Japanese destroyer Arashi
 Arashi underway in December 1940. |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Arashi |
| Launched: | 22 April 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 25 November 1940 |
| Struck: | 15 October 1943 |
| Fate: | Sunk in action, 7 August 1943 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Kagerō-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 2,490 long tons (2,530 t) |
| Length: | 118.5 m (388 ft 9 in) |
| Beam: | 10.8 m (35 ft 5 in) |
| Draft: | 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in) |
| Speed: | 35 knots (40 mph; 65 km/h) |
| Complement: | 240 |
| Armament: | • 6 × 5 in (130 mm)/50 caliber DP guns • up to 28 × 25 mm AA guns • up to 4 × 13 mm AA guns • 8 × 24 in (610 mm) torpedo tubes • 36 depth charges |
| Service record | |
| Operations: | Battle of Vella Gulf (1943) |
| Victories: | USS Asheville (1942) |
Arashi (嵐, "Storm") was a Kagero-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Arashi played a vital role in World War II by inadvertently guiding US attack planes to the Japanese carrier fleet at the Battle of Midway. It had been separated from the fleet during an attack on the USS Nautilus and was steaming to join them. All four IJN carriers were sunk by Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of the carriers USS Yorktown, USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, giving the US a decisive victory and therefore the advance in the Pacific War.
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[edit] Service
[edit] Early Operations
On 3 March 1942 Arashi assisted in sinking of the gunboat USS Asheville.
[edit] Midway
The Japanese Destroyer Arashi is most famous for its involvement in the Battle of Midway in which it stalked USS Nautilus. The Destroyer was alerted to the presence of Nautilus when a Japanese Zero Fighter dived and fired machine guns on the Nautilus when it attempted to rise to periscope depth. Arashi spotted the encounter and began to drop depth charges. The Japanese Task force changed course but the Arashi continued to stalk Nautilus. Later in the battle, two squadrons of dive bombers from Enterprise searching for the Japanese Task Force spotted this destroyer making great speed to the north. Having kept Nautilus down long enough that she no longer was a threat, the captain of the Arashi had moved off and was attempting to regain the Japanese carrier force. The ships speed and direction acted as a direction arrow, guiding the squadrons to the Japanese carriers. Meanwhile, Japanese fighter aircraft protecting the carriers had been pulled away as they all attempted to engage an incoming torpedo attack from Hornet's VT-6 torpedo squad. At the moment of decision, the Japanese carriers were essentially without air cover. This made for an uncontested approach for the American dive bombers. The Enterprise dive bombers happened to arrive over the Japanese carriers Kaga and Akagi unimpeded, scoring multiple hits on Kaga and a single hit on Akagi that doomed both ships.[1]
During the battle the Arashi is known to have picked up one of the downed airman from the Yorktown. He was Ens. Wesley Osmus, one of the TBD pilots of VT-3. Osmus was flying the last plane in VT-3s formation, and thus was first to be attacked and destroyed as they made their approach. Osmus was picked up later on 4 June and buried 5 June. He was made to provide the Japanese with a general description of the make-up of the force they had been fighting against, the only clear description the Japanese obtained. He was said to have died the day following his recovery and was buried at sea. In truth he had been taken to the stern of Arashi and struck in the back of the neck with a fire axe. He clung briefly to the railing, and then was pushed overboard into the sea. Among other facts learned, the Japanese report indicated the pilot had been from Chicago.[2][3]
After the war when the fate of Ens. Osmus was learned, an attempt was made to find the captain of the Arashi and try him for war crimes, but it was learned that he had died later in the conflict, and the matter was set aside.
[edit] At the Solomon Islands
The Arashi was part of a Japanese convoy that sailed through the Blackett Strait in 1943. It included fellow destroyers Amagiri, Hagikaze, and Shigure. The convoy's lead ship, Amagiri, is famous for being the vessel to ram and sink the American patrol craft PT-109, the PT boat commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, who would survive the war and go on to become the President of the United States.
On 7 August 1943, Arashi was again attempting to land reinforcements to the garrison on New Georgia island as part of a four destroyer fast convoy when she was intercepted by a US destroyer force lying in wait between Kolombangara and Vella Lavella (07°50′S 156°55′E / 7.833°S 156.917°E). The US forces struck with complete surprise. The Arashi along with the Hagikaze and Kawakaze were sunk by torpedoes and naval gunfire from USS Dunlap, USS Craven and USS Maury in what became known as the Battle of Vella Gulf.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Parshall, Jonathan; Tully, Anthony (2005). Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books. p. 217. ISBN 1-57488-923-0.
- ^ Chūichi Nagumo (June 1942). "CINC First Air Fleet Detailed Battle Report no. 6". http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/IJN/rep/Midway/Nagumo/.
- ^ Cressman, Robert (1999). The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Naval Institute Press. p. 101. ISBN 1557501491.
[edit] External links
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