Tenryū (ship, 1919)
 The Tenryū 1936
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The Tenryū ( Japanese天龍) was a light cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy and lead ship of the Tenryū class . The ship was named after the Tenryū River on Honshū .
Planning and construction
The Tenryū was built in 2 years by the Yokosuka naval shipyard and put into service by the navy on November 20, 1919. It was not equipped with ten uniform boilers, but eight boilers could be fired with oil and two more with coal if necessary. To do this, she carried around 920 tons of heavy oil in tanks and 150 tons of coal in coal bunkers .
Modernizations
The Tenryū received a three-legged mast behind the bridge during renovations from 1927 to 1930. In 1937, an unknown number of 7.7 mm machine guns were installed for close-range defense. In 1942 she received two depth charges and the corresponding rails on the starboard and port sides. During their service, the 13.2 mm twin machine guns were removed and replaced with 25 mm twins. In the summer of 1942, two further 25 mm twin automatic cannons were placed aft of the rear funnel and armor was added to protect the two sets of triple torpedo tubes.
Calls
China
Their first use in Chinese waters was between 1931 and 1933 patrol trips on the Yangtze River . The Tenryū's first combat mission took place in the Second Sino-Japanese War . After the July 7 incident, the light cruiser was one of the Japanese ships that gathered in Tsingtao in late July 1937 .
In 1938 she was part of the escort of the Japanese fleet, which dropped troops on the Chinese coast on May 10. During this mission, they shelled Chinese positions on land to support the advance of Japanese ground troops.
Pacific War
The Tenryū was used as a backup for landing operations at the beginning of the Pacific War and was involved in the landings on Wake in December 1941 and in the landing on New Ireland in 1942 .
Guadalcanal and New Guinea
In the battle of Savo Island on August 9, 1942, the Tenryū was part of Vice Admiral Mikawa's fleet , which was supposed to hunt down Allied ships off Guadalcanal . After the Japanese fleet, coming from Rabaul , under cover of darkness and unnoticed by American security ships, had entered the sound , they attacked the American and Australian cruisers with artillery and torpedoes. Two torpedoes of the Tenryū hit the heavy cruiser Quincy , which later went down while she was hit by cruiser fire and suffered minor damage. 25 Japanese sailors were killed. After the withdrawal was ordered, the Tenryū lookout spotted the destroyer Ralph Talbot , who was moving from his outpost position onto the battlefield. The searchlights of the light cruiser then caught the destroyer and the Ralph Talbot was shot down by the Tenryū , the Yūbari and the heavy cruiser Furutaka until a rain squall withdrew the American ship from attack.
On October 22, 1942, the Tenryū Rabaul left to carry out a special operation and evacuate 353 men of a Japanese marine infantry unit who had landed on Goodenough Island Taupota in August to set up a communication and weather station. At the meeting point, they were fired at with infantry weapons, as Australian troops had already occupied the agreed evacuation position. Only four days later, on October 26th, the Tenryū was able to track down the 261 survivors of the Tsukioka unit and bring them back in a new attempt.
In September 1942 she was assigned to lay sea mines and loaded with 56 mines on deck. After the deployment was delayed, the mines were removed from the ship on October 1st. On the morning of October 2, American B-17 bombers attacked the port of Rabaul and hit the Tenryū with an aerial bomb on the stern to starboard. 22 crew members died, the ship suffered severe damage to the superstructure and the 8 cm gun at the stern was destroyed.
After several days of repairs, it was used in the so-called Tokyo Express as a fast supply ship for Japanese army troops on Guadalcanal. It carried out three supply trips with ammunition and troops from Shortland to Guadalcanal between November 1 and 9 .
On the night of November 13-14 , 1942, the Tenryū was part of a fleet of four heavy and two light cruisers that Henderson Field , the makeshift airfield of the Americans on Guadalcanal, shot at with indirect artillery fire. The 32-minute attack was not disturbed by enemy naval activity as the American ships withdrew from the Sound after the Battle of the 13th. The American battleships summoned did not arrive in time, but intercepted another Japanese fleet the next day, at the Battle of Guadalcanal .
