 Asagumo underway on 14 September 1939 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Empire of Japan | |
| Name | Asagumo |
| Ordered | 1934 Maru-2 Program |
| Builder | Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Laid down | 23 December 1936 |
| Launched | 5 November 1937 |
| Commissioned | 30 March 1938 |
| Stricken | 10 January 1945 |
| Fate | Sunk inBattle of Surigao Strait, 25 October 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Asashio-classdestroyer |
| Displacement | 2,370 long tons (2,408 t) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 10.386 m (34 ft 0.9 in) |
| Draft | 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in) |
| Propulsion | 2-shaft geared turbine, 3 boilers, 50,000 shp (37,285 kW) |
| Speed | 35knots (40 mph; 65 km/h) |
| Range | |
| Complement | 230 |
| Armament |
|
| Service record | |
| Part of: |
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| Operations: |
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| Victories: |
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Asagumo (朝雲,Morning Cloud)[1] was the fifth of tenAsashio-classdestroyers built for theImperial Japanese Navy in the mid-1930s under theCircle Two Supplementary Naval Expansion Program (Maru Ni Keikaku).
TheAsashio-class destroyers were larger and more capable that the precedingShiratsuyu class, as Japanese naval architects were no longer constrained by the provisions of theLondon Naval Treaty. Theselight cruiser-sized vessels were designed to take advantage of Japan’s lead intorpedo technology, and to accompany the Japanese main striking force and in both day and night attacks against theUnited States Navy as it advanced across thePacific Ocean, according to Japanese naval strategic projections.[2] Despite being one of the most powerful classes of destroyers in the world at the time of their completion, none survived thePacific War.[3]
Asagumo, built at theKawasaki Shipyards inKobe was laid down on December 23, 1936, launched on November 5, 1937 and commissioned on March 31, 1938.[4] She was assigned as part of destroyer division 41 (Natsugumo,Yamagumo, AsagumoMinegumo). Later that December,Asagumo many Asashio class destroyers in carrying out repairs to her steam turbines after the class proved to suffer from a faulty propulsion system - a flaw which was corrected during refit - before continuing the typical peacetime service. In November of 1939, destroyer division 41 was rebranded destroyer division 9, withAsagumo being promoted as flagship of Captain Yasuo Sato. An uneventful series of patrol duties and visits to foreign harbors ensued until June of 1940, in whichAsagumo took on the diligence of transporting the Chinese emperorPuyi to the Japanese battleshipHyūga during a visit to Japan.Asagumo was heavily decorated in ceremonial flags for such an occasion, and the event was filmed and broadcast on Japanese news reels and propaganda movies. The footage showedAsagumo docked in Yokohama, then the arrival of Puyi and his boarding, thenAsagumo setting sail forHyūga as the dockworkers saluted the destroyer with the emperor aboard. A year later, destroyer division 9 was partaking in nighttime training duties whenMinegumo andNatsugumo collided with the destroyerKuroshio, promptingAsagumo to ferry the damaged ships toKure for repairs.[5][6]
At the time of theattack on Pearl Harbor,Asagumo ledYamagumo, Natsugumo, andMinegumo in escorting AdmiralNobutake Kondō's Southern Force Main Body out ofMako Guard District as distant cover to theMalaya andPhilippines invasion forces in December 1941.[7] In early 1942,Asagumo escorted troop convoys toLingayen,Tarakan,Balikpapan andMakassar in theNetherlands East Indies.
