Japanese destroyer Ikazuchi

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	August 1932
Commissioned:
Fate:	Sunk by USS Harder April 13, 1944
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,980 tons
Length:	371 ft 8 in (113.3 m)
Beam:	34 ft 0 in (10.36 m)
Draught:	10 ft 9 in (3.28 m)
Propulsion:
Speed:	38 knots (70 km/h)
Range:	2,500 nautical miles at 14 knots (4,630 km at 26 km/h)
Complement:	297
Armament:	Six 5 inch (100 mm) guns Up to 28 25 mm anti-aircraft (AA) guns Up to ten 13 mm AA guns Nine 24 inch (610 mm) torpedo tubes 36 depth charges

Ikazuchi (Japanese: 雷 meaning "thunder") was an Akatsuki-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was built at Uraga, Japan and was completed in August 1932.

She took part in operations during the Sino-Japanese War that began in mid-1937 and was active through the first two and a half years of the Pacific War, initially under the command of Lieutenant Commander Kudo Shunsaku.

On December 8, 1941 she was one of the Japanese warships that attacked Hong Kong, sinking the British gunboats Cicada and Robin with the assistance of Isuzu. During the first months of 1942, Ikazuchi participated in the East Indies campaign, including the invasion of Java and the battle of the Java Sea on March 1 March in which the British cruiser Exeter, destroyer Encounter and U.S. destroyer Pope were sunk.

In early June 1942 Ikazuchi took part in operations in the north Pacific that resulted in invasion of the Aleutian Islands. On 13 August 1942 Lieutenant Commander Ishii Hagumu assumed command. Later in the year, she went south to join the protracted campaign to retake Guadalcanal.

On October 25, 1942 Ikazuchi, Akatsuki, and Shiratsuyu conducted a daylight raid into the waters off Guadalcanal. In the resulting action, the fast minesweeper USS Zane was damaged and fleet tug Seminole and patrol craft YP-284 were sunk before the Japanese ships were driven off by US Marine coastal artillery.

Ikazuchi participated in the first night action of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942. Stationed on the right flank of the battleships Hiei and Kirishima with two other destroyers, she engaged several U.S. warships, among them the cruiser USS Atlanta, and received hits to her forward gun mount. 21 men were killed and 20 injured in the battle.

Ikazuchi returned to the north Pacific in 1943, and was present at the Battle of the Komandorski Islands on March 26 but saw no action. Later, she operated in the central Pacific. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Ikunaga Kunio, on April 13, 1944, while escorting the transport Sanyo Maru to Woleai, Ikazuchi was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Harder. There were no survivors.