Tatsuta (ship, 1918)
 The Tatsuta 1919
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The Tatsuta ( Japanese龍田) was a light cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the second ship of the Tenryū class . It was named after the Tatsuta River in Nara Prefecture on Honshu Island .
Planning and construction
The Tatsuta was laid down on July 24, 1917 at the naval shipyard in Sasebo , launched on May 29, 1918 and, after almost two years of construction, put into service by the Navy on March 31, 1919. It was equipped with ten Kampon steam boilers, two of which could be fired with both oil and coal. In addition, the oil bunker could hold around 920 tons of heavy fuel oil and the coal bunker 150 tons of coal. In contrast to her sister ship Tenryū , Tatsuta was equipped with three Parsons geared turbines.
Modernizations
During the renovation work in 1926, the ship received a three-legged foremast behind the bridge. In 1937 two additional 13.2 mm machine guns were installed for anti-aircraft defense. These were replaced in 1940 by two 25 mm Type 96 anti-aircraft guns, at the same time they received two depth charges and the corresponding rails on the starboard and port sides. In the summer of 1942, two additional 25 mm twin automatic cannons were set up on the rear chimney and armored to protect the two sets of triple torpedo tubes.
Calls
Japan
Tatsuta made her first missions as the flagship of the 1st Destroyer Division in the waters around Sasebo. Relocated to reserve in 1921, it was reactivated several times to patrol the mouth of the Yangtze River . In the great Kanto earthquake in 1923, she brought urgently needed supplies from Kure to Tokyo . During the Tomozuru incident in 1934, the Tatsuta found the overturned torpedo boat and towed it to the port of Sasebo for investigation. From 1936 she formed the 10th cruiser division together with the sister ship Tenryū .
China
The Tatsuta performed its first combat mission in the Second Sino-Japanese War . It supported the landings of troops of the Imperial Army and the Navy in Shanghai and was part of the blockade of the Chinese coast. In 1938 she was part of the escort of the Japanese fleet, which dropped troops on the Chinese coast near Amoy on May 10th . During this mission, they shelled Chinese positions on land to support the advance of Japanese ground troops. It remained in Chinese waters until December 1938, when it was returned to the reserve.
Pacific War
New Guinea
In September 1941 Tatsuta and Tenryū were transferred to Truk as the 18th cruiser division in preparation for the attack on the United States . At the beginning of the Pacific War , the cruisers were used as backup for the two landing operations on the island of Wake . They also supported the landings on New Ireland , Kavieng and New Britain in January and February 1942. The Tatsuta also took part in the failed Operation MO at the beginning of May 1942 together with her sister ship.
Guadalcanal and home waters
The Tatsuta was not involved in the battle off Savo Island on August 9, 1942 , as it supported the landings on Buna (Papua New Guinea). It was not until October 1942 that it was intended for a troop transport to Guadalcanal . She brought parts of the 17th Army under General Hyakutake Seikichi to the island. Then she was sent twice together with several other ships as the so-called Tokyo Express to supply the Japanese troops to Guadalcanal. Due to problems with the steering gear, she anchored in Truk from November 1942 to January 1943. It was then moved to its home waters and repaired in the Maizuru naval arsenal . In June 1943 she rescued several survivors of the battleship Mutsu when it was destroyed by an ammunition explosion. Tatsuta stayed in the Inland Sea until October 1943 for training trips with new destroyers. In the meantime it went through an overhaul at the naval shipyard in Kure. The anti-aircraft armament was reinforced again. On October 20, 1943 she moved back to Truk to carry out several convoy trips there. But she returned to Japan in November.
Downfall
Another convoy, this time to Saipan , started on March 12, 1944. This was discovered and attacked the next day by the American submarine USS Sand Lance 40 nautical miles southwest of Hachijō-jima . The submarine fired four torpedoes at 3:10 a.m., one of which hit the Tatsuta . 26 crew members were killed and 10 wounded by the hit. The torpedo hit starboard level with the forward bulkhead of the aft engine room about three meters below the waterline. The aft engine plant was immediately destroyed and water also penetrated into the forward engine room through the ruptured bulkhead between the engine rooms. As a result of the torpedo hit, the aft torpedo tube set was also thrown overboard and the mount of gun No. 3 was destroyed. Four hours after the hit, both engine rooms were flooded, causing the power to fail. The ship's crew continued to fight the water ingress. Despite the effort that took flip side are the ship more and more, so at 15:36 at a heeling angle of 60 °, the command is given to abandon ship had. Even seconds later, the decreased Tatsuta over the stern on the approximate position of 32 ° 52 ' N , 139 ° 12' O . The survivors were rescued by the destroyers Nowaki and Uzuki , including the commander of the ship Kaigun-Daisa Shimazui Takemi.
