Atago (ship, 1930)
 The Atago around 1933
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The Atago ( Japanese 愛 宕 ) was a Takao- class heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. The ship was named after Mount Atago in Kyoto prefecture .
Construction and modernizations
The keel laying of the Atago took place on April 28, 1927 at the naval shipyard near Kure . After its construction period ended and the equipment was completed, it entered service five years later.
The cruiser Atago has been modernized several times. In April / May 1942, he received Type 89 12.7 cm twin mounts as a replacement for the less powerful 12 cm single guns. The torpedo armament was doubled, and the twin tube sets became quadruple sets combined with a rapid loading system. Parts of the original bridge structure were removed to reduce the top-heaviness.
Multiple, 25-mm machine guns for anti-aircraft retrofitted, they had that more than 60 tubes of this type of weapon in the last equipment condition.
The Atago received two radar systems in the course of the war, a Type 22 radar for surface searches in 1943 and a Type 13 radar for searching for air targets in 1944.
Calls
Southeast Asia and Java
On December 4, 1941, Operation E , a plan to invade the Malay Peninsula, began. The Atago was since November 29, 1941 flagship of the 4th cruiser division under Vice Admiral Kondo . After the unsuccessful search for the British Force Z , the fleet gathered in Cam Ranh Bay . The cruiser later went on several missions as a backup for operations during the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia . So in January 1942 for the Dutch Indies invasion , during which it operated from Palau .
In search of fleeing Allied ships that tried to escape from Java , the naval force, consisting of the Atago , two of its sister ships and two destroyers, met a convoy of Allied ships coming from Java, Australia , on March 4, 1942 tried to achieve. After the escort, consisting of the sloop HMAS Yarra , was sunk, the convoy was completely wiped out. A British minesweeper, a small tanker and a depot ship were sunk. A Dutch freighter was seized by the Atago on the same day.
On her return to Japan in April 1942, the Atago was involved in the search for Doolittles fleet , whose planes had attacked Tokyo on April 18 .
She returned to Yokosuka to receive new anti-aircraft guns.
Midway and Guadalcanal
The Atago was the flagship of Vice Admiral Kondo , who commanded the Japanese security group during the Battle of Midway . She had no contact with the enemy. It was moved to Truk in August 1942 . During the Battle of the East Solomon Islands and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands , it was part of the security of the Japanese aircraft carrier combat group, whose core was Shōkaku and Zuikaku .
After the loss of the battleship Hiei off Guadalcanal , a combat group consisting of Kirishima , Atago , Takao and destroyers was assembled to bombard the American airfield at Henderson Field . During the second Battle of Guadalcanal , this association got into a skirmish with the battleships South Dakota and Washington on November 14th .
The Atago fired several long-lance torpedoes, but scored no hits. Several of their shells hit the superstructure of the South Dakota , which eventually had to retreat. After the Kirishima was lost , the Japanese ships also broke off the operation and settled down. The Atago had only suffered minor damage.
She returned to Japan in July 1943 and her anti-aircraft armament was reinforced again. In August 1943 she returned to Truk with troops and supplies on board.
Bougainville
The Atago , as part of Chusho Kurita Takeo's 2nd fleet, left Truk on November 3, 1943. The Americans feared an attack by the fleet on their landing forces, which were carrying out an operation against Bougainville , and decided to eliminate the Japanese fleet by air raids when they reached their base near Rabaul . The Task Force 38 launched on November 5, about 50 Sturzkampf- and torpedo bomber and as many fighters of two aircraft carriers . While the cruisers Maya and Mogami were hit directly and suffered severe damage, the Atago was damaged by three close hits from either 1,000 pound or 500 pound aerial bombs. 20-22 seafarers, including the commander , Taisa Nakaoka, died and 64, according to other sources 20, were wounded. The aft hull was damaged and a fire on one of the torpedo sets damaged one of its engine rooms. She was ordered back to Japan for repairs and further modernization measures.
