Japanese destroyer Samidare

Career
The Samidare
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned:
Decommissioned:
Fate:	Destroyed, 26 August 1944
Struck:	10 October 1944
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,980 tons
Length:	352 ft 8 in (107.5 meters
Beam:	32 ft 6 in (9.9 m)
Draft:	11 ft 6 in (3.5 m)
Speed:	34 knots (63 km/h)
Complement:	180
Armament:	5 × 5 in ( 127 mm) / 50 caliber DP guns, up to 21 × 25 mm AA guns, up to 4 × 13 mm AA guns, 8 × 24 in torpedo tubes, 16 depth charges

Samidare was a Shiratsuyu-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her name means "Monsoon Rain Over Land" (Early Summer Rain).

On the night of 12–13 November 1942, Samidare escorted Rear Admiral Abe Hiroaki's Bombardment Force. She entered the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal late, but assisted in sinking of USS Monssen (DD-436) and damaging USS Helena (CL-50). She rescued 207 survivors from Yudachi and attempted to scuttle the destroyer with torpedoes, then to returned to the Shortlands to unload passengers.

In the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, on the night of 14–15 November, Samidare joined Admiral Kondō Nobutake's Emergency Bombardment Force. With her squadron flagship Nagara in assault on American destroyers, assisted in sinking USS Benham (DD-397), USS Walke (DD-416) and USS Preston (DD-379) and damaging USS Gwin (DD-433). She assisted sinking the crippled battleship Kirishima and helped remove her survivors, then returned to Truk on 18 November.

On 18 August 1944, Samidare ran aground on Velasco Reef near Palau (08°10′N 134°38′E). On 25 August, she was torpedoed by USS Batfish (SS-310). The destroyer broke in two with the stern-section sinking, and the bow-section later destroyed by the Japanese.