On February 26,Asagumo was on convoy escorting duty when a Japanese floatplane spotted a large allied task force consisting of two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and nine destroyers, attempting to intercept and sink Japanese troop convoys, promptingAsagumo to join a fleet of two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and 13 other destroyers to track down and neutralize the enemy ships. In the afternoon of the next day, the Japanese ships made contact with the enemy fleet, and early into the engagementAsagumo took part in a mass torpedo spread at 15,000 yards. She unleashed a full spread of eight torpedoes, but none hit.[5][8]
However, shortly afterwardsAsagumo noticed the limping heavy cruiserHMSExeter, crippled by a shell hit from theHaguro, attempting to escape the battle, and more crucially three British destroyers attempting to cover her, promptingAsagumo andMinegumo to attack the trio,Asagumo in particular engaging in a gunnery duel withHMSElectra. During the 1v1,Electra managed score hits with her 4.7-inch (12 cm) guns that forcedAsagumo to temporarily halt for repairs, killing 4 men and injuring 19 others, butAsagumo inflicted far more damage than she received, hittingElectra with shells that destroyed her engine room and her A and X turrets, wrecked her communications, and disabled electrical power. Dead in the water with half her gun battery functional, the crippledElectra fired off her torpedoes, but none hit, and in turnMinegumo switched fire from the other destroyers and joinedAsagumo in poundingElectra, which they together quickly finished off, forcingElectra's crew to abandon ship after her remaining guns were destroyed and leave the destroyer to sink.[5][6][9]
After her take down ofElectra,Asagumo began to pick up speed after damage control restarted her engines, and immediately evacuated from the battle and returned to Balikpapan for emergency repairs, which lasted from 1–18 March, immediately followed byAsagumo escorting the repair shipYamabiko Maru toMakassar, and returned at the end of the month to theYokosuka Naval Arsenal for further repairs which lasted until the end of the month. At the end of May,Asagumo joined the escort for the Midway Invasion Force during theBattle of Midway, but returned to the Aleutians once the battle turned into a devastating defeat which lost Japan four aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser. In July, she was sent to northern waters, patrolling fromŌminato Guard District towards theKurile Islands. Afterwards, she was sent south toTruk together with the cruiserChōkai, and onwards toKwajalein, returning to Yokosuka on 8 August 1942.[6]Returning to Truk later that month,Asagumo escorted aircraft carriers in theBattle of the Eastern Solomons to offer additional AA defense. From September, she was assigned to patrols from Truk towardsShortland, and in October and November was assigned to nine "Tokyo Express" high speed transport operations in theSolomon Islands. During this time, she was made the flagship of the 4th Torpedo Squadron, and escorted aircraft carriers during theBattle of Santa Cruz.
On November 9,Asagumo departed Truk as part of a force with a mission to bombardHenderson Field, a former Japanese air base which was captured by US forces and being used against Japanese shipping. The force centered around the battleshipsHiei andKirishima, with an escort of the light cruiserNagara and eleven destroyers,Asagumo included. The destroyers initially operated in standard formation, but rain squalls broke up the formation and left the destroyers operating in small clusters, in turn leavingAsagumo operating alongside the destroyersMurasame andSamidare. Eventually, their plan was intercepted by US intelligence, and by 1:25 in the morning of the 13th, signs of enemy ships began to appear. At 1:48, an engagement between the Japanese ships and a total of two US heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and eight destroyers began in what became thefirst naval battle of Guadalcanal, butAsagumo's group was on the far side of the formation and initially prevented from seeing action.[10]