Downfall
On December 16, the Tenryū finally escorted a convoy from Rabaul to Madang in Papua New Guinea . It survived an American air raid on the morning of the 18th unscathed. While the cargo ships landed the Japanese troops, they were secured by the Tenryū and four destroyers. The submarine USS Albacore had been dispatched to the area by its superior after intercepting Japanese radio messages and attacked the fleet on the evening of December 18. Two of three torpedoes hit the light cruiser in the rear. The engine rooms filled up immediately and the Tenryū was stopped. The ship could not be saved and sank after the survivors were recovered, about 2 hours after the torpedo hits. 23 sailors were killed.
wreck
The wreck of the Tenryū has not yet been searched for. The Untergangsort of the ship is probably at coordinates 5 ° 12 ' S , 145 ° 56' O .
List of commanders
| No. | Surname | Beginning of the term of office | Term expires | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Frigate captain / sea captain Tsunoda Kanzo | July 20, 1918 | November 20, 1919 | entrusted with building supervision from February 16, 1918 |
| 2. | Frigate captain / sea captain Murase Teijiro | November 20, 1919 | December 1, 1921 | |
| 3. | Sea captain Yukou Takayoshi | December 1, 1921 | May 29, 1922 | |
| 4th | Sea captain Kawamura Tatsuza | May 29, 1922 | December 1, 1922 | |
| 5. | Sea captain Matsushita Hajime | December 1, 1922 | December 1, 1923 | |
| 6th | Frigate captain / sea captain Oguri Nohuchi | December 1, 1923 | December 1, 1924 | entrusted with the management of the business since October 15, 1923 |
| 7th | Sea captain Takita Yoshio | December 1, 1924 | October 20, 1925 | |
| 8th. | Sea captain Kida Shimpei | October 20, 1925 | December 1, 1925 | |
| 9. | Sea captain Monai Isao | December 1, 1925 | November 1, 1926 | |
| 10. | Sea captain Yamaguchi Seishichi | November 1, 1926 | November 15, 1927 | |
| 11. | Sea captain Kikuno Shigeru | November 15, 1927 | December 18, 1928 | |
| 12. | Sea captain Sawamoto Yorio | December 18, 1928 | August 20, 1929 | |
| 13. | Frigate Captain Takahashi Ibo | August 20, 1929 | November 1, 1929 | |
| 14th | Frigate captain / sea captain Hachiya Yoshio | November 1, 1929 | December 1, 1930 | |
| 15th | Sea captain Madereme Kensuke | December 1, 1930 | November 15, 1932 | |
| 16. | Sea captain Tayui Minoru | November 15, 1932 | November 1, 1933 | |
| 17th | Sea captain Kamazawa Masao | November 1, 1933 | May 25, 1934 | |
| 18th | Sea captain Izwawa Toru | May 25, 1934 | November 15, 1934 | |
| 19th | Sea captain Kasuga Sueaki | November 15, 1934 | November 21, 1935 | |
| 20th | Sea captain Kamata Michiaki | November 21, 1935 | February 15, 1936 | |
| 21st | Sea captain Kudo Kyuhachi | February 15, 1936 | November 10, 1936 | |
| 22nd | Sea captain Ugaki Kanji | November 10, 1936 | August 2, 1937 | |
| 23. | Sea captain Abe Koso | August 2, 1937 | December 15, 1938 | |
| 24. | Sea captain Yamazuki Sadanao | December 15, 1938 | November 15, 1939 | |
| 25th | Sea captain Kanome Zensuke | November 15, 1939 | October 15, 1940 | |
| 26th | Sea captain Takahashi Yuji | October 15, 1940 | August 28, 1941 | |
| 27. | Sea captain Goto Mitsutaro | August 28, 1941 | June 5, 1942 | |
| 28. | Sea captain Asano Shinpei | June 5, 1942 | December 5, 1942 | |
| 29 | Sea captain Ueda Mitsuharu | December 5, 1942 | December 19, 1942 |
literature
- Eric LaCroix, Linton Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War . US Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3
Web links
- Resume the Tenryū on combinedfleet.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Last Century of Sea Power, Volume One: From Port Arthur to Chanak, 1894-1922, HP Willmott, Indiana University Press, 2009, ISBN 0253352142 , p. 40
- ^ A battle history of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945, Paul S. Dull, US Naval Institute Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-59114-219-5 , pages 178 and following