The ''Yokohama Maru'' was a 6,143-gross register ton passenger and cargo vessel built by Mitsubishi Dockyard & Engine Works, Nagaski for Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha and launched in 1912. The ship was used on the Guam to Japan route. She was requisitioned by the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...
and fitted out as a troop transport.
Invasion of Guam
On 8 December 1941, she was assigned to Operation "G", the
invasion of Guam as one of 10 transports carrying Major General
Horii Tomitaro's 55th Infantry Corps.
The naval operation was headed by the
4th Fleet operating out of
Saipan
Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...
consisting of minelayer
''Tsugaru'' as flagship; seaplane tender
''Kiyokawa Maru''; 4 cruisers,
''Aoba'',
''Furutaka'',
''Kako'',
''Kinugasa'' (Cruiser Division 6, detached from
1st Fleet); and 4 destroyers,
''Oboro'' (detached from Carrier Division 5 of the
IJN 1st Air Fleet), and
''Kikuzuki'',
''Uzuki'', and
''Yūzuki'' (Destroyer Division 23, detached from Carrier Division 2,
IJN 1st Air Fleet). The remaining ships all belonged to the Fifth Base Force,
4th Fleet consisting of Gunboat Division 7 (''Hirotama Maru'', ''Shotoku Maru''), Subchaser Division 59 (subchasers ''Shonan Maru No. 5'', ''Shonan Maru No. 6''; netlayer ''Shofuku Maru''), Subchaser Division 60 (subchasers ''Kyo Maru No. 8'', ''Kyo Maru No. 10''; netlayer ''Shuko Maru''), and Minesweeper Division 15 (''Fumi Maru No. 2'', ''Seki Maru No. 3'').
Invasion of Salamaua–Lae
On 10 March 1942, while being unloaded off Salamaua, ''Yokohama Maru'' was attacked as part of the invasion fleet at Lae and Salamaua and was sunk at .
Notes
External links
Chronological List of Japanese Merchant Vessel Losses
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yokohama Maru (1912)
1912 ships
Auxiliary ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Ships sunk by US aircraft
Shipwrecks of Papua New Guinea
Maritime incidents in March 1942