Japan's Yukikaze Destroyer

[Tanz]

Japanese Destroyers are pretty well known for their night attacks and their powerful Type 93 Long Lance Torpedo.

 

The HIJMS Yukikaze

 

http://imageshack.us...9/coloryuk2.jpg

 

The Kagero class destroyers were the largest destroyers built at the time. Their design was based off of the Asashio class coupled with improvements. They were considered the perfect fleet destroyer. The Kagero class was approved in the 1937, and 1939 Programs and were laid down in the same period. The ships were completed between November, 1939, and June, 1941. Of the eighteen completed, only one survived the war, the Yukikaze.

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Yukikaze "Snowy Wind" was a Kagero-class destroyer in service with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She was the only member of her class to survive the war. The attrition rate of Japanese destroyers was extremely high due to heavy, prolonged combat and the need to use them to transport supplies to scattered Japanese island garrisons.

 

http://imageshack.us.../4871/yukia.jpg

 

Yukikaze, a 2033-ton destroyer built at Sasebo, Japan, was commissioned in January 1940. In December 1941, a few days after the beginning of the Pacific War, she supported landings at Legaspi, Luzon, and during the first two months of the next year was employed in the campaign to seize the Dutch East Indies. On 27 February 1942 Yukikaze was part of the Japanese cruiser-destroyer force that defeated the Allied naval units in the Battle of the Java Sea.

 

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Yukikaze screened troop transports during the Battle of the Midway in June 1942. She was next in action in the long and difficult Guadalcanal Campaign, serving as an escort in the carrier battles of the Eastern Solomons in August and the Santa Cruz Islands in October. She also participated in the chaotic night action off Guadalcanal on the night of 13 November 1942. In March 1943 Yukikaze was one of the few Japanese ships that survived relentless U.S. Air Force attacks during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. Four months later, in mid-July, she engaged Allied ships in the Battle of Kolombangara.

 

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In the June 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea Yukikaze served as an escort for the Japanese oilers. On 24-25 October, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, she was part of the primary striking force which, after enduring U.S. carrier plane attacks in the Sibuyan Sea, battled American escort aircraft carriers and their destroyer companions in the Battle off Samar.

 

Yukikaze participated in escort duty for ships in transit, particularly in the redeployment of Shinano during which the newly completed carrier was torpedoed by a USN submarine and sunk.

 

Yukikaze's last major combat operation, on 7 April 1945, was as part of the force built around the battleship Yamato in a desperate, and intentionally suicidal, attempt to attack U.S. forces off Okinawa. She was joined in the sortie by her sister ship, the Isokaze. The Isokaze was damaged severly in the raid and the Yukikaze was forced to sink her with her own batteries.

 

 

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Having escaped the air attacks that sank Yamato, Yukikaze returned to Japan. She spent the last months of the war on security duty in Japanese harbors and survived many Allied air raids. In late July 1945, shortly before the fighting ended, she was damaged by a mine, but was apparently not seriously hurt.

 

As a result of participating and surviving some of the most dangerous battles the IJN had fought, Yukikaze is very popular in Japan, being called "the unsinkable ship" and "the miracle ship" much like Shigure prior to that ship's sinking by USS Blackfin (SS-322). But some others within the IJN regarded the ship as a bad omen because ships the destroyer was tasked to escort tended to be sunk with heavy casualties.

 

 

One of the handful of Japan's larger destroyers (out of a hundred) to survive the war in serviceable condition, she was disarmed for use bringing Japanese military personnel and civilians home from that nation's former overseas empire. In July 1947, shortly after this task was completed, Yukikaze was transferred to the Chinese Navy, which renamed her Tan Yang. She accompanied the Nationalist Government to Taiwan after it was driven from the mainland in 1949 and continued in service for two more decades. The old destroyer was scrapped in 1971.

 

Her rudder and one of her anchors were repatriated to Japan.