Philippines
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When assembling the fleets for the Japanese attack on American naval units, which were preparing a landing in the Philippines in October 1944 , the Atago became the flagship of Vice Admiral Kurita Takeo , who is the 2nd Fleet, the strongest Japanese task force in sea and air battles in the Gulf of Leyte , commanded.
While Kurita's fleet, with the super battleships Yamato and Musashi, contained the most powerful ships in the Japanese Navy, he chose the Atago as his flagship. However, the reasons given for this decision are contradictory. So a command of the Japanese high command is called, who gave him the Atago expressly zuwies, a tradition after Kurita its flag had to put on a cruiser is called elsewhere. Looking back, Chusho Kurita admitted in an interrogation on October 16, 1945 that the Yamato would have been better suited as a flagship because of the better communication facilities.
After intercepting Japanese radio messages, the American high command of the submarine weapon for the Pacific (Com-SubSoWesPac) ordered two submarines to the Palawan Strait on October 11, 1944 to attack expected Japanese naval units.
After the fleet, led by the Atago , left Brunei on October 22nd, it set course for Palawan . The waters around the narrow part of the Palawan Strait were dangerous and criss-crossed by reefs and shallows , so that Kurita grouped his ships in a tight formation. The capital ships of the fleet were grouped in two columns, the port column, led by the Atago , followed by Takao , Chokai and the battleship Nagato , was shielded from the outside by the light cruiser Noshiro and two destroyers. The association ran zigzag courses to make submarine attacks more difficult.
At 6:33 a.m. on October 23, the Darter shot a fan consisting of six torpedoes at the Atago , just under 900 meters away . Four torpedoes hit the cruiser on port side and caused such severe damage to the underwater hull, especially in the foredeck, that the cruiser was already listing 20 ° before the last torpedo in the fan reached its target.
The destroyer Kisami tried to go alongside , but the heavy list of the cruiser made that impossible. So the admiral, his staff and the other 529 survivors had to jump into the sea and swim to the destroyer. The Atago cut, still under way, with the bow under and sank finally burning over the bow. 359 crew members of the cruiser lost their lives.
wreck
No attempts have been made to track down the Atago wreck . The presumed Untergangsort the ship is located at 9 ° 30 ' N , 117 ° 13' O .
Evidence and references
Remarks
- ↑ for August 1939, but without crumple tubes, according to Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War , p. 289
literature
- Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War , Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells, US Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War , p. 280
- ^ Mark Stille: USN Cruiser Vs IJN Cruiser: Guadalcanal 1942. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-1-84603-466-4 , pp. 39-41.
- ^ A b Rabaul's forgotten fleet, Monica Foster, Peter Stone, 1994, Oceans Enterprises, ISBN 0-646-17394-4 , page 7
- ↑ TROM Atago, spotted 27 April 2010
- ^ Bougainville, 1943-1945: The Forgotten Campaign, Harry A. Gailey, 2003, University of Kentucky Press, ISBN 0-8131-9047-9 , page 85
- ↑ Transcript of the interview with Tsuneo Shiki on November 20, 1945 at ibiblio.org, accessed April 27, 2010
- ^ Warship, Volume 7, John Roberts, 1984, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0-87021-982-0 , 169
- ^ Proceedings, Volume 76, United States Naval Institute, 1950, p. 540
- ↑ transcript of the questioning of Tonosuke Otani on 26 October 1945 ibiblio.org, spotted 27 April 2010
- ^ World War II journal, No 5, "War in the Philippines," Ray Merriam, Merriam Press, Second Edition, 2003, ISBN 1-57638-164-1 , page 83
- ↑ United States submarine operations in World War II, Theodore Roscoe, US Naval Institute Press, 1947, ISBN 0-87021-731-3 , page 391 and following
- ^ The Battle of Leyte Gulf: October 23-26, 1944, Thomas J. Cutler, 2001, US Naval Institute Press, ISBN 1-55750-243-9 , pp. 96 and 97
- ^ The battle of Leyte Gulf: the last fleet action, HP Willmott, Indiana University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-253-34528-6 , p. 102