavy cruisers.

[@ATAGOISMYWIFE]

I couldnt agree more

[@metaknight115]

I’d say the Mogamis were better. Their gun layout was more efficient and and their armor was slightly better, and they could make 35.5 knots vs the Takao’s 34.2 knots.

[@clmk28]

That is a beautiful ship

[@niclasjohansson4333]

At the battle off Komodorski Islands it was Maya that inflicted the Damage to USS Salt Lake city, so i guess she did hit something after all.....

[@robertwaid3579]

Thank You Skynea History: That was an Awesome, Very informative Documentary, Video of A Very Impressive IJN Cruiser. The Lines of the Cruiser we're just Gorgeous, and Very Sleek for the Day. The Japanese of Course are Wonderful Shipwrights and Thier Results were Obvious during the War Year's. Albright I've Said Enough so Thank You Again for Sharing.

[@sslaytor]

Looking good is a little different from working well!

[@tylermcneill]

Great video 😮

[@MrHistorian123]

The Takao class were far from anti-aircraft cruisers in practice. The 8" turrets were far too slow in fire control, elevation and training to be effective (as the British found out with the County class) and the ships were woefully deficient in close in armament. The 25mm gun was an atrocious weapon: slow in training and elevation, difficult to keep in action (15 round magazines which meant the guns had to stop firing every 10 seconds or so to change them) and terrible vibration problems. The Japanese would have been better off throwing rocks at aircraft. The 120mm secondary armament was better, but the later 100mm Type 98 gun was vastly superior as an AA gun, with a very high rate of fire and it was surprisingly effective as a surface weapon, especially with radar control, as fitted to the Akizuki class destroyers.

[@RayyMusik]

“Are you sure that lots of 25mm crap makes Maya a viable AA cruiser?“ “Umm … nah. Let‘s install 16 torpedo tubes as well!“

[@alanh1406]

An interesting story of an interesting ship that had a dull career.

[@timengineman2nd714]

Number of main battery shells used is probably due to their using AP .vs. HE Shells. The AP shells, unless they hit something solid like a gun would punch a hole in one side, pass through the ship, and punch another hole in the opposite side.

[@fredkruse9444]

My guess is lousy accuracy, but just a guess.

[@timengineman2nd714]

@@fredkruse9444 The IJN's use of AP shells against light hulls is what saved Taffy 3 later in the war.

[@franksposato6072]

Can you please a make video dedicated to the Rabaul Raid? I can never find consistent info on what ships were there and what happened to them.

[@moosifer3321]

Amazing output, Great Content plus Humour - I`m in!

[@markrowland1366]

The 4 inch Pompom you referred to as having been fitted, is the only one mentioned in WW2 literature. More information, if it could be found, might, clear up this mystery.

[@ronstewtsaw]

The Takao was featured in Godzilla Minus One.

[@help8help]

Some trivia: In the anime movie Grave of the Fireflies the main character Seita talks with pride about his father, an officer on the Maya would avenge his mother’s death from the firebombing attack on his home city. At the end of the movie after Seita’s four year old sister dies of starvation he finds out that the entire Japanese navy had been sunk destroying all hope.

[@bkjeong4302]

Japan actually had a surprising number of ships left when they surrendered, including one complete and several near-complete purpose-built fleet carriers (which were useless because they'd run out of pilots years ago).

[@help8help]

@@bkjeong4302 I suppose the movie wasn’t 100% accurate, but the vast majority of Imperial Japan’s naval fleet was destroyed.

[@ianmclaughlin8987]

It would be fun to know more about the monkey mascot the crew had and trained to salute officers. Perhaps it died when the ship sank, or maybe was not onboard, probably we will never know as those pieces of history are lost to time sadly.

[@christopherhill4438]

This is the first I've heard about HMS Stronghold. I will be looking it up.

[@brucewelty7684]

A maya zing

[@marchellochiovelli7259]

I chuckled at this and admired your humor and word play.

[@paogene1288]

Will there be a video on the British Light Fleet or Essex CV history post ww2?

[@jonathanbaron-crangle5093]

New to your work, I'm impressed.

[@metaknight115]

What do you mean Maya scored not hits, she scored SEVEN hits on Salt Lake Ciry, leaving her temporarily dead in the water and suffering from a rudder jam, before helping to cripple the destroyer Baigly at 21,000 yards. Even Wikipedia, let alone a more accurate source, supports this

[@Bryster51]

With China salvaging all sorts of WW2 wrecks (War Graves) wonder if this ship is still there...

[@Straswa]

Curse those salvagers. Disturbing war graves is truly despicable.

[@k3D4rsi554maq]

Indeed, it is!

[@davidhorsley8461]

Great information and well done vidoe ❤

[@greggweber9967]

Hit'em when they're not looking? Now use planes against anti-submarine desturoyers and anything else?

[@michaelpielorz9283]

do not make jokes about ships being unable to sink a ship at close range using hundreds of shells,(:-)

[@MrMalvolio29]

Try not to speak in that monotone rhythm that makes it sound to your viewers that you are “bored” with the actually quite fascinating material you are presenting. You clearly research your topics thoroughly and have a great deal of interest to say.

[@jamesmurray8558]

A Jap cruiser stack is fat and falling back.From I'd book on subs.