Japanese Destroyer Urakaze (1940)

''Urakaze'' was one of 19 s built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the 1930s-40s.

Design and construction

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.

''Urakaze'' was laid down on 11 April 1939, launched on 10 April 1940, and finally commissioned later that December. Upon the start of 1940, ''Urakaze'' was appointed as Captain Sugiura Kijū's flagship of destroyer division 17 (''Urakaze, Tanikaze, Isokaze, Hamakaze'') and embarked on a series of training and patrol duties during the year of peace time she experienced.

Second World War

On November 18 1941, ''Urakaze'' arrived at Hitokappu Bay for an unknown mission, and on the 22nd departed to escort the Kido Butai aircraft carrier force. This mysterious mission was actually to escort the carriers to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was carried out on December 7. ''Urakaze'' then spent the rest of 1941 and into February of 1942 escorting the Kido Butai on various air strikes on Wake Island, Rabaul, and Port Darwin, before escorting them in operations in the Java Sea.

On March 4, ''Urakaze'' was detached alongside the heavy cruiser '' Chikuma'' to track down the Dutch freighter ''Enggano'', which had been earlier damaged by a floatplane from the heavy cruiser '' Takao''. On March 5, ''Urakaze'' and ''Chikuma'' located ''Enggano'' and combined fire to sink the helpless freighter. On March 7, ''Urakaze'' bombarded Christmas Island, before escorting the Kido Butai during the Indian Ocean Raid, and at the end of April being docked for refit in Kure.

From June 4-5, ''Urakaze'' escorted aircraft carriers during the battle of Midway, where she witnessed four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser being sunk to American aircraft carrier attacks, then escorted the aircraft carrier ''Zuikaku'' from Kure to Ominato from June 15-23, then from the rest of June into July patrolled outside of Ominato. With the start of the Guadalcanal campaign, ''Urakaze'' saw service partaking in troop transport missions to Guadalcanal, and while escorting the Milne invasion force on August 25 she took minor damage from aircraft strafing which killed one man and injured three others. After more transport missions, on October 26, ''Urakaze'' escorted carriers during the battle of Santa Cruz, then took part in supply drum transports to Guadalcanal.

On Christmas day 1943, ''Urakaze'' assisted the damaged destroyer '' Uzuki'' and the transport ship ''Nankai Maru'', then saw more troop transport and convoy escorting missions during the final months of the Guadalcanal campaign, and at the start of February 1943 took part in the evacuation of Guadalcanal, then assisted the damaged destroyer '' Harusame''. ''Urakaze'' then engaged in several convoy escorting missions between Japanese occupied Islands, and from September 18-25 escorted the combined fleet to counterattack US carrier raids but saw no combat, then escorted a troop convoy to Kavieng. On November 11, ''Urakaze'' took minor strafing damage during an air raid on Rabaul, then escorted the crippled light cruiser '' Agano'' to Truk. After rescuing survivors from the sunken escort carrier '' Chūyō'', she was docked for repairs in Kure, where her X turret was removed and replaced with anti aircraft guns, with repairs finished on December 5.

Throughout January of 1944, ''Urakaze'' took part in convoy escorting duties, and in February she escorted combined fleet between Truk, Palau, and Lingga. More convey escorting ensued, and in June she rescued survivors from the destroyers '' Hayanami'' and '' Tanikaze'' on patrol duties. On June 18-19, ''Urakaze'' escorted carriers during the Battle of Philippine Sea, she assisted survivors of the aircraft carrier , which was sunk by the submarine , and slightly damaged the attacking submarine with depth charges. At the end of July, ''Urakaze'' took part in a troop transport mission to Okinawa, then escorted the battleships '' Fusō'' and '' Yamashiro'' to Lingga from September 22 to October 4, then escorted combined fleet to Brunai on the 20th.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

On October 22, ''Urakaze'' departed Brunai as part of Admiral Kurita's center force to take part in the battle of Leyte Gulf. From the 23rd to 24th, ''Urakaze'' survived the submarine and air attacks that sank and damaged numerous Japanese warships with only minor damage from strafing runs. The next day, ''Urakaze'' encountered Taffy 3, a force of six US escort carriers, three destroyers, and four destroyer escorts. ''Urakaze'' operated in a destroyer line that consisted of herself, '' Yukikaze'', Isokaze, and '' Nowaki'' led by the light cruiser '' Yahagi''. Together, they took part in a torpedo on US escort carriers attack that failed to score any hits, then engaged the crippled destroyer USS ''Johnston'', with the resulting shell hits disabling her remaining guns and engines, setting her on fire, and delivering the Coup De Grace that sank the destroyer over an the course of an hour. Air and surface attacks sank three heavy cruisers and caused Kurita to lose his nerve and retreat from the battle. On the 26th, air attacks sank a light cruiser and several destroyers, but ''Urakaze'' managed to return to Brunai on the 28th.

Sinking

With the invasion of the Philippines by allied forces becoming increasingly successful, it was time for the Japanese fleet to retreat back to mainland Japan, with ''Urakaze'' departing on November 16 alongside the rest of combined fleet. Three days later, ''Urakaze'' was still underway when the fleet was detected by the submarine USS ''Sealion'', which fired six torpedoes, three of which hit their intended target and sank the battleship '' Kongō''. ''Sealion'' then fired three more torpedoes. They missed their intended target, the battleship '' Nagato'', but one of these torpedoes hit ''Urakaze''. She immediately exploded and sank with all hands, including Commander Destroyer Division 17, Captain Tamotsu Tanii.

Notes

References

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External links

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urakaze
Kagerō-class destroyers
World War II destroyers of Japan
Ships sunk by American submarines
1940 ships
World War II shipwrecks in the East China Sea
Warships lost in combat with all hands
Maritime incidents in November 1944
Ships built by Fujinagata Shipyards