Japanese destroyer Maikaze
Maikaze was one of 19 s built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the 1930s.
Design and description
The Kagerō class was an enlarged and improved version of the preceding. Their crew numbered 240 officers and enlisted men. The ships measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of. They displaced at standard load and at deep load. The ships had two Kampon geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of for a designed speed of. The ships had a range of at a speed of.The main armament of the Kagerō class consisted of six Type 3 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. They were built with four Type 96 anti-aircraft guns in two twin-gun mounts, but more of these guns were added over the course of the war. The ships were also armed with eight torpedo tubes for the oxygen-fueled Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo in two quadruple traversing mounts; one reload was carried for each tube. Their anti-submarine weapons comprised 16 depth charges.
Construction and career
Maikaze upon commissioning was assigned to destroyer division 4, and a few months later was still around during the start of WW2 for Japan. At the bgiining of the war, Maikaze saw various escorting duties throughout the Philippines and Dutch East Indies in the early parts of 1942 and served as a carrier escort during the Battle of Midway, where she survived American air attacks undamaged, then helped to evacuate and scuttle the Japanese aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga. Maikaze embarked on troop and supply transport missions throughout the Guadalcanal campaign, and on August 24 Maikaze escorted aircraft carriers during the battle of the Eastern Solomons, and on October 26 escorted carriers during the battle of Santa Cruz, and from December 13-18, she towed her crippled sistership [Japanese destroyer Japanese destroyer Nowaki (1940)|Nowaki (1940)|Nowaki] to Truk.With the start of 1943, Maikaze surviving a bombing raid during convoy escorting that sank the troop ships Nichiryu Maru and Myoko Maru on 7 January 1943 and rescued survivors. Three days later while escorting the remaining convoys, Maikaze located the submarine USS Argonaut attempting to intercept and sink the Japanese troop ships. Alongside her sistership Isokaze, Maikaze furiously depth charged the area, forcing Argonaut to surface. Maikaze and Isokaze then opened fire and blasted Argonaut until a sinking was confirmed, with all 102 hands going down with the ship. Maikaze evacuated Japanese troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, where she was damaged by American aircraft and escorted to repairs, and throughout the rest of 1943, Maikaze saw convoy escorting duties between Truk and various Japanese occupied Islands.
On 17 February 1944, while evacuating convoys to Yokosuka from Truk following the Allied attack on Truk, Maikaze, Nowaki, the training cruiser Katori, the armed merchant cruiser Akagi Maru, and the armed trawler Shonan Maru were intercepted by American aircraft. USS Enterprise helldivers hit Maikaze with a reported 3 bomb hits, leaving the destroyer dead in the water, before more aircraft sank Akagi Maru and crippled Katori. Nowaki took Maikaze under tow as - rather than more aircraft finishing her off - US surface forces located them, consisting of the American battleships USS Iowa and USS New Jersey, supported by the heavy cruisers USS New Orleans and USS Minneapolis and a number of destroyers. Maikaze responded with a full spread of torpedoes, which almost hit New Jersey, but in turn was blasted by the 8-inch guns of New Orleans and Minneapolis and New Jersey's 5-inch secondary batteries and the destroyer USS Bradford, reduced to a flaming hulk and sinking with all hands after her magazines exploded, including Commander Destroyer Division 4. Simultaneously, Iowa finished off Katori with at least seven 16-inch and nine 5-inch shell hits, while Maikaze's killers turned their attention and sank Shonan Maru. Nowaki managed to escape, but not before being straddled by Iowa several times.