Eventually,Asagumo joined the battle after 2:10, and immediately noticed the destroyerAmatsukaze under fire from the light cruiserUSSHelena, and withMurasame andSamidare covered her fellow destroyer and engaged the cruiser.Murasame falsely claimed to torpedoHelena, and in turnMurasame andSamidare both took 6-inch (152 mm) shell hits, butAsagumo was not damaged and successfully savedAmatsukaze from potentially being sunk. Just after 2:20, the destroyers noticed another target as star shells illuminated the destroyerUSSMonssen, which mistook the star shells for friendly ships signaling her and signaled back. In response,Asagumo,Murasame, andSamidare blastedMonssen to starboard,Asagumo in particular firing off 88 5-inch (127 mm) rounds against the target, several of which hit. Two 5-inch (127 mm) shells immediately hit forward and destroyedMonssen's 5-inch (127 mm) gun turret 1, killing the entire gun crew, before more hits destroyed the forward fire room and after engine.Hiei soon bushwackedMonssen to port and hit the destroyer with three 14-inch (356 mm) shells, whileAsagumo, Murasame, andSamidare continued to smotherMonssen in gunfire from the opposite side. Shell hits first plunged into the turret 2 handing room and started a powder fire which took the gun out of action, before her turret 5, bridge, fire control, and rangefinder were too destroyed. 5-inch (127 mm) guns no 3 and 4 continued to fruitlessly fire away until they too were blasted away, along with the ship's steering gear, rudder, and depth charges.[5][6][10][11]
Dead in the water, burning furiously, and lacking a single functioning weapon after at least 39 shell hits,Asagumo then fired off eight torpedoes against the hulkedMonssen. Several Japanese torpedoes were seen passing underneath the destroyer, but if any hit is unknown. Regardless,Monssen was abandoned 20 minutes later and sank over several hours with the loss of 150 sailors. However, during the battle, the destroyerYūdachi was crippled by gunfire from the destroyerUSSSterett, promptingAsagumo to assist the mauled vessel, watching as her crew was removed and a scuttling attempt failed (Yūdachi was later finished off by the heavy cruiserUSSPortland).[5][6][10][11]
Asagumo continued on to take part in the bombardment, even afterHiei was sunk by American forces, seeing no action the next day. However, in the early morning of the 15th, the force was encountered by another US task force during thesecond naval battle of Guadalcanal. In the ensuing action, three US destroyers were sunk and the battleshipUSSSouth Dakota was badly damaged, but in turnKirishima lost a gunfight to the battleshipUSSWashington, being hit by twenty 16-inch (406 mm) shells and seventeen 5-inch (127 mm) shells.Asagumo unleashed four type 93 torpedoes againstSouth Dakota, but none hit, before she helped to evacuateKirishima, taking on several survivors before leavingKirishima to sink.[5][6]
After the battle,Asagumo was docked in Truk for maintenance for the rest of the month, then from 21 December to 8 January 1943, she celebrated New Years by escorting the escort carrierChūyō from Truk to Yokosuka and back, before spending the rest of January escorting troop convoys in company with the aircraft carrierJunyō. With the start of February,Asagumo covered the 2nd and 3rdevacuations of Guadalcanal, before departing for Palau. From the 19th to the 23rd,Asagumo escorted a large troop convoy to first to Wewak, then to Rabaul, where she spent the rest of the month at anchor.[6]
Main Article:Battle of the Bismarck Sea
With the start of March,Asagumo was assigned to a flotilla of 8 destroyers with the goal of escorting 8 transport ships carrying almost 7,000 troops and the needed artillery and fuel to Lae, which was for reinforcement to turn awayGeneral MacArthur's forces from New Guinea. The force departed Rabaul on the 1st, only to be spotted by allied aircraft later that day. The day after, the first wave of attacks by American B-17 bombers and P-38 heavy fighters from several New Guinea air bases sank the troop shipKyokusei Maru, promptingAsagumo andYukikaze to rescue 950 survivors and broke away from the convoy to deliver them to Lae, before rejoining the convoy the next day due to its low cruising speed of 7 knots. DuringAsagumo's absence, another wave of aircraft inflicted minor damage to a few transport ships, but scored no sinkings.[5][6][12][13]
