Japanese cruiser Sendai
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2008) |
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Empire of Japan | |
| Name | Sendai |
| Namesake | Sendai River |
| Ordered | 1920 Fiscal Year |
| Builder | Mitsubishi |
| Laid down | 16 February 1922 |
| Launched | 30 October 1923 |
| Commissioned | 29 April 1924[1] |
| Stricken | 5 January 1944 |
| Fate |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Sendai-class light cruiser |
| Displacement | 5,195 long tons (5,278 t) (standard) |
| Length | 152.4 m (500 ft 0 in) |
| Beam | 14.2 m (46 ft 7 in) |
| Draft | 4.9 m (16 ft 1 in) |
| Installed power | 90,000 shp (67,000 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 35.3 kn (65.4 km/h; 40.6 mph) |
| Range | 5,000 nmi (9,000 km; 6,000 mi) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement | 452 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
| Aircraft carried | 1 × floatplane |
| Aviation facilities | 1 × catapult |
Sendai (川内 軽巡洋艦, Sendai keijun'yōkan) was a
Service career
Early career
Sendai was completed at the
Invasions of Southeast Asia
On 20 November 1941, Sendai became
At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sendai was engaged in escorting transports carrying Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita and the Japanese 25th Army to invade Malaya. At 23:45 on 7 December 1941, Sendai and her destroyer squadron (Ayanami, Isonami, Shikinami, and Uranami) commenced a bombardment of Kota Bharu, Malaya. They were attacked by seven RAAF Hudson bombers, which sank one of the transports and damaged two others.
On 9 December 1941, the submarine I-65 reported sighting of Royal Navy Force Z (the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales, battlecruiser HMS Repulse and supporting destroyers). The report was received by Sendai, which relayed the message to Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa aboard his flagship, the heavy cruiser Chōkai. However, the reception was poor and the message took another 90 minutes to decode. Moreover, I-65's report was incorrect about the heading of Force Z. The following day, Force Z was overwhelmed by torpedo bombers of the 22nd Air Flotilla from Indochina.
On 19 December 1941, off Kota Bahru in the South China Sea, Royal Netherlands Navy submarine HNLMS O 20 sighted Sendai escorting the second Malaya Convoy's 39 transports. At 11:15, Sendai's floatplane, a Kawanishi E7K2 "Alf", spotted and bombed O 20, which was also attacked by the destroyers Ayanami and Yūgiri with depth charges. That night, O 20 surfaced to recharge her batteries, and a flame from her engines' exhaust gave her away; she was sunk by Uranami.
Sendai made three more troop convoy escort runs to Malay at the end of December 1941 and in January 1942. On the fourth run, on 10 January 1942, the US submarine USS Seadragon spotted the convoy and fired two torpedoes at the last transport, but both missed. On the fifth run, on 26 January, Sendai and her convoy were attacked by the destroyers HMS Thanet and HMAS Vampire about 80 nmi (148 km) north of Singapore in the Battle off Endau. The torpedoes from the Allied vessels missed, and the destroyer Shirayuki and Sendai returned gunfire. Thanet was sunk, while Vampire was undamaged and escaped to Singapore.
From February through March, Sendai was assigned to cover Japanese landings in
Battle of Midway
On 29 May 1942, Sendai departed with the Main Body of the
Solomon Islands campaigns
On 15 July 1942, DesRon 3 was reassigned to the Southwest Force to cover operations in
On 25 February 1943, Sendai was reassigned to the Eighth Fleet at Rabaul under Vice Admiral
On 18 July 1943, off Kolombangara, the group was attacked by Guadalcanal-based Marine Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, and two days later by North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers but was not damaged; it also escaped damage after being bombed by a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber on 1 November 1943.
The following day, 2 November 1943, at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, the Japanese fleet attempting to reinforce Bougainville was intercepted by Task Force 39 with the light cruisers USS Cleveland, Columbia, Montpelier and Denver and destroyers USS Stanly, Charles Ausburne, Claxton, Dyson, Converse, Foote, Spence and Thatcher. The Japanese force included the cruisers Myōkō, Haguro, Sendai and Agano with destroyers Shigure, Samidare, Shiratsuyu, Naganami, Wakatsuki, Hatsukaze.
Shigure spotted the American destroyers at 7,500 yd (6,900 m), turned hard starboard and launched eight torpedoes. Sendai also turned hard starboard, but bore down on Shigure, barely avoiding a collision. All four Allied cruisers took Sendai under radar directed 6-inch fire. They hit her with their first salvo and more thereafter, setting her afire. Sendai sank the following morning at 06°10′S 154°20′E / 6.167°S 154.333°E, along with Hatsukaze. Captain Shoji and 184 crewmen went down with the ship, but 236 other crewmen were rescued by destroyers.
On 3 November 1943, Admiral Ijuin and 75 more survivors from Sendai were rescued by the Japanese submarine Ro-104.
Sendai was removed from the Navy List on 5 January 1944.
References
Notes
- ^ Lacroix, Japanese Cruisers, p. 794.
Books
- Brown, David (1990). Warship Losses of World War Two. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-914-X.
- D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.
- Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1.
- Evans, David (1979). Kaigun : Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-192-7.
- Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-11402-8.
- Jentschura, Hansgeorg; Jung, Dieter & Mickel, Peter (1977). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 978-0-87021-893-4.
- Lacroix, Eric & ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- ISBN 1-55750-141-6.
External links
- Parshall, Jon; Bob Hackett; Sander Kingsepp; Allyn Nevitt. "Sendai-class Light Cruiser". Imperial Japanese Navy Page. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
- tabular record: CombinedFleet.com: Sendai history
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in November 1943 | |
|---|---|
| Shipwrecks |
|
| Other incidents |
|
