IJN SUBMARINES & MTB SECTIONS

Submarines: The Kaidai-7-class, or KD-7, was developed in the late 1930s, following on from the preceding KD-6 class. With a surface range of 8,000nm at 16kts, and a submerged endurance of 50nm at 5kts, they possessed a slightly better underwater performance to the late-model KD-6s and better surface speed (though not range) than the earlier members of that class. All members of the class were lost by mid-1944. Another ocean-going submersible using 533mm forward and aft torpedo tubes, it served in the South Pacific as well as the waters off Australia. I-177 sunk the hospital ship AHS Centaur off Stradbroke Island. It was presumed lost with all hands on 18 November 1944, while the I-176 was lost six months earlier off of the Solomon’s. There were 10 KD-7 submarines built overall.