''Haguro'' (羽黒) was a
heavy cruiser
The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Tr ...
of the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
, named after
Mount Haguro
is one of the Three Mountains of Dewa in the city of Tsuruoka, the ancient province of Dewa (a domain consisting of modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture), Japan. As the lowest of the three mountains, standing at , it is the only ...
in
Yamagata Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Yamagata Prefecture has a population of 1,079,950 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 9,325 km² (3,600 sq mi). Yamagata Prefecture borders Akita Prefecture to the north, ...
. Commissioned in 1929, ''Haguro'' saw significant service during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, participating in nine naval engagements. She was sunk in 1945 during a fight with
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
destroyers, one of the last major Japanese warships to be sunk in open waters during World War II.
Design
''Haguro'' was the third of the four-member of
heavy cruiser
The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Tr ...
; the other ships were (妙高), (那智), and (足柄). The ships of this class displaced 13,300 tons, were long, and were capable of . They carried two aircraft and their main armament was ten guns in five twin
turrets. At the time they were built, this was the heaviest armament of any cruiser class in the world.
Construction and career
![Haguro1936](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Haguro1936.jpg)
''Haguro'' was
laid down
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one o ...
at the
Mitsubishi
The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries.
Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
shipyard in
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...
on 16 March 1925,
launched and named on 24 March 1928, and was
commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 25 April 1929.
Between 1931 and 1933 she was commanded by
Nomura Naokuni who subsequently achieved flag rank.
Her service in World War II started in the Dutch East Indies, where she engaged the enemy off
Makassar
Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Med ...
on 8 February 1942. ''Haguro'' then played a key role in the
Battle of the Java Sea
The Battle of the Java Sea ( id, Pertempuran Laut Jawa, ja, スラバヤ沖海戦, Surabaya oki kaisen, Surabaya open-sea battle, Javanese : ꦥꦼꦫꦁꦱꦼꦒꦫꦗꦮ, romanized: ''Perang Segara Jawa'') was a decisive naval battle o ...
on 27 February 1942, first sinking the destroyer and then later the same day the
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
fleet's
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
, the cruiser ; both by torpedo. Two days later, on 1 March 1942 in another
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
south of
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
, ''Haguro'' took part in the sinking of the cruiser and the destroyer .
On 7 May 1942, she participated in the
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...
, moving on to the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
where she took part in the
Battle of the Eastern Solomons
The naval Battle of the Eastern Solomons (also known as the Battle of the Stewart Islands and, in Japanese sources, as the Second Battle of the Solomon Sea) took place on 24–25 August 1942, and was the third carrier battle of the Pacific ca ...
on 24 August 1942, the evacuation from
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...
at the end of January 1943. ''Haguro'' took light damage in the
Battle of Empress Augusta Bay
The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, on 1–2 November 1943 – also known as the Battle of Gazelle Bay, Operation Cherry Blossom, and in Japanese sources as the Sea Battle off Bougainville Island (ブーゲンビル島沖海戦) – was a naval ba ...
on 2 November 1943. On 19 June 1944, she survived the
Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invas ...
, and from 23–25 October 1944 she took light damage in the
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...
.
Battle of the Malacca Strait and fate
In May 1945, ''Haguro'' was the target of the British "
Operation Dukedom
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
" and was ambushed. The 26th Destroyer Flotilla found her with the destroyer just after midnight on 16 May 1945, and began the attack. During the battle, ''Kamikaze'' was lightly damaged, but ''Haguro'' was hit by gunfire and three
Mark IX torpedoes from the British destroyers. She soon began to slow down and took a 30-degree list to port.
At 02:32, ''Haguro'' began to go down stern first in the
Malacca Strait
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, conne ...
, off
Penang
Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...
; ''Kamikaze'' rescued 320 survivors, but 751 men, including Vice Admiral
Hashimoto and Rear Admiral
Sugiura, perished with her. Rear Admiral Sugiura was posthumously promoted to vice admiral on 16 May. ''Haguro'' was the last major Japanese warship to be sunk in a surface action during the war.
''Haguro'' was stricken from the
navy list
A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval author ...
on 20 June 1945.
Shipwreck
On 4 March 2003, a group of specialised shipwreck divers operating off MV ''Empress'' discovered the wreck of ''Haguro'' in of water in the Malacca Strait south of Penang. The wreck sits upright, covered in places by discarded trawler nets with her hull opposite her forward turrets buried in the seabed to about her original waterline, but this level gradually reduces until at the stern her outer propellers and shafts are actually up above the seabed. Her foremast and the top half of the bridge structure are missing/collapsed. Her mainmast is collapsed. Her funnels are missing. British hits are visible in places. The bow section forward of No. 2 turret is badly damaged by torpedo hits. ''Haguro''s No. 1 turret and barbette are uprooted and lie against the hull, the rear of the turret on the starboard sea bed and the barrels pointing vertically towards the surface. Her No. 2 turret is trained to starboard at approximately the 1 o'clock position, with its roof collapsed and both barrels and breeches missing, as they were not replaced after being damaged by a bomb at the earlier Battle of Leyte Gulf. Her No. 3 turret's guns are askew and trained to the port quarter at the 8 o'clock position. Both her stern main turrets' guns point almost directly astern. Just behind the No. 5 turret, the wreck is broken in half, although the very stern section is still "partially" attached and heavily damaged on the port side.
In 2010 a further diving expedition surveyed the wreck in detail. In 2014 the wreck was among five located in the region reported to have been heavily destroyed by illegal salvors.
Notes
References
Books
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External links
''Haguros history in detail
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haguro
Myōkō-class cruisers
Ships built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
1928 ships
Cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy
World War II cruisers of Japan
World War II shipwrecks in the Strait of Malacca
Maritime incidents in May 1945
2003 archaeological discoveries