Kinugasa (ship, 1927)
 Heavy cruiser Kinugasa 1927
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The Kinugasa ( Japanese 衣 笠 ) was a heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She belonged to the Aoba class . It was named after Mount Kinugasa near Yokosuka in Japan.
Construction and modernizations
The Kinugasa was on the shipyard of Kawasaki in Kobe laid in October 1924 Kiel. She was planned as the fourth ship of the Furutaka class , but her blueprints were fundamentally revised in order to eliminate weaknesses in the design, so that she founded a new ship class together with the Aoba . The most obvious difference to the Furutaka class was the restriction of the main turrets to three twin turrets, while their predecessors were equipped with six single turrets.
Between 1938 and 1940 she went back to the shipyard. She received increased anti-aircraft armament and the bridge structure was rebuilt to accommodate new fire control systems. She also received torpedo bulges that widened the hull.
A catapult for launching seaplanes was mounted on the superstructure between tower C and the chimney. The Kinugasa was able to carry up to two Aichi E13A aircraft in the second half of the Pacific War .
Mission history
Pacific
At the beginning of the Pacific War , the Kinugasa as part of the 6th Cruiser Division had the task of supporting various landing efforts by Japanese troops. These included the invasions of Guam and Wake in December 1941 and the landings on Rabaul and Kavieng in spring 1942.
Savo Island
Vice-Admiral Mikawa penetrated with the Kinugasa and four other heavy cruisers on August 8, 1942 in the Sound off Guadalcanal and got there in a battle with Allied cruisers guarding a group of transport ships. The Kinugasa ran in third place behind the cruiser Aoba and the flagship Chōkai .
The Japanese fleet ran in the keel line so that it was easier to distinguish between friend and foe in the dark.
The Japanese ships inflicted heavy casualties on the Allied forces, the Kinugasa was hit by two enemy shells, one of which a destroyer's 6 inch shell damaged one of its engine rooms, while a shell from the USS Vincennes damaged its port steering gear.
Cape Esperance
During the Battle of Cape Esperance, the Japanese fleet consisting of three heavy cruisers and escort ships under the command of Rear Admiral Goto was intercepted on October 11, 1942 by an American fleet. The Americans used radar to locate and fire at the Japanese ships, while the Japanese commander believed he had been mistakenly shot at by a Japanese fleet. Rear Admiral Gotō ordered a turn in the direction of the attackers, to starboard, to clear up the supposed misunderstanding. He was fatally wounded on the bridge of the Aoba and the cruisers Furutaka and Aoba suffered severe damage. The Kinugasa broke out of the Japanese formation to port and initially attacked the USS San Francisco and the USS Boise with torpedoes, but they failed.
When the USS Boise finally exposed itself by switching on its searchlights, it was fired at by the Kinugasa with 8 inch shells and received two devastating hits in the forecastle, which caused a cartridge fire and water ingress, leaving 107 crews in the front turrets and in the ammunition chambers of the American cruiser.
The Boise then withdrew while the Kinugasa and the USS Salt Lake City continued to fire at each other for some time. The American heavy cruiser received two hits, but apart from a fire that damaged the electrical systems, they had no significant effect.
The Kinugasa itself received four hits, but only damaged two of its dinghies.
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
Already on October 15, they penetrated together with the Chōkai into the strait between Guadalcanal and Nggela and shelled the American airfield Henderson Field . Both cruisers fired 752 8 inch shells.
The Kinugasa secured troop transports to Guadalcanal in the following weeks .
On November 13, she finally ran out as part of the cruiser group of Vice Admiral Mikawa from Shortland in the direction of Guadalcanal . Maya and Suzuya should bombard the American airfield, while Kinugasa and Chōkai secured the operation.
After the two cruisers of the bombardment group had bombed the airfield for 30 minutes, the entire fleet withdrew back towards Shortland at 2:00 a.m. The Americans sent ships to intercept the fleet, but the two battleships dispatched arrived too late, but were there the next night to intercept another Japanese bombardment group.
The End
The Kinugasa was attacked on the march back on the morning of November 14 at 8:30 a.m. by dive bombers and torpedo bombers launched from Henderson Field and the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise . She was made from a 500- lb. - (227 kg) bomb hit in front of the bridge and damaged by several close hits and up to four torpedo hits on the underwater hull. The list to port caused by the ingress of water could, however, be stabilized at 10 ° and the fires that had broken out on deck could also be extinguished within an hour. However, their commander and the first officer were killed by the bomb hit near the bridge.
A second attack by three American bombers and further close hits ultimately led to further damage to the hull and the failure of the machines and the steering system. Progressive flooding could not be stopped and orders were given to abandon the ship. The ship capsized around 11:22 a.m. 511 sailors were killed.
wreck
Nothing is known about the exact location of the Kinugasa wreck . It dropped around 15 nautical miles south west of the island Rendova at 8 ° 45 ' S , 157 ° 10' O .
Evidence and references
Remarks
- ↑ for 1939 according to Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. P. 806 - Construction dates before modernization are described in the class article.
- ^ The reports of the sinking are contradicting, for example Paul Dull in A battle history of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. on page 243 only 51 dead and no torpedo hits.
- ↑ Location according to Sunken Ships World War II: US Naval Chronology. Combined Fleet.com gives the coordinates 9 ° 6 ′ south and 157 ° 14 ′ east.
literature
- Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. US Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3 .
- Furutaka class / Aoba class. Gakken Pacific War Series, number 44, Gakken, Tokyo 2003, ISBN 4-05-603323-4 .
- Mark Stille: USN Cruiser Vs IJN Cruiser: Guadalcanal 1942. Osprey Publishing, 2009, ISBN 1-84603-466-3 .
- Malcolm H. Murfett: Naval warfare 1919–45: an operational history of the volatile war at sea. Routledge, 2008, ISBN 0-415-45804-8 .
- Paul S. Dull: A battle history of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. US Naval Institute Press, 2007, ISBN 1-59114-219-9 .
- Samuel Eliot Morison : History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 5. University of Illinois Press, 2001, ISBN 0-252-06996-X .
- Barrett Tillman: TBF / TBM Avenger units of World War 2. Osprey Publishing, 1999, ISBN 1-85532-902-6 .
- Karl E. Heden: Sunken Ships World War II: US Naval Chronology, Including Submarine Losses of the United States, England, Germany, Japan, Italy. Branden Books, 2006, ISBN 0-8283-2118-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Documentation of the battle on Ibiblio.org, viewed on September 6, 2010
- ↑ USN Cruiser Vs IJN Cruiser: Guadalcanal 1942, page 68
- ^ History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 5. p. 164.
- ^ A battle history of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. P. 220.
- ↑ TBF / TBM Avenger units of World War 2. p. 22.
- ↑ Losses according to the Kinugasa's operational history in tabular form on www.combinedfleet.com, viewed on September 3, 2010