Classic Firepower ~ 🇯🇵 Fusō Devblog [War Thunder Update "Fire and Ice"]

Gaijin's loving on some beautiful dreadnought battleships these days! Let's take a look at a new piece of old kit for the Japanese Navy coming as part of the next major update "Fire and Ice"!

The Link: https://warthunder.com/en/news/7899-development-fus%C5%8D-a-broadside-to-remember-en

#warthunder #news #devblog

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Credits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Fus%C5%8D
worldnavalships.com/fuso.htm#:~:text=Compliment%201396%20crew-,Armament.,Each%20battleship%20had%20three%20aircraft.
https://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/detail.php?ship_id=IJN-Fuso

The Fuso was the lead ship of a class of battleships built by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Despite being commissioned in 1915, she took no part in World War I having been stationed off the coast of China for routine patrol. She was modernized twice, once in the early 1930s and again in the late 1930s, however her 14 inch guns and overall design relegated her as outdated and outclassed compared to the newer, modern Japanese battleships that were fielded in World War II.

During World War II, the Fuso performed primarily auxiliary roles, such as escorting the Aleutian Support Group in 1942 and as a training ship in 1943. While the Fuso did a few minor actions, such as rescuing survivors of the Mutsu when that ship exploded, the Fuso spent most of its time either fleeing from American air raids or working as a training ship. In late 1944, she became the flagship of Battleship Division 2 of the 2nd Fleet. In October that same year, she was sent to intercept the American invasion of Leyte as part of the Southern Force, where it was sunk during the Battle of Surigao Strait by both bomb and torpedo attacks. Only 10 men are known to have survived, with casualties estimated at 1620.

The wreck of the Fuso was discovered by Research Vessel Petrel in 607 feet of water, mostly intact with the pagoda mast separated some distance from the wreck.

The Fuso was 213 meters long, 33 meters abeam, 10 meter draft and weighed in at 34,700 long tons. Her 6 installed water tube boilers drove 75000 shaft horsepower into 4 steam turbines for a top speed of 24.5 knots, not bad for a ship of her age and class. She was armed with 12x 356mm guns main armament in twin mounts, 14x 152mm single mount secondary guns, 8x 127mm dual purpose guns in twin mounts, and a whole mess of 25mm guns... looks like about 59 in various single, twin and triple mounts, later upgraded to a whopping 89 after the Battle of Midway. Armor was pretty decent, varying from 203 to 351mm on most surfaces, though the deck was only around 51mm. The Fuso was equipped with air search, early warning and surface search radar and could carry up to 3 float planes.

In War Thunder, the Fuso will be joining the Japanese Rank V battleship line complete with all its features in late war configuration. Note that multiple sources report a speed of 24+ knots, but Gaijin is reporting only 21 knots. Some sources report less 25mm guns, though one reported a total of 95, even more than Gaijin's devblog.