Chōkai (ship, 1932)
 Heavy cruiser Chōkai
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The Chōkai ( Japanese 鳥 海 ) was a Takao-class heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy . It was used in the Pacific War and sunk in an air raid in 1944. The ship was named after the Chōkai volcano on the island of Honshū .
construction
The four Takao-class cruisers were commissioned in the late 1920s . The keel laying of the Chōkai took place on March 26, 1928 in the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki and the launch on April 5, 1931. After completion on June 30, 1932, the commissioning followed in the same year.
Calls
Captain Watanabe Seishichi took over the cruiser on October 20, 1940, which became the flagship of the 1st South Expeditionary Fleet under Vice Admiral Ozawa Jisaburō on November 20, 1941 as part of the 4th Cruiser Division . The 1st southern expedition fleet belonged to the 2nd fleet of Vice Admiral Kondō Nobutake . As part of the preparation for the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia, the Chōkai moved to Hainan in the Republic of China at the end of November .
She was the flagship of Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunichi's 8th Fleet during the fighting in the Solomon Islands in 1942 .
Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean
After Operation E was started on December 4, the Chōkai operated as part of the cover fleet for the transport convoys off Cap Ca mau and Cam Ranh Bay .
In the early afternoon of December 9, a Japanese submarine reported British ships that were heading north-northwest at 14 knots near the Anambas Islands . This was the Force Z with the battleship Prince of Wales , the battle cruiser Repulse and four destroyers . Vice Admiral Kondō Nobutake ordered the Chōkai along with the 7th Cruiser Division , the light cruiser Sendai and four destroyers to carry out a night attack against the fleet, but they could not track the British. It came to an incident that was almost tragic for the Chōkai . A reconnaissance aircraft erroneously reported the cruiser as one of the British ships, and 53 Japanese bombers formed to attack the ship. Only when other scouts illuminated the supposed target with markings did the pilots recognize their own ship. The attack was canceled and the new search was postponed until the next morning. The Force Z was sunk by the Japanese on December 10th .
Until mid-January 1942, the Chōkai drove further escorts for the following waves of invasion to the Malay Peninsula .
On the morning of February 10, the Chōkai left Cam Ranh Bay with the 7th Cruiser Division and escorted 25 transports to Sumatra (Operation L). On February 15, a small Chōkai reconnaissance plane discovered the incoming ABDA fleet under Rear Admiral Karel Doorman , which was subsequently attacked by fighter planes from the aircraft carrier Ryūjō . They succeeded in damaging two US destroyers. A Dutch destroyer ran aground on Gaspar Strasse on the same day and was lost.
Just a week later, the Chōkai suffered almost the same mishap when she came into contact with a reef at Cap St. Jacques on the Sàigòn estuary and damaged her hull. The subsequent repair took place in a shipyard in Singapore .
To cover the Japanese landings in northern Sumatra (Operation T) near Sabang , the Chōkai ran out of Singapore on March 9th together with the 7th Cruiser Division. Her deployment location was Iri three days later and the Andamans on March 20 . From there she ran north and reached the Mergui Archipelago in Burma on March 28 .
From April 1, the Chōkai took part in the large-scale Operation C , in which several warships, freighters and smaller units were sunk in the Indian Ocean in addition to air strikes on British bases on Ceylon and Trincomalee . The Chōkai was involved with two sinkings.
After this mission, the Chōkai was ordered back to Yokosuka , where she arrived on April 22nd. Three days later, Captain Hayakawa Mikio took command of the cruiser. On May 3, the Chōkai was pulled into a dry dock, where she was repaired and her new additional anti-aircraft guns were installed. After completion of the work, she served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Kondōs 2nd Fleet.
Midway and Solomon Islands
Together with the Atago , the Chōkai cast off on May 27, 1942 in Hashirajima and joined the attack fleet under Vice Admiral Kondo, which ran towards Midway . During the Battle of Midway , the Chōkai was supposed to cover the aircraft carriers approaching Midway, but could not prevent their sinking. After the battle, the cruiser returned to Kure , where it entered on June 14th.
A month later, the naval command used the Chōkai as the flagship of Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunichi's 8th Fleet. She briefly moved to Truk before arriving at the port of Rabaul at the end of July .
After the Americans started Operation Watchtower to capture Guadalcanal at the beginning of August , the Chōkai and the 6th Cruiser Division drove through the Moewe Passage near Kavieng and then went south to the Solomon Islands, where they found the slot, the shallow sea between Bougainville , Santa Isabel and the island of Savo , sailed towards Guadalcanal. In the early morning of August 9, markers dropped by Chōkai , Kako and Furutaka aircraft lit the waters south of Savo, illuminating two heavy cruisers and two Allied destroyers. Vice Admiral Mikawa then immediately opened the later named battle off Savo Island . The Japanese were able to sink four enemy cruisers, as well as damage another cruiser and two destroyers. In the final phase of the fight, the Chōkai also received some hits from the USS Quincy and the USS Astoria . Their first turret was destroyed and 34 crew members were killed. The cruiser then went to Rabaul, where it was repaired until August 15.
