Sakawa (ship, 1944)
 Light cruiser Sakawa (November 1944)
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The Sakawa ( Japanese 酒 匂 ) was a light cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy , which was completed late in World War II , did not take part in any operational missions due to a lack of fuel and fell as spoils of war to the United States after the surrender of Japan in 1945 . The cruiser was sunk in Bikini Atoll in July 1946 during an American nuclear test . The ship belonged to the Agano class consisting of a total of four units and was named after the Sakawa River, which flows through the Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa . The Sakawa was laid down as the last ship of her class on November 21, 1942 at the naval shipyard in Sasebo ( Sasebo Kaigun Kōshō ) and was launched on April 9, 1944. The commissioning took place on November 30, 1944; at the same time, the Sakawa was the last cruiser commissioned by Japan in World War II. The first in command of the ship was Kaigun-Taisa Ōhara Toshimichi.
Special features and modifications
The Sakawa received with their enslavement in November 1944, the strongest anti-aircraft weaponry of all units of the Agano class. This was at the same time an admission of the drastically deteriorating war situation for Japan and the massive air superiority of the Allies. In November 1944 there were 48 2.5 cm Type 96 flak on board (in ten triplet and 18 single mounts); In 1945 the number of these guns was increased again to a total of 61 tubes. In addition, right from the start, the cruiser received a type 2 21 Go radar device for air space observation and two type 3 13 Go air warning radar devices (with a range of 50 km). There were also a Type 93 sonar and a Type 22 radar unit (against sea targets up to 24 km away) on board.
In contrast to the other units of the Agano class, the anti- submarine capabilities on board the Sakawa were also increased . The cruiser received two depth charges and the number of depth charges it carried was increased from (normally) 16 to 36.
Working time
Service until the end of the war in 1945
After commissioning, the Sakawa was stationed in Yokosuka and carried out test drives until mid-January 1945. Used as the flagship of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla from January 15, 1945 , repeated maneuvers took place in the Japanese inland sea until March 1945 , with new tactics being practiced in anti-submarine defense together with newly built destroyers and escort vehicles.
In April 1945 the Sakawa was involved in the planning for the last operational advance of the Japanese fleet against Okinawa . Due to a serious lack of fuel, however, the cruiser could not be used and moved from the Kure fleet base to Maizuru in July 1945 , since the Japanese fleet command considered the probability of falling victim to an American air attack to be lower there. There the ship was anchored as a floating anti-aircraft battery. After Japan's surrender in September 1945, the Sakawa was demilitarized and had to dismantle all ammunition, cannon breeches, torpedoes and radar equipment.
In October 1945 the cruiser made a trip to Palau together with the US destroyer escort Carroll and transported around 1,300 Japanese soldiers back to their homeland. Further repatriation trips took place between November 1945 and February 1946, with destinations in Papua New Guinea and the Korean peninsula being called, among other things, under US supervision .
Under the American flag
On February 25, 1946, the Sakawa was finally handed over to the Americans as spoils of war in Yokosuka . At this time the ship was in a very neglected condition, so swarms of rats lived in the empty ammunition rooms and the former crew quarters, and water was constantly entering through minor leaks . It took Japanese workers a day and a half to pump the water out of the bilges . As a result of the poor overall condition, the decision was made to use the cruiser as a target ship for the nuclear weapons tests planned for summer 1946 in Bikini Atoll ( Operation Crossroads ).
It was not until March 18, 1946 that the cruiser, manned by a US crew of 165, was able to leave Yokosuka and set course for Eniwetok . Eleven former officers of the Japanese Navy were also on board to brief the Americans. The trip to Eniwetok, with a maximum of about 14 knots , was accompanied by the battleship Nagato , which had also been confiscated as booty by the Americans.
On March 28, 1946, about 300 nautical miles from Eniwetok, engine failure occurred on the Sakawa and the cruiser was immobilized. An attempt by the Nagato to tow the shipwrecked failed because almost at the same time on board the battleship the American fuel supplies, which were very sparsely measured by the Americans, were running out. Help was immediately requested via radio, but the American fleet tanker Nickajack Trail (10,448 GRT) ordered by the US Navy to the two ships ran onto a reef off Eniwetok and was lost.
The Sakawa and the Nagato exaggerated as a result, for almost two days on the open Pacific before March 30, 1946, the US mountain tractors Tenino for the two ships arrived and was able to take them in tow. After the Sakawa arrived in Eniwetok at the beginning of April , she was seriously damaged by a sabotage attack by five US seamen who did not want to do any further service on the dilapidated ship (after all, the 165 US seamen had the work of over 700 Japanese seamen the technology on board had to perform and was no longer particularly reliable). Among other things, the high-pressure steam lines had been cut and sand had been poured into the oil bunker. While charges were being brought against the five perpetrators, the cruiser was only able to continue its voyage to Bikini Atoll in May 1946 after making makeshift repairs .
Operation Crossroads and whereabouts
As one of 100 target ships, the Sakawa was anchored in early June 1946 in the eastern part of the Bikini Atoll lagoon . As part of Operation Crossroads, the Able nuclear weapon test took place on July 1, 1946 , during which an atomic bomb with an explosive force of around 23 kilotons of TNT was dropped from a B-29 bomber on the target fleet. The bomb exploded around 9:00 a.m. at a height of 158 m above the anchored ships.
The force of the atomic explosion tore off the rear of Sakawa, some 380 m from the explosion point, and destroyed most of the superstructure. The wreckage of the cruiser burned for about 24 hours before it capsized after an unsuccessful tow attempt by the tug Achomawi on the morning of July 2, 1946 at around 10:42 and began to sink over the stern. The wreck is still in the Bikini Atoll lagoon at a depth of around 60 m.
literature
- Eric Lacroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Publisher Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1997.
- Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II. Classes, types, construction dates. Stuttgart 1997, pp. 214-216.