The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia: KD6A Class, Japanese

Submarines (original) (raw)

Tonnage

1400 tons standard
1785 tons surfaced
2440 tons submerged

Dimensions

336'7" by 26'11" by 15'0"
102.59m by 8.20m by 4.57m

Maximum speed

23 knots (surfaced)
8.2 knots (submerged)

Dive

to nearly 250 feet (76 meters)

Complement

60-84

Armament

1 4.7"/45 dual-purpose gun
1 13mm/76 machine gun
6 21" torpedotubes (14 torpedoes)

Machinery

2-shaft diesel (9000 hp) or electric (1800 hp)

Bunkerage

341 tons diesel oil

Range

14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km) at 10 knots surfaced
65 nautical miles (120km) at 3 knots submerged

Modifications

Late 1942: I-171 and I-174 were converted to transport submarines by removing the 4.7" gun and some torpedoes and adding a Daihatsu landing craft.

The KD6As were completed between 1934 and 1938 and were the first Japanese submarines designed outside the limitations of the naval treaties. Designated as large fleet submarines (Kaigun-dai), they had stonger pressure hulls and better engines than earlier Japanese submarine classes. They also had the highest surface speed of any submarines built to that time. They were renumbered by adding 100 to the original number (so that I-68, for example, became I-168) in May 1942.