Japanese Destroyer Hagikaze

''Hagikaze'' was one of 19 s built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the 1930s.

Design and description

The ''Kagerō'' class was an enlarged and improved version of the preceding . Their crew numbered 240 officers and enlisted men. The ships measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of . They displaced at standard load and at deep load.Whitley, pp. 200–01 The ships had two Kampon geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of for a designed speed of . The ships had a range of at a speed of .Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 148

The main armament of the ''Kagerō'' class consisted of six Type 3 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. They were built with four Type 96 anti-aircraft guns in two twin-gun mounts, but more of these guns were added over the course of the war. The ships were also armed with eight torpedo tubes for the oxygen-fueled Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo in two quadruple traversing mounts; one reload was carried for each tube. Their anti-submarine weapons comprised 16 depth charges.

Construction and career

With the start of WW2 for Japan, ''Hagikaze'' escorted Admiral Kondō's main body throughout the invasion of the Philippines and Dutch East Indies, before escorting invasion convoys for the same purpose. On February 15, ''Hagikaze'' conducted shore bombardment to cover Japanese troop landings, then operated alongside Japanese aircraft carriers for the following months, finally returning to Japan on April 22, where she was docked for maintenance.

''Hagikaze'' escorted Japanese aircraft carriers in what became known as the battle of Midway, during which four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser were fatally damaged by American carrier aircraft. Near the end of the battle, the fatally wounded aircraft carrier was scuttled by ''Hagikaze''s two torpedoes, ''Kaga'' being scorched by US dive bombers from the aircraft carrier during the battle. Throughout the following months, ''Hagikaze'' departed on escorting and transport missions, being damaged by a bomb hit from B-17s which destroyed her X turret, forcing her into repairs for the rest of the year into February 22, 1943. Throughout March, ''Hagikaze'' operated alongside the escort carrier '' Chūyō'', then escorted the battleships '' Kongō'' and '' Haruna'' to Truk, before seeing out escorting and transport missions, with an interruption on May 8 when she attempted to assist the crippled destroyers '' Kagerō'' and '' Oyashio'', but failed to arrive before they were finished off by land based aircraft, then it was back to escorting and transport missions. On August 2, she took part in a troop transport mission when her consort, the destroyer '' Amagiri'', rammed and sank the US torpedo boat '' PT-109'', commanded by future US president John F Kennedy.

Battle of Vella Gulf

On 6 August 1943, ''Hagikaze'' along with the destroyers ''Arashi'', '' Kawakaze'', and '' Shigure'' were tasked with departing on a troop transport mission. The mission was opposed by Captain Tameichi Hara of ''Shigure'', as they had already done the same exact route 3 times, and was worried their repeated strategy would be realized by US forces. However, his worries were dismissed as ''Hagikaze'' departed as lead ship of the group as Admiral Sugira Kajū's flagship. While underway, heavy rainsqualls completely blinded the port side, visibility was only 200 yards.Hara (1961) Chapter 24

However, Captain Hara's worries would soon be realized as a cluster of American destroyers detected ''Hagikaze's'' group on radar, prompting three of them, , , and , which the darkness of the early morning of 7 August 1943, ambushed the group, taking advantage of the weather to close to point blank range at a parallel angle to the Japanese destroyers and fired a total of 24 torpedoes.

About 5 minutes later, completely to the surprise of her crew, two of these torpedoes slammed into ''Hagikaze'', immediately destroying all of her guns and torpedoes. ''Hagikaze'' came to a halt and began to list heavily to port with immense flooding overwhelming damage control. Shortly afterwards, two more torpedoes hit ''Arashi'', while one more hit ''Kawakaze'', crippling or fatally wounding both ships. A sixth and final torpedo hit ''Shigure'', but it was a dud and failed to damage the ship. Once all torpedoes made their mark, ''Dunlap, Craven,'' and ''Maury'' all opened fire with their gun batteries, delivering the final blows to the three torpedoed vessels. Several 5-inch (127 mm) shell hits blasted ''Hagikaze'', and in turn her crew could only response with machine gunfire, which failed to dismay the enemy as ''Hagikaze'' finally sank minutes later with the loss of 178 men. Simultaneously, ''Arashi'' and ''Kawakaze'' were also sunk with the loss of 178 and 168 men respectively, while ''Shigure'' unleashed a spread of torpedoes, which failed to hit their targets, before retreating from the scene. There were about 50 survivors from ''Hagikaze'' which were either rescued by the Americans or swam to Kolombangara island. Among the survivors was Admiral Kajū, who swam to Kolombangara and spent over a week surviving in the wilderness before being rescued by Japanese forces.

Notes

References

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* Hara, Capt. Tameichi (1961). ''Japanese Destroyer Captain''. New York: Ballantine Books. .

External links

CombinedFleet.com: ''Kagero''-class destroyers

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hagizake
Hagikaze
World War II destroyers of Japan
Ships of the Battle of Midway
Shipwrecks in the Solomon Sea
1940 ships
Maritime incidents in August 1943
Ships built by Uraga Dock Company