Japanese Destroyer Tamanami

was a of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

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.Whitley, p. 203 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 , though they managed 35.5 knots on trials.

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.Campbell, p. 192 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

''Tamanami'' was commissioned at Osaka on April 30 1943 in the middle of WW2 for Japan, and was thus immediately relegated to destroyer division 11 for training duties, transiting between Kure and Hashirajima operating alongside the first fleet. These operations were kept up for several months, and it was on June 8 that ''Tamanami'' was anchored off Hashirajima when the battleship '' Mutsu'' suddenly and mysteriously erupted in a magazine explosion and sank in harbor, prompting the destroyer to assist the sinking ''Mutsu'', but she didn't manage to rescue any survivors.

On June 23, ''Tamanami'' departed Hashirajima to rescue survivors from the sunken transport ship '' Sagara Maru'', then on the 28th practiced towing the battleship '' Nagato'', managing a speed of 12 knots. From July 10-15, ''Tamanami'' escorted seaplane tenders from Yokosuka to Truk, then departed on a troop transport run to Nauru and back to Truk, then escorted a troop convoy to Palau and back. From September 18-25, ''Tamanami'' escorted the combined fleet on a mission to counterattack US carrier raids, but this did not yield combat. From October 14-19, she escorted the aircraft carrier ''Junyō'' to Truk, then spent November operating with heavy cruiser groups. More escorting duties rounded out 1943 before ''Tamanami'' returned to Kure.

With the start of 1944, ''Tamanami'' departed Kure on escorting duties, and returned to Yokosuka on February 15 escorting the battleship '' Musashi''. From March 22 to April 2, ''Tamanami'' escorted a troop convoy from Japan to Saipan, and on April 20 returned to Yokosuka. From May 10-16, ''Tamanami'' escorted ''Musashi'' and several light carriers to Tawitawi, and from June 19-20 escorted Admiral Kurita's vanguard force at the battle of the Philippine Sea, where the force came under light air attacks from US aircraft carriers, but ''Tamanami'' was not damaged. Afterwards, from June 23-29, the destroyer escorted the oil tanker ''Kokuyo Maru'' from Okinawa to Singapore.

On July 7, ''Tamanami'' was escorting ''Kokuyo Maru'' from Singapore towards Manila. However, little did the Japanese ships know, they were not alone as the submarine USS ''Mingo'' was patrolling the area when she spotted the two ships and prepared to intercept them. ''Tamanami'' spotted ''Mingo'' and engaged the submarine with depth charges, but inflicted no damage. ''Mingo'' in turn fired torpedoes at ''Tamanami'', but she evaded all of them. About an hour passed when ''Mingo'' swerved into firing position again and let out four torpedoes, and in an impressive feat of accuracy, three of these four torpedoes gouged into ''Tamanami''. Within an instant, anything that could explode did and ''Tamanami'' rapidly sank, and within a few moments, there was not a single trace of the destroyer left. There were no survivors.

Citations

References

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External links

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamanami
Yūgumo-class destroyers
World War II destroyers of Japan
World War II shipwrecks in the South China Sea
1942 ships
Maritime incidents in July 1944
Ships sunk by American submarines
Ships lost with all hands
Naval magazine explosions
Ships built by Fujinagata Shipyards