Japan - Shiratsuyu Class Destroyer

BB1987

Post subject: Japan - Shiratsuyu Class Destroyer

Posted: April 11th, 2013, 3:20 pm

Posts: 2818
Joined: May 23rd, 2012, 1:01 pm
Location: Rome - Italy

Shiratsuyu as of 1936:
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The Shiratsuyu class emerged from the second batch of the preceding Hatsuharu class, when stability issues emerged the last 6 ships where canceled, but later resurfaced as a new class: while retaining the same overall dimensions the Shiratsuyu corrected all the problems discovered with the Hatsuharus sea trail, they where lbetter ballasted and less top-heavy, they had a slighty shorter forecastle and a longer quarterdeck; main armament was basically the same as the post-refit Hatsuharus, with five 5-inch guns in two twin and a single turret, but torpedo armament was increased from six to eigh tubes through the fitting of new quadruple sets in place of the triples fitted on the Hatsuharus, also the aft funnel was placed back on centerline and not offset to starboard like on their predecessors.
in addition to the first six ships another batch of four was ordered in 1934, bringing the total count to 10, the latter ships can be distinguished because they had a rounder bridge structure instead of an angular one.

Samidare as of 1937:
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looked almost alike Shiratsuyu, with some slight differences here and there

Yudachi as of 1937:
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she was the only ship of her class to sport B-Type turrets instead of C-Type ones

Yamakaze as of 1937:
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she was one of the four second batch ships, they all sported a round bridge instead of the previous angular one, also light anti-aircraft armament was composed by twin 13mm machine guns in place of the single 40mm ones fitted on the previouss six Shiratsuyus.

Yudachi as of 1942:
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minimal modifications were done on the Shiratsuyu class ships by the time they entered WWII, the most noticeable ones were the fitting of a degaussing cable and the deletion of the katakana kanji wich spelled their names on each side. On the night of november 12th 1942 Yudachi escorted Admiral Abe bombardement force and engaged the US fleet during the 1st Naval Battle of Guadalcanal; after torpedoing USS Portland she was disabled by gunfire and later sunk py Portland herself.

Suzukaze as of 1943:
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by late 1943 suzukaze recied a twin 25mm machine gun mount in front of the bridge and two trilpe ones abreast the funnel in place fo the previous twin 13mm ones, she was sunk in January 1944, torpedoed by USS Skipjack while escorting a convoy to Enewetak Atoll.

Harusame as of 1943:
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After beign torpedoed and heavily damaged by USS Wahoo in January 1943, Harusame was repaired and extensively refitted: the bridge structure was modified, most of the portholes sealed, the single 5-inch gun turret was replaced by a triple 25mm machine gun mount, another two triple mounts were fitted abreast the funnel in place of the earlier 40mm singles, and finally a twin 25mm mount was added in front of the bridge; the last addition was a type 22 surface search radar fitted on the foremast.
Harusame was sunk in june 1944 after beign bombed by american B-25, interestingly she was the only Shiratsuyu class ship to fell victim of an aerial attack.

Umikaze as of 1944:
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Shiratsuyu as of 1944:
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Damaged in november 1942 after beign bombed by US aircrafts Shiratsuyu returned to Sasebo and was repaired by June 1943, during this time anti-aircraft armament was implemented, the sinle 5-inch gun was removed and three and one twin 25mm machine gun mounts were added.
Shiratsuyu sank on june 15th 1944 after colliding with tanker Seiyo Maru.

Samidare as of 1944:
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first refitted like Shiratsuyu Samidare returned to the yards again in 1944, in addition to the 3 triple and single twin 25mm machine guns already fitted another 10 singles were added; a Type 22 surface search and a type 13 air search radars were fitted on the foremast.
Samidare was sunk in late august, torpedoed by USS Batfish.

Shigure as of 1944:
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after earning the nickname "miracle ship" during the guadalcanal campaign Shigure was refitted extensively: the anti-aircraft fit was argumented to reach a total of twenty-one 25mm machine guns in triple, twin and single mounts, a Type 22 surface search and a type 13 air search radars were also fitted on the foremast; in october of the same year during the Philippine campaign she lived up to her reputation by beign the only survivor of admiral Nishimura southern force at the Battle of Surigao Strait.

Shigure as of 1945:
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after the Philippine Campaign Shigure had the anti-aircraft suite further argumented with the addition of extra 25 and 13mm machine guns, most of the torpedo reloads were also landed.
Shigure finally ran out of luck on January 24th 1945, when she was torpedoed by USS Blackfin; still she sank slowly, allowing 270 out of her 307 crewmember to escape before going down.

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My Worklist
Sources and documentations are the most welcome.

-Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)
-Koko's carrier-based aircrafts of WWII
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Last edited by BB1987 on August 30th, 2016, 7:59 pm, edited 8 times in total.

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Japan - Shiratsuyu Class Destroyer

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