was one of 18
escort destroyers built for the
Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during
World War II. Completed in early 1945, the ship was deployed to northern Japan for
convoy escort duties in May. She was badly damaged during the American attacks on
Hokkaido and northern
Honshu in mid-July and was further damaged when they repeated those attacks on 9 August. ''Yanagi'' was
scrapped
Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...
in 1947.
Design and description
Designed for ease of production, the ''Matsu'' class was smaller, slower and more lightly armed than previous destroyers as the IJN intended them for second-line duties like escorting convoys, releasing the larger ships for missions with the fleet. The ships measured long
overall, 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 of .
[Sturton, p. 196] Their crew numbered 210 officers and enlisted men. They displaced at
standard load and at deep load. The ships had two
Kampon 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 two Kampon
water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of for a speed of . The ''Matsu''s had a range of at .
[Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 151]
The main armament of the ''Matsu''-class ships consisted of three
Type 89 dual-purpose guns in one twin-gun mount aft and one single mount 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 ...
. The single mount was partially protected against
spray
Spray or spraying commonly refer to:
* Spray (liquid drop)
** Aerosol spray
** Blood spray
** Hair spray
** Nasal spray
** Pepper spray
** PAVA spray
** Road spray or tire spray, road debris kicked up from a vehicle tire
** Sea spray, refers to ...
by a
gun shield
A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield
A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery piece ...
. The accuracy of the Type 89 guns was severely reduced against aircraft because no high-angle gunnery
director was fitted. The ships carried a total of twenty-five
Type 96 anti-aircraft gun
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
s in 4 triple and 13 single mounts. The ''Matsu''s were equipped with
Type 13 early-warning and
Type 22 surface-
search radars.
[Stille, p. 41] The ships were also armed with a single rotating quadruple mount
amidships for
torpedoes. They could deliver their 36
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 ...
s via two stern rails and two throwers.
[
]
Construction and career
Authorized in the late 1942 Modified 5th Naval Armaments Supplement Program, ''Yanagi'' (willow) was laid down by Fujinagata Shipyards on 20 August 1944 in its Osaka facility and launched on 25 November. Upon her completion on 18 January 1945, the ship was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 11 of the Combined Fleet for working up. Upon the completion of her training, the ship was assigned to the squadron's Destroyer Division 53. The squadron was briefly attached to the Second Fleet
The United States Second Fleet is a numbered fleet in the United States Navy responsible for the East Coast and North Atlantic Ocean. The Fleet was established following World War II. In September 2011, Second Fleet was deactivated in view of ...
on 1–20 April before rejoining the Combined Fleet.[Nevitt]
On 22 May, ''Yanagi'' was transferred to the Ominato area for convoy escort duties. During attacks by Task Force 38 on Hokkaido and northern Honshu on 14 July, the ship had her stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
blown off when she was attacked by carrier aircraft in the Tsugaru Strait. Her crew casualties are unknown, but the destroyer was towed to Ominato. Destroyer Division 53 was disbanded the following day. ''Yanagi'' was still in Ominato when Task Force 38 conducted further attacks in the Hokkaido area on 9–10 August and was further damaged.[Rohwer, pp. 422, 427] The ship was turned over to Allied forces at Hakodate at the time of the surrender of Japan
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...
on 2 September and was stricken from the navy list on 20 November. Unrepaired, she was broken up at Ominato on 1 April 1947.[
]
Notes
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yanagi (Type D)
Matsu-class destroyers
Ships built by Fujinagata Shipyards
World War II destroyers of Japan
1944 ships