Japanese cruiser Naka

Naka in 1925, at Yokohama prior to commissioning
History
Empire of Japan
Name:	Naka
Namesake:
Ordered:	1920 Fiscal Year
Laid down:	10 June 1922
Launched:	24 March 1925
Commissioned:	30 November 1925
Struck:	31 March 1944
Fate:	sunk 18 February 1944 bombed by USN carrier aircraft near Truk 07°15′N 151°15′E / 7.250°N 151.250°E / 7.250; 151.250.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Sendai-class light cruiser
Displacement:	5,195 long tons (5,278 t) (standard)
Length:	152.4 m (500 ft 0 in)
Beam:	14.2 m (46 ft 7 in)
Draft:	4.9 m (16 ft 1 in)
Installed power:	90,000 shp (67,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × Parsons geared turbines 10 × Kampon boilers 4 × shafts
Speed:	35.3 kn (65.4 km/h; 40.6 mph)
Range:	5,000 nmi (9,000 km; 6,000 mi) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement:	452
Armament:	7 × 140 mm (5.5 in) guns (7x1) 2 × 80 mm (3 in) anti-aircraft guns 8 × 610 mm (24 in) torpedo tubes (4x2) 48 × mines
Armor:	Belt: 64 mm (2.5 in) Deck: 29 mm (1.1 in)
Aircraft carried:	1 × floatplane
Aviation facilities:	1 × catapult

Naka (那珂^?) was a Sendai-class light cruiser in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), named after the in the and Ibaraki prefectures of eastern Japan. Naka was the third (and final) vessel completed in the Sendai class of light cruisers, and like other vessels of her class, she was intended for use as the flagship of a destroyer flotilla.

Naka was completed at Mitsubishi Yokohama on 30 November 1925.

On 26 November 1941, Naka became flagship of 4th Destroyer Flotilla under Rear Admiral Shōji Nishimura. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Naka was engaged in the invasion of the southern Philippines as part of Vice Admiral Ibo Takahashi's Third Fleet escorting transports with components of the IJA 48th Infantry Division. Naka was slightly damaged by strafing by five Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers and Seversky P-35 Guardsman and Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk fighters of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Far East Air Force.