I wonder if anyone can help me identify the image below?

[url=http://siberianfox.com/images/stuff/fuso_or_yamashiro.jpg]
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It is either the Japanese battleship Fuso, or her sister ship Yamashiro, pictured before they were reconstructed in the 1930s.

The image was originally labelled Fuso, however our muddled friend Wikipedia thinks that the two vessels were constructed differently and that C turret was rear racing on Yamashiro and forward facing on Fuso. I'm not convinced.

I have an old warships encyclopaedia "Warships of the world" giving a line plan of Fuso pre-reconstruction with a rear facing turret. Sadly, there is no post-reconstruction image for comparison. Of course, being only an encyclopaedia of all warships and not a specialist book, it may also be mistaken.

Now, take a look at this photograph. After being modernised, both ships had the forward funnel removed. Fuso's bridge superstructure sweeps over C turret's turning arc, with a sizeable superstructure built around the centre funnel. Yamashio's bridge superstructure on the other hand was rebuild differently. It does not overhang C turret, whilst the centre island around the funnel is smaller. This photograph suggests to me that the two ships may have been built the same and that they were modernised differently, meaning only after reconstruction did Fuso's turret face forward while Yamashiro's faces rearward.

Coming back to the original photograph posted above: C turret faces rearwards. If there ships were built differently, then the image is definitely Yamashiro, not Fuso. If on the other hand they were built the same then it could be either.

Can anyone clear up at least part of this matter, if not identify the ship for sure?

Okay, I've just found two more print sources showing Fuso's original configuration as having C turret rear facing. Wikipedia is just badly written/misleading/wrong on that point.

If no one can positively identify the ship as Yamishiro then I'll assume it is Fuso as originally labelled. I have added it to Fuso's page here.

Fuso and Yamashiro looked identical from what I can tell when they were built. After reconstruction, apparently, Fuso had its airplane catapult at the rear, while Yamashiro had its over C turret.

Apparently....

These ships were so re-built it seems that there is confusion over that too. I just bought another battleship encyclopedia with a good number of large photographs (though only two of this ship) and according to that, after WWI Yamishiro was first given a forward flying-off ramp on B turret. Then later a catapult on the quarter-deck. Whilst Fuso was given it's first catapult on C turret, but it was later moved to the quarter-deck.

The photos such as this one that I've found labled "Fuso" would seem to agree that it was Fuso that had a C turret catapult at least for a while. Given the super-structure differences already discussed, that definitely is Fuso.

I'd be really interested to see side by side comparison shots of the Fuso & Yamashiro prior to reconstruction.



Oh my, what a mess.

I would imagine such images might be in "The Battleship Fuso" on Amazon. But at $125 there is no chance of me buying that any time soon.