Together with the destroyer Isokaze , the Chōkai set course for the Solomon Islands again on August 22, where it drove to Guadalcanal with the 6th cruiser division remote protection for the supply convoys (→ Tokyo Express ). As part of this task, her aircraft bombed Lunga Point several times in the months up to November . The Chōkai was only indirectly involved in the raging naval battle of Guadalcanal , which raged from November 13th to 15th , in that their aircraft dropped light bombs over Henderson Field . Nevertheless, she was slightly damaged by a close hit and had to run back to Rabaul.
On March 1, 1943, Captain Aruga Kosaku took command of the Chōkai in Yokosuka.
With the two escort carriers Taiyō and Chūyō , as well as four destroyers, the Chōkai was on the voyage from Saipan to Truk on April 9 , when the convoy was attacked by the American submarine Tunny with torpedoes , which only slightly damaged the Taiyō .
On July 18, there was an incident off Kolombangara with American Avenger torpedo bombers , which damaged the stern of the Chōkai .
Truk, Gilbert and Marshall Islands
After the American plans for repeated bombing of Wake became known , the Chōkai moved to Truk and took over the task of the flagship of the 4th cruiser division of the Atago on November 10th .
The Americans launched Operation Galvanic on November 20 and began capturing Tarawa Island . The Chōkai was then ordered to go with a task force to the Marshall Islands , where they stayed until early December. Then she returned to Truk.
After the successful implementation of Operation Flintlock , the Americans also held the Marshall Islands at the beginning of 1944, so that the Truk Atoll was now in direct reach of the Americans and the threat was becoming increasingly noticeable to the Japanese. So the Chōkai moved to Palau on February 10th . This happened soon enough that the cruiser did not witness the subsequent attack on Truk .
Philippines
Together with the two cruiser divisions 4 and 5, the Chōkai was in the port of Davao on Mindanao in the Philippines from the beginning of April . On April 6th and 7th, three American submarines sighted the cruiser, but could not launch an attack.
For the remainder of April, the Chōkai was involved in training maneuvers in Lingga , south of Singapore. Shortly afterwards, Captain Aruga fell ill with tropical fever and was relieved by Captain Tanaka Jo on June 6th on Tawi-Tawi .
The Chōkai left Tawi Tawi on June 13 for Guimaras at Panay as a member of Admiral Ozawa's mobile fleet. From there, on the day after next, the fleet drove through the Visayas Sea and the San Bernardino Strait into the Philippine Sea , heading for Saipan to carry out the Japanese operation A-GO . The ships were sighted by an American submarine, which transmitted the report to the main force in the afternoon. On June 18 and 19, an air battle initiated by the Japanese broke out when their carrier aircraft attempted to attack the aircraft carriers of the American 5th Fleet. It came to the " Mariana Turkey Shooting ", which ended with very high losses for the Japanese. The Chōkai remained unmolested and withdrew with the other ships to Okinawa .
After some troop transports from Kure to Okinawa, the Chōkai joined the first mobile fleet under Vice Admiral Kurita, which sailed towards the Philippines on October 22nd. After the battle in the Palawan Passage , in which the Chōkai remained undamaged, the battle in the Sibuyan Sea broke out on October 24th . Although the Japanese ships were attacked by strong American air forces, the Chōkai was not damaged. But around 6:00 am the next day the battle broke out off Samar between Kurita's task force and the American Task Group 77.4.3 ("Taffy 3"), consisting of escort carriers and destroyers. The cruiser was attacked by the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts and hit by torpedoes and numerous 5- inch , 40-mm and 20-mm projectiles. Shortly before 9:00 a.m., a second explosion rocked the cruiser as the hot torpedoes stored on the deck exploded. This damaged her engine and rudder, whereupon she swerved out of the formation and drifted eastward. Minutes later, bombs from a USS Kitkun Bay aircraft hit the forward engine room and set it on fire. The destroyer Fujinami was able to take survivors of the Chōkai on board. Among them was Captain Tanaka. At 21:48 o'clock the Fujinami sank the Chōkai with torpedoes.
But the survivors on board the Fujinami were also killed when it was sunk when aircraft from the USS Essex attacked the destroyer 130 kilometers north of Iloilo .
wreck
On May 5, 2019, the team on board the research vessel Petrel announced that the wreck of the Chōkai had been discovered in the Philippine Trench at a depth of 5,173 meters.
Evidence and references
literature
- Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War , Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells, US Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3
- Takao Class , Gakken Pacific War Series, Number 13, Gakken, Tokyo, 1997, ISBN 4-05-601685-2
- Heavy cruiser , Kojinsha, Ships of the IJN Series No. 2, 1989, ISBN 4-7698-0456-3
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War , p. 814
- ↑ Chōkai data at: http://www.go2war2.nl/artikel/330/5
- ↑ The German rank of captain at sea corresponds to the Japanese rank of Taisa , which literally means great assistance .
- ↑ The German rank of Vice Admiral corresponds to the Japanese rank of Chusho , which literally means Middle Admiral .
- ↑ Petrel user account Facebook, May 5, 2019