Japanese Destroyer Makigumo (1941)

''Makigumo'' was a of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her name means "Cirrus Clouds" (Rolling Clouds).

Design and description

The ''Yūgumo'' class was a repeat of the preceding with minor improvements that increased their anti-aircraft capabilities. Their crew numbered 228 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. 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 main armament of the ''Yūgumo'' class consisted of six Type 3 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. The guns were able to elevate up to 75° to increase their ability against aircraft, but their slow rate of fire, slow traversing speed, and the lack of any sort of high-angle fire-control system meant that they were virtually useless as anti-aircraft guns. 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 in a two quadruple traversing mounts; one reload was carried for each tube. Their anti-submarine weapons comprised two depth charge throwers for which 36 depth charges were carried.

Career

Following the Battle of Midway in June 1942, downed American aircrew SBD Ensign Frank W. O'Flaherty and AMM1c Bruno Gaido were pulled from the water by ''Makigumo''. After an interrogation, the crew tied weights around the feet of O'Flaherty and Gaido and threw them into the Pacific to drown, instead of keeping them prisoner until they reached Japan. ''Makigumo''s crew thought of it as payback for the loss in the battle of Midway of the aircraft carriers ''Akagi'', ''Kaga'', ''Sōryū'', and ''Hiryū'', which had formed two-thirds of the ''Kidō Butai'' Pearl Harbor attack force.

Shortly after the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the early hours of 27 October 1942, ''Makigumo'' along with the destroyer sank the heavily damaged and abandoned aircraft carrier . US destroyers had attempted to sink ''Hornet'' earlier but failed to do so before Japanese naval forces forced the US ships to withdraw. Despite this, the Japanese failed in their mission to bombard Henderson Field. The following day, ''Makigumo'' rescued a downed American airman, ARM3c Michael "Mick" Glasser from , but unlike O'Flaherty and Gaido, Glasser was taken aboard and transferred to Truk and then to Japan, where he remained a Prisoner of War until the war ended.

On 1 February 1943, ''Makigumo'' was on a troop evacuation run to Guadalcanal. While maneuvering to avoid a PT boat attack, she struck a mine. The destroyer removed 237 survivors, including Cdr Isamu Fujita, and scuttled ''Makigumo'' with a torpedo, south-southwest of Savo Island ().

References

Bibliography

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External links

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makigumo (1942)
Yūgumo-class destroyers
World War II destroyers of Japan
Ships sunk by mines
Shipwrecks in the Solomon Sea
1941 ships
Maritime incidents in February 1943
Ships built by Fujinagata Shipyards