It was on the 3rd that the air attacks began picking up in frequency, and the devastation inflicted on the Japanese convoy accordingly matched. A first wave saw over 100 aircraft intercepted and interrupted by Japanese fighters, but this attack succeeded in splitting up the convoy from a manageable formation. Another wave of aircraft pounced on the now separated ships, and the destroyerShirayuki was hit by a bomb which detonated her magazines and required her to be scuttled, followed by the crippling of the destroyersArashio andTokisukaze and the sinking of the transport shipNojimaMaru, then the sinking of the destroyerAsashio. Wave after wave of aircraft throughout the rest of the day sank the remaining six transport ships, leavingAsagumo to overload herself with 485 survivors from multiple sunken ships before ferrying them to Rabaul. In the morning of the 4th, the woundedArashio finally sank by the bow while more aircraft finished off the crippled and abandonedTokitsukaze, which further forcedAsagumo and others to conduct rescue operations for the rest of the day and the entire following day, until almost 4,000 ground troops were rescued; 1,200 of which diminishly reinforced Lae while the rest were returned to Rabaul, thus ending one of the grandest Japanese defeats of the war up to that point.[5][6][12][13]
Just one day later,Minegumo was torpedoed and sunk by the destroyerUSSWaller at thebattle of the Blackett Strait.Natsugumo had been sunk by aircraft earlier at thebattle of Cape Esperance, whileYamagumo had been crippled by a mine early into the war and reassigned to local patrol duties. These three events leftAsagumo as the sole ship of destroyer division 9. As a result, at the start of April the destroyersShirakumo andUsugumo were relocated to desdiv 9 and placed underAsagumo's command. During the remainder of March and first week of April, she made several transport runs to reinforce the Japanese position atKolombangara, before returning to Yokosuka for repairs on 13 April.Asagumo left Yokosuka on 21 May, and spent the rest of the month on patrol and escort duties in Paramushiro, and on 7 June she escortedShirakumo - having been damaged in a collision with the destroyerNumakaze - to Paramushiro, and immediately afterwards commander Iwahashi was reassigned to the destroyer squadron 1 staff, with commander Shibayama Kazuo taking charge of the destroyer.[5][6][7][14][15]
On 7 July,Asagumo took part in a troop evacuation run from Kiska, but this operation was aborted due to bad weather as she returned to base 10 days later. From 22 July to 1 August, she home strucked a successful evacuation run from Kiska, before escorting the heavy cruiserMaya to Yokosuka.Asagumo then sailied to Ominato where she spent the following 2 month in local patrol duties. At the end of October,Asagumo was reassigned to destroyer division 10, consisting of the destroyersKazagumo andAkigumo, and nowAsagumo. She then returned to Yokosuka for maintenance, where her X turret was removed and replaced with a pair of triple 25 mm guns, along with other AA and radar upgrades.[5][6]
She participated in the Japanese retreat fromKiska Island in July and returned to Yokosuka withMaya in briefly in August. At the end of October, she was reassigned to theIJN 3rd Fleet. She was also modified by the removal of her X-turret, which was replaced by two tripleType 96 25 mm AT/AA Guns.
Asagumo returned to Truk in early January 1944 to escort the battleshipYamato back toKure Naval Arsenal. She returned to Singapore with the carriersShōkaku andZuikaku in February, returning withZuikaku to Kure in March and back again to Singapore. She escorted a convoy toTawitawi in May, from which she escorted the battleshipFusō toDavao. During theBattle of the Philippine Sea in June, she was part ofAdmiral Ozawa's force, but sent on detached duty toOkinawa owing to fuel problems. In July, she returned to Manila, and was inBrunei in mid-October.
_and_Denver_(CL-58)_in_Surigao_Strait_1944.jpg)
In October, she was assigned toVice AdmiralShōji Nishimura's fleet at theBattle of Surigao Strait.Asagumo was torpedoed by the destroyerUSS McDermut and subsequently finished off by gunfire from US Navy cruisers and destroyers at position (10°04′N125°21′E / 10.067°N 125.350°E /10.067; 125.350). Of her crew, 191 were killed, but 39 survivors, including her captain, Commander Shibayama, were taken prisoner by the Americans.[16]Asagumo was removed from thenavy list on 10 January 1945.
It was said[by whom?] that she had rescued survivors of the battleshipFusō.
Her wreck was discovered by RVPetrel in late 2017, with her hull and superstructure mostly intact.[17]