 

Specifications

 

Name: Yukikaze

Launched: 24 March 1939

Commissioned: 20 January 1940

Struck: 5 October 1945

Fate: Transferred to Republic of China, 6 July 1947

 

Class & type: Kagero-class destroyer

Displacement: 2,490 long tons (2,530 t)

Length: 118.5 m (388 ft 9 in)

Beam: 10.8 m (35 ft 5 in)

Draft: 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in)

Speed: 35 knots (40 mph; 65 km/h)

Complement: 240

 

Armament:

6 × 5 in (127 mm)/50 caliber DP guns

up to 28 × 25 mm AA guns

up to 4 × 13 mm AA guns

8 × 24 in (610 mm) torpedo tubes

36 depth charges

[KaiserinStark]

These posts you make are wonderful, gives insight to people who are new to this area of knowledge, how many do you plan on doing?

[realtinytanker]

Cool review how long did it take you too make this?

[_Jeremiah_Gottwald]

As always Tanz, you are our ship dictionary. Awesome work mate.

[Tanz]

Roy2341, on 25 September 2012 - 12:17 AM, said:

These posts you make are wonderful, gives insight to people who are new to this area of knowledge, how many do you plan on doing?

Thx & glad you like them...this forum section is awesome I think.

On how many I'll post...its hard to say.
There are many classes of ships & yeah the Specs may be the same but the life of the ship is not, each ship has their own story.

realtinytanker, on 25 September 2012 - 12:58 AM, said:

Cool review how long did it take you too make this?

Took me longer than I thought :Smile_veryhappy:. Plus think because of all the pics I kept getting...Error 500... :Smile_ohmy: but eventually got it :Smile_teethhappy:

[Haguro]

A good read on the IJN Destroyers during the Solomons campaign is "Japanese Destroyer Captain" by Tameichi Hara.   You'll certainly want to hear what they found when the IJN DD Shigure entered drydock for refit.

[ReiAyanami]

Awesome read! I didn't know about the history of such a  survivor! GG Tanz

[Ariecho]

Here is a list of the Kagero destroyers that served during WW2.

 

Hamakaze -- Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Nagumo)  -- Sunk by aircraft 1945-4-7 off Okinawa

Isokaze -- Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Nagumo) -- Sunk by aircraft 1945-4-7 off Okinawa

Tanikaze -- Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Nagumo) -- Torpedoed by Harder 1944-6-9 off Tawitawi

Urakaze -- Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Nagumo) -- Torpedoed by Sealion 1944-11-16 off Formosa

Kagero -- Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Nagumo) -- Mined 1943-5-7 off Kolombangara

Shiranuhi -- Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Nagumo) -- Sunk by aircraft 1944-10-26 off Iloilo

Akigumo -- Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Nagumo) -- Torpedoed by Redfin 1944-4-11 off Zamboanga

Maikaze  -- Distant Cover Force (Kondo) in the South China Sea -- Sunk by gunfire 1944-2-17 off Truk

Nowaki -- Distant Cover Force (Kondo) in the South China Sea -- Sunk by gunfire 1944-10-26 off Legaspi

Hagikaze -- Distant Cover Force (Kondo) in the South China Sea -- Sunk by gunfire and torpedoes 1943-8-7 at Vella Gulf

Yukikaze -- Fourth Surprise Attack Force (Legaspi)

Tokitsukaze -- Fourth Surprise Attack Force (Legaspi) -- Sunk by aircraft 1943-3-4 in the Bismarck Sea

Amatsukaze -- Legaspi Support Force -- Sunk by aircraft 1945-4-6 off Amoy

Hatsukaze -- Legaspi Support Force -- Sunk by gunfire 1944-11-2 at Empress Augusta Bay

Hayashio  -- Legaspi Support Force -- Sunk by aircraft 1942-11-24 in the Solomons

Kuroshio -- Legaspi Support Force -- Mined 1943-5-8 off Kolombangara

Natsushio -- Legaspi Support Force -- Torpedoed by S-37 1942-2-9 off Makassar

Oyashio -- Legaspi Support Force -- Sunk by mines and aircraft 1943-5-8 off Kolombangara

Arashi -- Main Body  -- Sunk by gunfire and torpedoes 1943-8-7 at Vella Gulf

 

Source: Pacific War Online Encyclopedia

[Ariecho]

More pictures of the Yukikaze

 

http://www.history.n...000/s286586.jpg

 

http://www.history.n...000/s286585.jpg

 

http://www.history.n...000/s286589.jpg

 

http://www.history.n...3000/h73052.jpg

[IlonginusI]

Saw the post about the model then found this. Good information about the DD. I would get the model but not very good at making those.

[madmanthan21]

AWESOME as always