Battle of the Malacca Strait
Part of thePacific theater ofWorld War II
Japanese cruiserHaguro,c. 1936
Date 15–16 May 1945 Location Strait of Malacca,Indian Ocean 4°N100°E / 4°N 100°E /4; 100 Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Manley Power	Shigeru Fukudome Shintaro Hashimoto † Kaju Sugiura †
Strength
5 destroyers	1 heavy cruiser 1 destroyer
Casualties and losses
2 killed 3 wounded 1 destroyer damaged[1]	927 killed 1 heavy cruiser sunk 1 destroyer damaged[2]

TheBattle of the Malacca Strait, sometimes called theSinking ofHaguro, and in Japanese sources as theBattle off Penang (ペナン沖海戦), was a naval battle that resulted from the British search-and-destroy operation in May 1945, calledOperation Dukedom, that resulted in the sinking of the Japanese cruiserHaguro.Haguro had been operating as a supply ship for Japanese garrisons in theDutch East Indies and theBay of Bengal since 9 April 1945.

On 9 May,Haguro leftSingapore, escorted by the destroyerKamikaze, to evacuate theJapanese garrison in the Andaman Islands located inPort Blair back toSingapore.^[3] TheRoyal Navy was alerted to this by a decryptedJapanese naval signal,^[4][5] subsequently confirmed by a sighting by the submarinesHMS Statesman andSubtle. Force 61 of theEastern Fleet set sail on 10 May fromTrincomalee,Ceylon, to intercept the Japanese ships. The Japanese were unwilling to risk any battle and, on receipt of an air reconnaissance warning, they returned to Singapore.

On 14 May,Haguro andKamikaze tried again and left Singapore. The next day, they were spotted by aircraft from Force 61. The subsequent bombing attack byGrumman Avenger Mk.IIs of851 Naval Air Squadron caused only minor damage toHaguro, for the loss of one aircraft whose crew was taken prisoner by the Japanese.

Information was relayed to the Japanese that two British destroyer squadrons had been sighted heading towards them. Again, they reversed course to return to theMalacca Strait. This change had been anticipated, however, and the 26th Destroyer Flotilla, under CaptainManley Power, steamed to intercept. The flotilla was made up ofHMS Saumarez (flotilla leader) and the V-class destroyers,Verulam,Venus,Vigilant, andVirago.

In heavy rain squalls with lightning,Venus made radar contact at 34 nmi (39 mi; 63 km).^[6] The British destroyers arranged themselves in a crescent cordon and allowed the Japanese ships to sail into the trap.

At 01:05,Venus, parallel toHaguro as she raced past the north-westernmost ship in Power's force, found herself in a perfect attacking position. But the Torpedo Control Officer aboardVenus had made the wrong angle settings on her eight tubes, the opportunity was lost andVenus heeled hard over to port to clear the target area but still maintain the encirclement.Haguro, thinkingVenus had launched torpedoes, altered course away tocomb the tracks. In so doing, she turned south and deeper into the trap.^[7]

Saumarez andVerulam were now well positioned to make their attacks.Haguro appeared fine offSaumarez's port bow at a range of 6,000 yards (3.4 miles), each ship closing at 30 knots. At the same time, the Japanese destroyerKamikaze appeared off the starboard bow, crossing from starboard to port, only 3,000 yards away and on a collision course.Saumarez's second salvo from her two forward, radar-controlled 4.7 inch guns struckKamikaze and40mm Bofors shells from the British ship's aft twin-mounting ripped the 320 ft length of the Japanese destroyer asSaumarez heeled to starboard.Haguro now fired her first broadside of eight^[8] 200 mm (8 inch) and four 120 mm (4.7 inch) guns atSaumarez.^[7] Tremendous waterspouts thrown up alongside swamped the British flotilla leader's upper decks asHaguro was seen clearly three miles away in the light of both sides' star-shells.

At 01:11, just as she was about to fire torpedoes,Saumarez was hit. The top of her funnel disappeared over the side and a 120 mm shell penetrated No. 1 Boiler Room, severed a steam main and lodged inside the boiler. Five men were scalded, two of whom died, but as with the 200 mm shell hit, this shell failed to explode at such close range and was later thrown overboard.^[7]

At 01:15,Haguro was hit by three torpedoes fromSaumarez andVerulam. AsSaumarez limped northward from the immediate battle area, a violent explosion created confusion. Power thought it wasKamikaze blowing up and men onVirago andVigilant thought it wasSaumarez, but it was probably two torpedoes colliding.^[7] Another possibility would be a Japanese torpedo, which had a much larger warhead than allied torpedoes, exploding in the wake of a ship. HistorianSamuel Eliot Morison records at least two such episodes earlier in the war.^[9][10]Venus hitHaguro with one torpedo at 01:25, andVirago stoppedHaguro with two more torpedo hits two minutes later. The Japanese cruiser finally sank at 02:06 after receiving another torpedo fromVigilant, two more fromVenus, and nearly an hour of gunfire from the 26th Flotilla.^[6]

Saumarez's mainaerial and a funnel top had been shot away, and an 200 mm shell nicked theforecastle. Two men were killed and three burned in the boiler room when a 120 mm shell severed the main steam pipe. There was no damage to the remainder of the 26th Flotilla.^[6]

Kamikaze was also damaged, but escaped, returning the next day to rescue survivors. About 320 survived, but over 900 died, including the Japanese commanders, Vice-AdmiralShintaro Hashimoto and Rear-AdmiralKaju Sugiura.^{[citation needed]}

This was one of the last major surface gun and torpedo actions of World War II. LordLouis Mountbatten, himself a distinguished destroyer captain, described it in his Report to theCombined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) as 'an outstanding example of a night attack by destroyers.'^[7]

The wreck was discovered sitting upright in 2003 and partially explored by a group of specialised shipwreck divers aboard MVEmpress. In 2010 another diving expedition, also aboard MVEmpress, surveyed the wreck in detail.^[11]In 2014, the wreck was ravaged by illegal salvagers for scrap metal.^[12]

• Chen, Peter (2004–2007)."Haguro".World War II Database. Retrieved22 February 2007.
• Hackett, Bob; Sander Kingsepp (1997–2006)."HIJMS Haguro: Tabular Record of Movement".(Combinedfleet.com).Archived from the original on 10 March 2007. Retrieved22 February 2007.
• Hough, Stan (1998)."H.M.S. VIGILANT. 1945".Stan Hough. Archived fromthe original on 10 July 2007. Retrieved22 February 2007. – Firsthand account of the battle by a member of HMSVigilant's crew.
• Lacroix, Eric; Linton Wells (1997).Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
• Muir, Dan."Order of Battle, Battle off Penang (Loss of IJN Haguro)".(navweaps.com). Retrieved22 February 2007.
• Nevitt, Allyn D. (1998)."IJN Kamikaze: Tabular Record of Movement".(Combinedfleet com).Archived from the original on 12 January 2007. Retrieved22 February 2007.
• Roskill, S. W. (1960).White Ensign, the British Navy At War, 1939–1945. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute.OCLC 4092832.
• Winton, John (1969).The Forgotten Fleet. Michael Joseph.ISBN 0-7181-0643-1.
• Winton, John (1981).Sink the Haguro. Saunders of Toronto.ISBN 0-85422-152-2.

• I Was There! - We Settled a Jap Cruiser in Malacca Straits,The War Illustrated, 17 August 1945]

• Conflicts in 1945
• 1945 in British Malaya
• Battles and operations of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II
• Naval battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom
• Naval battles of World War II involving Japan
• Strait of Malacca
• Military history of Malaya during World War II

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