The Japanese destroyer was one of 21 s built for the
Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1910s. She spent most of the
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
patrolling and escorting convoys in and around Chinese waters, during which the ship participated in the
Battle of Hong Kong
The Battle of Hong Kong (8–25 December 1941), also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the ...
in December 1941. ''Tsuga'' was sunk by American carrier aircraft in early 1945.
Design and description
The ''Momi'' class was designed with higher speed and better
seakeeping than the preceding second-class destroyers. The ships had an
overall length of and were
between perpendiculars. They had 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 mean
draft of . The ''Momi''-class ships displaced at
standard load and at
deep load.
[Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 137] ''Tsuga'' was powered by two
Parsons
Parsons may refer to:
Places
In the United States:
* Parsons, Kansas, a city
* Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* Parsons, Tennessee, a city
* Parsons, West Virginia, a town
* Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingto ...
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 using steam provided by three
Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were designed to produce to give the ships a speed of . The ships carried a maximum of of
fuel oil
Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...
which gave them a range of at . Their crew consisted of 110 officers and crewmen.
The main armament of the ''Momi''-class ships consisted of three
Type 3 guns in single mounts; one gun forward of the
well deck, one between the two
funnels, and the last gun atop the aft
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 ...
. The guns were numbered '1' to '3' from front to rear. The ships carried two above-water twin sets of
torpedo tubes; one mount was in the well deck between the forward superstructure and the bow gun and the other between the aft funnel and aft superstructure.
[
]
Construction and career
''Tsuga'', built at the Ishikawajima shipyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
in Tokyo, was laid down on 5 March 1919, launched on 17 April 1920 and completed on 20 July 1920.[Gardiner & Gray, p. 244]
Pacific War
At the start of the Pacific War on 7 December 1941, ''Tsuga'' was assigned to the China Area Fleet with two of her sister ships, and . She supported the invasion of Hong Kong in December 1941 and then began convoy escort and patrolling off the Chinese coast. The ship was sunk by carrier aircraft from Task Force 38 during its South China Sea raid on 15 January 1945 at coordinates .[Hackett, Kingsepp & Cundall]
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsuga (1920)
1920 ships
Ships built by IHI Corporation
Momi-class destroyers
Second Sino-Japanese War naval ships of Japan
Destroyers sunk by aircraft
Ships sunk by US aircraft
Maritime incidents in January 1945
World War II shipwrecks in the South China Sea