''Tanikaze'' was one of 19 s built for 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 ...

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 Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

of . They displaced at

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

load and at deep load.Whitley, pp. 200–01 The ships had two

Kampon The was the externally operating division of the Ministry of the Navy of Japan responsible for the administration of naval vessel construction. From 1923 onward, it took on the role of a research institution for the research and development of n ...

geared

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

s, each driving one

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

, using steam provided by three Kampon

water-tube boiler A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gene ...

s. The turbines were rated at a total of for a designed speed of . The ships had a range of at a speed of .Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 148 The main armament of the ''Kagerō'' class consisted of six Type 3 guns in three twin-

gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...

s, one

superfiring Superfiring armament is a naval military building technique in which two (or more) turrets are located in a line, one behind the other, with the second turret located above ("super") the one in front so that the second turret can fire over the ...

pair aft and one turret forward of the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. 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 tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s 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 charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...

Construction and career

In June 1942 the ship participated in the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Adm ...

where she was damaged by air attacks. On 5 June, the day after the main Battle of Midway, ''Tanikaze'' was sent by Admiral Nagumo to ensure the last IJN aircraft carrier had actually sunk, to scuttle her if necessary, and collect any survivors. ''Tanikaze'' had the unfortunate luck of being seen by 61 US Dauntless dive bombers sent to destroy ''Hiryū'' if she was still afloat. After they were unable to locate the aircraft carrier (she had sunk about an hour earlier), the dive bombers turned back to simultaneously attack the hapless Japanese destroyer, since their bombs needed to be jettisoned before landing anyway. Through aggressive maneuvering (zig zagging) by the ship's Captain Katsumi Motoi (勝見基), not one of the 61 dive bombers managed a direct hit, although shell fragments and shrapnel from a near-miss slashed across the No.3 aft 5" gun turret and triggering an explosion inside the turret that killed all of its six crew. Anti-Aircraft fire from the ''Tanikaze'' managed to down one of the attacking dive-bombers, piloted by Lt. Adams of USS Enterprise's VS-5, plunged into the wake of the maneuvering destroyer. A short time later, 5

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

level bombers operating out of Midway attacked the ''Tanikaze'' from an elevation of 11,000 feet. The bombers scored no hits. ''Tanikaze'' counted 11 bombers during this particular attack due to some of the B-17's making multiple attack runs. One of the B-17's accidentally jettisoned its auxiliary fuel tanks along with its bombs and was lost with all its crew (Another B-17 was lost due to fuel shortage on its way back as well). The ''Tanikaze'' arrived too late to inspect the ''Hiryū's'' hulk, which had already sunk. And returned to rendezvous with the combined fleet. Later that year, ''Tanikaze'' was busy with transport missions to

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 ...

and in the first months of 1943, she aided in the evacuation of Japanese forces from the island. On 9 June 1944, ''Tanikaze'' was

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

ed and sunk by the submarine in

Sibutu Passage Sibutu Passage is a deep channel some 18 miles (29 km) wide that separates Borneo from the Sulu Archipelago. It has a deep sill allowing entry of deep water into the Sulu basin while connecting the Sulu Sea with the Sulawesi Sea that feeds ...

near Tawitawi, southwest of

Basilan Basilan, officially the Province of Basilan ( cbk, Provincia de Basilan; yka, Wilayah Basilanin; tsg, Wilaya' sin Basilan; fil, Lalawigan ng Basilan), is an island province of the Philippines located primarily in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Re ...

(). 114 crew members were killed, while 126 survivors, including her commander Lieutenant Commander Shunsaku Ikeda (池田周作) (who died two days later),C13072101400
(October 10, 1947) at Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR) (in Japanese) were rescued by the destroyer , which five months later would be sunk by the submarine with all hands, including all survivors from ''Tanikaze''.

Notes

References

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External links

Googlebooks.com: ''The Battle of Midway''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanikaze Kagerō-class destroyers World War II destroyers of Japan Ships of the Battle of Midway Ships sunk by American submarines Shipwrecks in the Sulu Sea World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean 1940 ships Maritime incidents in June 1944 Ships built by Fujinagata Shipyards