Japanese cruiser Aoba

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Career

Ordered:	June, 1923
Laid down:	February 4, 1924
Launched:	September 25, 1926
Commissioned:	September 20, 1927
Fate:	Sunk July 28, 1945
Struck:	November 20, 1945^[1]
General Characteristics
Displacement:	10,822 tons
Length:	595 ft (181.4 m)
Beam:	57 ft 9 in (17.6 m)
Draft:	18 ft 7 in (5.7 m)
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Complement:	625
Aircraft:	1
Armament:	6 × 8 in (203 mm) guns, up to 42 × 25 mm AA guns, 8 × 24 in torpedo tubes^[2]

Aoba (青葉), was the lead ship of her class of heavy cruisers class in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

1 History
2 See also
3 References

[edit] History

At the start of the Pacific War, Aoba was assigned to Cruiser Division 6 in the South Seas Force as the flagship for division commander Rear Admiral Aritomo Goto in which she supported the invasion of Guam and the second attack on Wake Island on 23 December 1941. She later supported the landings in the Solomon Islands and in Dutch New Guinea in early-mid 1942, including the invasion of Kavieng and Rabaul, Lae, Salamaua, Buka, Bougainville, the Shortlands and Admiralty Islands.

Aoba participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, and at the Battle of Savo Island, during which three American cruisers, the USS Astoria, Quincy, Vincennes and the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra were sunk. Aoba emerged unscathed from both battles.

During the Battle of Cape Esperance on October 11, 1942, Aoba was heavily damaged and Admiral Goto was killed. From October 22, 1942 to February 15, 1943 Aoba was under repair at Kure, Japan. After departing Kure, she arrived at the forward operating base at Kavieng, New Ireland on March 4, 1943. On April 3, 1943, Kavieng was attacked by B-17 bombers from the U.S. Fifth Air Force. A direct hit by one of the B-17's bombs exploded two of the Type 93 torpedos on Aoba, causing the ship to begin to flood. The ship was beached to prevent her from sinking. Aoba was then towed by the light cruiser Sendai to Truk and, after field repair, made it to Kure for further repairs on August 1, 1943.

The repairs were completed by November 24, 1943, but Aoba's top speed was reduced to 25 knots due to irreparable damage to her engines. She was assigned to the First Southern Expeditionary Fleet based at Singapore and arrived there on December 24, 1943. Aoba then operated in the Indian Ocean, Singapore, and Philippines area for the next ten months. On October 23, 1944, between Lingga and Manila, Aoba was hit by one torpedo fired by the U.S. submarine Bream. She was towed to Manila, and after some field repairs there and in Formosa, she arrived back at Kure on December 12, 1944 where she was judged irreparable and redesignated as a reserve ship.

Between April and July, 1945 Aoba was attacked repeatedly by carrier aircraft from U.S. Task Force 38 and by B-24 bombers from the U.S. Seventh Air Force. The damage from the bombings resulted in Aoba sinking in the shallow harbor water, splitting her hull, and breaking off her stern. She was removed from the navy list on November 20, 1945.

Aoba, photographed off Buin, Bougainville after the Battle of Cape Esperance

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Books

D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 081595302X.
Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1.
Lacroix, Eric; Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870213113.