List of commanders
| No. | Surname | Beginning of the term of office | Term expires | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Frigate captain / sea captain Kagara Otohiko | May 31, 1919 | October 2, 1920 | entrusted with building supervision from May 1, 1918 |
| 2. | Sea captain Odera Ryokichi | October 2, 1920 | December 1, 1921 | |
| 3. | Frigate captain / sea captain Kawamura Tatsuza | December 1, 1921 | June 10, 1922 | entrusted with running the business since November 20, 1921 |
| 4th | Sea captain Takahashi Takejiro | June 10, 1922 | November 20, 1922 | |
| 5. | Sea captain Tachi Meijiro | November 20, 1922 | May 10, 1923 | |
| 6th | Sea captain Takeuchi Tadashi | May 10, 1923 | December 1, 1923 | |
| 7th | Sea captain Ichimaru Hisao | December 1, 1923 | March 6, 1924 | |
| - | Sea captain Yoshida Shigeaki | March 6, 1924 | March 26, 1924 | entrusted with the conduct of business |
| 8th. | Sea captain Matsuzaki Sunao | March 26, 1924 | November 10, 1924 | |
| 9. | Frigate captain / sea captain Shibayama Shiba | November 10, 1924 | December 1, 1925 | |
| 10. | Sea captain Niiyama Yashiyuki | December 1, 1925 | May 20, 1926 | |
| 11. | Sea captain Takagi Heiji | May 20, 1926 | November 1, 1926 | |
| 12. | Sea captain Iwamura Kanekoto | November 1, 1926 | December 1, 1927 | |
| 13. | Sea captain Yamamoto Matsushi | December 1, 1927 | May 1, 1929 | |
| 14th | Sea Captain Kawana Torao | May 1, 1929 | November 30, 1929 | |
| 15th | Sea captain Tange Kunji | November 30, 1929 | November 20, 1930 | |
| 16. | Sea captain Sakuma Masao | November 20, 1930 | December 1, 1931 | |
| 17th | Sea captain Mutsuki Masukichi | December 1, 1931 | December 1, 1932 | |
| 18th | Sea captain Aihara Aritaka | December 1, 1932 | November 15, 1933 | |
| 19th | Sea captain Oshima Shiro | November 15, 1933 | November 1, 1934 | |
| 20th | Sea captain Hara Chuichi | November 1, 1934 | November 15, 1935 | |
| 21st | Sea captain Yatsushiro Sukeyoshi | November 15, 1935 | June 1, 1936 | |
| 22nd | Sea captain Fukuda Teizaburo | June 1, 1936 | April 1, 1937 | |
| 23. | Sea captain Takayamagi Gihachi | April 1, 1937 | December 1, 1937 | |
| 24. | Sea captain Yamaguchi Jihei | December 1, 1937 | August 20, 1938 | |
| 25th | Sea captain Ito Yasunoshin | August 20, 1938 | May 25, 1939 | |
| 26th | Sea captain Matsura Tadayuki | May 25, 1939 | September 25, 1940 | |
| 27. | Sea captain Sawa Masao | September 25, 1940 | August 20, 1941 | |
| 28. | Sea captain Baha Yoshifumi | August 20, 1941 | July 20, 1942 | |
| 29 | Sea captain Yoshimura Mutabe | July 20, 1942 | January 7, 1943 | |
| 30th | Sea captain Funaki Morie | January 7, 1943 | April 5, 1943 | |
| 31. | Sea captain Ogawa Nabuki | April 5, 1943 | December 22, 1943 | |
| 32. | Sea captain Shimazui Takemi | December 22, 1943 | March 13, 1944 |
literature
- Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. US Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3 .
- Mike J. Whitley: Cruiser in World War II . Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart, 1st edition 1997, ISBN 3-613-01842-X .
Web links
- CV of Tatsuta on combinedfleet.com (English)