Ashizuri-class combat support ship

The Ashizuri class was a class of two combat support ships, fleet oilers, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy and named Ashizuri and Shioya. In 1940 the navy planned two classes of support ship to serve its aircraft carriers, the 4,500-ton Sunosaki class and this larger 8,000-ton class, which was meant to supply two big carriers of the Akagi, Kaga and Shōkaku types in the battlefield, on the model of the American USS Sacramento. The two ships did not join the navy until mid-1943, when the Japanese fleet was well and truly on the back foot, and they spent their service delivering fuel oil around Southeast Asia on convoy duty. Their top speed of 16 knots meant they could not have kept up with the fast carrier battle groups. Ashizuri was sunk by the submarine USS Puffer on 5 June 1944, and Shioya was lost to USS Rasher three days later. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built both ships at its Nagasaki shipyard, according to the article's ships table.