Akizuki (ship, 1941)
Akizuki on a test drive on May 17, 1942
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The Akizuki was originally as a fast anti-aircraft cruiser planned Japanese destroyer . The ship was type ship on the Kagero class foot ends Akizuki class .
development
It was originally intended as a cruiser for rapid anti-aircraft security for carrier groups. In view of the high operational value of the long lance torpedo tubes, with which the Imperial Japanese Navy had achieved great success in the first years of the war, the Akizuki was completed as a destroyer with torpedo tube armament. By retaining the destroyer propulsion system, however, it only achieved 33 knots - sufficient for its original task of securing the aircraft carriers that can reach speeds of up to 34 knots. However, for a destroyer the size of a small cruiser like the Yūbari and roughly the Tenryū- class , both speed and armament were somewhat weak.
Comparing the Akizuki with their simultaneously created European counterparts, the French contretorpilleurs ( Le-Fantasique - and Mogador class ) or the Italian Esploratori ( Capitani Romani class ), the defects occur even more apparent: They were much faster ( 40–45 kn) and better armed (main artillery 135–138.6 mm). The 25 mm anti-aircraft gun was no longer effective against the armored aircraft equipped with missiles, but this was also the case in almost all other navies. But in the Japanese Navy no larger calibers were used during the Pacific War
Approved in 1939, the Akizuki was laid down on June 30, 1940 and launched on July 2, 1941. The commissioning took place on June 13, 1942.
commitment
The first use took place in the sea battle of the Solomon Islands . Other missions were the escort for the seaplane carrier Nisshin and the securing of supply transports for the Japanese troops in October 1942 during the Battle of Guadalcanal (as the flagship of Rear Admiral Takama Tamotsu ), when he received a light bomb hit.
During the escort of the torpedoed freighter Myoho Maru , the Akizuki was torpedoed and moderately damaged by the USS Nautilus itself near the Shortland Islands . Roughly repaired in Truk , he escorted the Tokyo Maru to Saipan , where the keel was badly damaged by a sunken ship, which made a three-month repair in Nagasaki necessary.
After that, the destroyer was used in the carrier battle near the Santa Cruz Islands and the battle in the Philippine Sea. The Akzuki was sunk in the battle of Cape Engano . Harald Fock awards the sinking of the American submarine USS Halibut ( Gato- class ). Tony Tully, on the other hand, explains that the comparison of statements by the Japanese crew (around 150 were rescued) with the images and documentation of the attacking Americans prove that Akizuki was sunk by aircraft because Akizuki sank ten minutes before the Halibut attack .
Explanations
- ↑ Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats. Volume 2, Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , page 33
- ↑ “ Le Terrible (from the Le Fantasique class , editor's note) came with type displacement and 94,240 HPw to a spectacular 45.029 kn and is thus - to this day! - remains the fastest ship of this size. ”Harald Fock: Z-vor! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats. Volume 2, Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , page 170
- ↑ Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats. Volume 2, Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , p. 269.
- ↑ http://www.combinedfleet.com/akizuki-mystery.html , accessed March 20, 2011
literature
- Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats. Volume 2, Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , page 246f.
Web links
Aikzuki at combinedfleet.com (English)
Akizuki at NAVYPEDIA (English)