Shipbucket

Hello everyone,

Today I would like to present to you my rendition of the Imperial Japanese Navy Patrol Boat No. 102, as seen in early 1945. To many of you it may look very familiar, and you would be correct as it is a Clemson-class destroyer formerly known as USS Stewart (DD-224). Stewart had been part of Admiral Karel Doorman's forces in the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, and as such was serving in the Dutch East Indies when the Japanese invasion began. She participated in the Battle of Badung Strait and was heavily damaged by Japanese destroyers, which forced her to return to Surabaya for repairs.

Eventually the Japanese forces reached Surabaya, and she was scuttled in her drydock to prevent capture on the 2nd of March 1942. However, the ship was still intact enough for the Japanese to decide to raise and fix her up in February 1943 and eventually commission her into the IJN as Patrol Boat No. 102 in September. In 1943, she had very light armament consisting of 2 × 3-inch (76 mm) guns,
2 × 12.7 mm machine guns, 2 × 6.5 mm 11th Year type machine guns and 72 × Type 95 depth charges. She was assigned to the Southwest Area Fleet, where she would participate in the sinking of the USS Harder (SS-257) in 1944. Around this time, she would also be reported by American pilots and submarines as being an "American ship operating far within enemy waters," which would have been quite an interesting sight! In late 1944, her armament would be expanded at Kure and she would also be given new radar equipment and a new foremast. I decided to draw this version of her.

PB 102 would then be captured in Kure in August of 1945, then recommissioned into the USN in October of that year. In May of 1946, she would be the target in a live-fire exercise where she refused to sink after being barraged by five Navy fighters. She was finally sunk by USS PC-799 which finished her off with twelve 40-mm and 17 three-inch shells fired from a range of 300 yards.

Her equipment and armament as depicted in my drawing:

1 × 22-Gō surface search radar
1 × 13-Gō early warning radar

2 × 3 in L/40 3rd Year type AA guns
14 × Type 96 25 mm AA guns
4 × Type 93 13.2 mm AA guns
2 × 6.5 mm 11th Year type machine guns
72 × Type 2 depth charges

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Very nice work! Are you planning any more IJN patrol boats?

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Yes! I have found 2 more captured ones that I would like to do, and if there are any other interesting ones that I run into I will go for them as well.

Do you have any you would like to see in particular?

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Nice work.

Awesome! Looking forward to them! Oh, ask a loaded question... If you check my signature, there is a list of most of the World War II Imperial Japanese Navy ships color-coded by what all has been done, etc. So pretty much anything from that list is fine.

Also, if you need any photographic references, let me know and I'll see what I have in my files.

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Very interesting. It has occurred to me "what-if" the HMS Repulse survived the IJN torpedo attack and returned to Singapore. Scuttled upon the Japanese invasion but still salvageable. So the Japanese raise her and tow to Kure for repairs. What do they do with it? A transport, a battlecruiser or maybe a carrier?