Nankai (ship)
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The Nankai ( Japanese 南海 , "South Sea"; previously Regulus ) and you never seized in service sister ship Nanshin (Jap. 南進 , " Southern Expansion "; previously Ram ) were two ships during the Second World War by the Japanese Imperial Navy in Dutch East Indies were captured.
The Dutch East Indies colony owned regionally important shipyards in Tanjung Priok and Soerabaja on Java , in which ships for the state-civil governorate navy of the colonial administration were manufactured in peacetime . After the mobilization in 1939, and especially after the occupation of the motherland in 1940, an extensive construction program for light military auxiliary ships was started in these shipyards in order to strengthen the inadequate defense of the colony. In the absence of experience with warship building, the constructions were mostly based on civilian designs for the governorate navy. Primarily patrol boats , motor torpedo boats ( TM-4 class ), auxiliary minesweepers ( DEFG and Smeroe classes ) and auxiliary mine layers such as the Regulus and the Ram were manufactured . The latter two were enlarged versions of the motor yacht Rigel of the governorate navy, which was converted into a miner . The ships were named after stars ( Regulus ) or constellations ( Ram = Aries ) , as is customary in the governorate navy .
The keel was laid in 1941, with the Regulus being made in Soerabaja and the Ram in Tanjung Priok. The Ram was launched in December of the same year, after which the (still unfinished) ship was towed to Tjilatjap . The Regulus was still under construction at the time of the Japanese invasion of the colony in early 1942. Both ships were self- sunk during the Java invasion , but this did not work properly with the Regulus and caused minimal damage.
After the war turned negative for Japan from mid-1942 and more ships were needed, the Regulus was lifted, repaired and completed. The ship was launched in April or May 1943, and in June 1944 the ship was then put into service under the name Nankai and classified as a gunboat . Although the Nankai was no longer considered a mine ship, the mine-laying equipment remained on deck. The sister ship Ram had also been lifted and towed to Soerabaja and was given the new name Nanshin , but was no longer fully repaired until the end of the war.
The Nankai should after going into service for convoy protection in the Malay Archipelago are used and thus was the Southwest regional fleet under Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa assumed. From September 21, 1944, she escorted the transport ship Hokkai Maru from Soerabaja towards Balikpapan in eastern Borneo . On September 23, the Association came near the island sound at position 3 ° 36 ' S , 116 ° 35' O into a minefield, which the American submarine earlier this year USS Bowfin was laid. Both ships were badly damaged by mines and put aground on the nearby island of Sebuku to prevent sinking.
In the following months both ships were towed back to Soerabaja and repaired there. At the beginning of February 1945, the Nankai was assigned to the newly created 10th regional fleet under Vice Admiral Fukutome Shigeru (with headquarters in Singapore ). At this point in time, the ship no longer appears to have been used for military operations.
In mid-July 1945 the Nankai received orders to transport secret documents from Soerabaja to Singapore via Batavia . She was accompanied by the Ch-1 submarine . On July 16, the two ships were attacked by the submarine USS Blenny about 150 nautical miles west of Soerabaja in the Java Sea shortly before five in the morning . The master of the Blenny , LtCdr William H. Hazzard, fired twelve torpedoes , several of which hit the Nankai and sank at position 5 ° 26 ' S , 110 ° 33' E. The Ch-1 escaped while burning. A later search could not find any survivors.
On July 30, the Nankai was removed from the ship register.
Web links
- netherlandsnavy.nl: Regulus-class Auxiliary Minelayers
- Navypedia.org: RAM minelayers and NANKAI gunboats
- combinedfleet.com: Ex-Dutch Vessel in IJN Service as a Gunboat and IJN Gunboat NANKAI
Individual evidence
- ↑ combinedfleet.com: IJN Subchaser CH-1: Tabular Record of Movement