Her 3rd main battery turret was removed as well as her aircraft hangar in favor of a whole lot of 25 mm AA guns in single and triple mounts, 13.2 mm machine guns and six twin 127 mm dual-purpose secondaries. With the ever-growing threat of enemy carriers, Maya would undergo in early 1944 a conversion into an anti-aircraft cruiser. She was brought back to Yokosuka for repairs in January 1943 and in March, Maya was back to business for the Battle of Komandorski Islands against US cruisers and destroyers with both sides being damaged in the engagement. The fire that broke out forced the crew to jettison the torpedoes to avoid an explosion. She would later be damaged by a dive bomber from the USS Enterprise that crashed on the ship. Halsey after the Doolittle Raid but failed to establish contact with them.įrom August 1942, Maya would take part in the Battle of Guadalcanal and would be part of the operation that saw the sinking of the USS Hornet. In April 1942, Maya was part of the fleet in charge of pursuing Task Force 16.2 led by Admiral William F. She was also deployed in the Dutch East Indies and took part in the sinking of HMS Stronghold, USS Pillsbury and USS Asheville. She was providing fire support during the Invasion of the Northern Philippines. Later on, the ship would take an active part in the Second World War. As such, the ships weren’t rebuilt as extensively.
While Takao and Atago were rebuilt to fix these issues, Maya and Choukai were deployed in 1937 as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
During this time, it was discovered that the Takao-class was suffering from stability and seaworthiness issues due to their top-heavy design. The ship spent most of her early career in training as part of the IJN 2nd fleet. Alongside her sisters Takao, Atago and Choukai, she was one of the most modern cruisers of the Japanese Navy. The ship was laid down in December 1928, launched in November 1930 and commissioned in June 1932. Maya was the 3rd ship of the Takao-class of heavy cruisers from the Imperial Japanese Navy.
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