Japanese Destroyer Namikaze

was the second ship of the ''Nokaze'' sub-class, an improvement to the 1st class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I. Advanced for their time, these ships served as first-line destroyers through the 1930s, but were considered obsolescent by the start of the Pacific War. Following the war, the ship was transferred to the Republic of China as a prize of war and renamed ''Shen Yang''.

History

Construction of the large-sized ''Minekaze''-class destroyers was authorized as part of the Imperial Japanese Navy's 8-4 Fleet Program from fiscal 1917 with nine vessels, and fiscal 1918 with an additional six vessels. However, the final three vessels in the fiscal 1918 were built to a different design and have a different enough silhouette that many authors consider them to be a separate class. ''Namikaze'', built at the Maizuru Naval Arsenal, was the second ship of this sub-class. The destroyer was laid down on 7 November 1921, launched on 24 June 1922 and commissioned on 11 November 1922.

On completion, ''Namikaze'' was teamed with sister ships , , and flagship at the Yokosuka Naval District to form Destroyer Division 1 (第一駆逐隊). In 1938-1939, the division was assigned to patrols of the northern and central China coastlines in support of Japanese combat operations in the Second Sino-Japanese War

World War II history

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, ''Namikaze'' was based at the Ōminato Guard District in northern Japan, and was assigned to patrols of the Hokkaidō and Chishima Islands coastlines.

During the Battle of Midway in May 1942, ''Namikaze'' was assigned to the reserve force for the Aleutian Islands Operation, which did not leave Japanese waters. Afterwards, she returned to patrol and escort duties based out of Ōminato through July 1943, with the ship's patrol area extended to include much of Honshū as far south as Ise Bay. In July she was assigned temporarily to the IJN 5th Fleet for the mission to evacuate surviving Japanese forces from Kiska, but only performed backup duties. She was slightly damaged in a collision with the coastal patrol vessel ''Manei Maru No.7'' at the entry to Otaru port, Hokkaidō on 6 November 1943. ''Namikaze'' continued to be based at Ōminato for patrol and escort in northern waters until December 1943.

In December 1943, ''Namikaze'' was reassigned to Moji on 1 December to escort convoys to French Indochina. She returned to Ōminato to resume the Hokkaidō-Chishima patrols from March 1944

On 21 August 1944, ''Namikaze'' was torpedoed by the submarine north of Iturup. Her stern severed, she was towed by ''Kamikaze'' to Otaru for emergency repairs. She was subsequently sent on to Maizuru Naval Arsenal for rebuilding into a carrier for '' Kaiten'' manned torpedo.

This conversion involved removing three of her four main guns and all of the torpedo launchers. Her first boiler was also removed, reducing her output to and top speed to . Six Type 96 25 mm AT/AA Guns and eight anti-aircraft guns were added. The stern was modified with a sloping deck, and two to four ''Kaiten'' could be carried.

After completion of the refit on 1 February 1945, ''Namikaze'' was assigned to the Combined Fleet, but there is no record of ''Namikaze'' actually launching ''Kaiten'' in battle. From 16 June 1945, ''Namikaze'' was based at Ube in the Inland Sea, and was used primarily as a minesweeper searching for mines dropped by B-29 Superfortress bombers. She was at Kure Naval Base at the time of the surrender of Japan.

On 5 October 1945, ''Namikaze'' was officially removed from navy list. However, after being demilitarized, she was pressed into service by the American occupation authorities for use as a repatriation ship, and continued in that role from 1 December 1945 until 1947 evacuating demilitarized Japanese soldiers and civilians from the Asian mainland.

Service with the Republic of China

On 3 October 1947, ex-''Namikaze'' was turned over to the Republic of China as a prize of war, and renamed ''Shen Yang''. ''Shen Yang'' was based in Qingdao from 1947 until the fall of that port city to communist forces in the Chinese Civil War. She continued to be used by the Republic of China Navy from bases in Taiwan until 1960, when she was finally scrapped.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Namikaze
Minekaze-class destroyers
Ships built by Maizuru Naval Arsenal
1922 ships
Second Sino-Japanese War naval ships of Japan
World War II destroyers of Japan
Destroyers of the Republic of China Navy