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IJN-AKS-洞海丸

IJN - AKS - 洞海丸（どうかいまる）

輸送艦 - 洞海丸

公試排水量 Displacement 11,500.0 t
全長 Length 177.2 m
最大幅 Beam 26.0 m
水线幅 Waterline Width 25.0 m
吃水 Draft 7.00 m
出力 Propulsion 30,000 hp
速力 Speed 32.0 knots

Doukai maru is a multi-purpose transport ship built by the Imperial Navy in the middle of the war based on the original civilian merchant ship "Doukai maru". It is mainly used as a material transport ship and repair ship when accompanying the expeditionary fleet.
Doukai maru has derived a variety of improved models based on the original merchant ship Doukai maru. This transport ship, which can sail with the fleet at high speed and is equipped with several guns for self-defense, made a huge contribution to the transportation of materials between the Empire's island bases during the Pacific Island Chain Operation in the middle and late stages of the war.
Compared with the several types of transport ships and repair ships previously built by the Empire, the cost of Doukai maru can be said to be quite high. This expenditure model is a bold attempt for the Navy, which has always invested its budget in major combat ships. If there had not been a large-scale expansion of the Empire in China and Southeast Asia in the middle of the war, this model would have brought a burden that cannot be underestimated to the expenditure of the Imperial Navy.
For the Doukai Maru, its biggest threat still comes from the dozens of submarines deployed by the United States in the Pacific island chain and surrounding waters. The huge threat posed by submarines to this type of transport ship forced the island chain bases to dispatch a series of reconnaissance aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft to carry out careful escort missions for the fleet of this type of transport ship. Such actions did yield some results, but in post-war assessments, people found that more than half of the Doukai Maru-type transport ships were still sunk due to torpedo strikes from submarines and bombers.
It is worth mentioning that due to the limited deck space and the layout mode of accommodating the largest possible cargo hold, as a non-combat ship, the lifeboats of the Doukai Maru are relatively insufficient. The entire ship is equipped with only 8 unpowered lifeboats, two of which need to be placed by the large crane at the front of the ship for loading and unloading cargo. This results in the probability of the crew of the Doukai Maru being rescued after falling into the water relatively low..