Japanese cruiser Naka

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Career (Japan)
Naka in 1925, at Yokohama prior to commissioning
Ordered:	1920 Fiscal Year
Laid down:	10 June 1922
Launched:	24 March 1925
Commissioned:	30 November 1925^[1]
Struck:	31 March 1944
Fate:	sunk 18 February 1944 bombed by USN carrier aircraft near Truk 07°15′N, 151°15′E.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Sendai class cruiser
Displacement:	5195 tons (standard)
Length:	152.4 meters
Beam:	14.2 meters
Draught:	4.9 meters
Propulsion:	4 shaft Parsons geared turbines 10 Kampon boilers 90,000 shp
Speed:	35.3 knots
Range:	5,000 nautical miles at 14 knots (26 km/h)
Complement:	452
Armament:	7 × 5.5-inch (140 mm) guns (7x1) 2 × 80 mm guns, 4 × 610 mm torpedo tubes (4x2) 48 mines
Armor:	64 mm (belt) 29 mm (deck)
Aircraft carried:	1 x floatplane, 1 catapult

IJN Naka (那珂軽巡洋艦, Naka keijunyōkan^?) was a Sendai-class light cruiser in the Imperial Japanese Navy, named after the Naka River in the Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures of eastern Japan.

1 Background
2 Service career
- 2.1 Early career
3 List of Captains
4 References
5 See also

[edit] Background

Naka was the third (and final) vessel completed in the Sendai-class of light cruisers, and like other vessels of her class, she was intended for use as the flagship of a destroyer flotilla.

[edit] Service career

[edit] Early career

Naka was completed at Mitsubishi Yokohama on 30 November 1925.

On 26 November 1941, Naka became flagship of DesRon 4 under Rear Admiral Shoji Nishimura. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Naka was engaged in the invasion of the southern Philippines as part of Vice Admiral Ibo Takahashi's Third Fleet escorting transports with components of the IJA 48th Infantry Division. Naka was slightly damaged by strafing by five Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers and Seversky P-35 Guardsman and Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk fighters of the USAAF Far East Air Force.

In January 1942, Naka was assigned to the invasion of the Dutch East Indies, carrying the Kure No. 2 Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) to Tarakan and Balikpapan, Borneo. On 24 January 1942 while landing troops at Balikpapan, the Royal Netherlands Navy submarine K-XVIII, operating on the surface due to poor weather, fired four torpedoes at the Naka, but missed. While Admiral Nishimura ordered Naka and her destroyers in an unsuccessful pursuit of the submarine, USN Task Force 5 with USS Parrott, USS Pope, USS John D. Ford and USS Paul Jones attacked the now unprotected Japanese convoy, sinking several transports.

In late February 1942, Naka escorted transports with the 48th Infantry Division to Makassar, Celebes and eastern Java, accompanied by light cruiser Jintsu. Naka was thus in a central position for the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942.

At 1547, the Japanese cruisers Haguro, Jintsu and Nachi, with destroyers Inazuma, Yukikaze, Tokitsukaze, Amatsukaze and Hatsukaze, Ushio, Sazanami, Yamakaze and Kawakaze engaged Dutch Rear Admiral Karel W. F. M. Doorman's Strike Force's light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter (F), cruisers HMS Exeter, USS Houston, light cruisers HMAS Perth, HNMS Java, destroyers HMS Electra, HMS Encounter, HMS Jupiter, HNLMS Kortenaer, HNMS Witte de With and old destroyers USS Alden, USS John D. Edwards, USS John D. Ford and USS Paul Jones.

At 1603, Naka and its destroyer squadron with Asagumo, Minegumo, Murasame, Harukaze, Samidare and Yudachi launched 43 Type 93 Long Lance torpedoes at the Allied force from about 16,250 yards (14,860 m); sinking Exeter and Kortenaer. The destroyers launched 56 torpedoes in addition to 8 torpedoes from Naka, but amazingly failed to hit anything. Asagumo closed with the HMS Electra, sinking it in a gun battle. The Jupiter hit a Dutch mine and sank. Towards midnight, the De Ruyter and Java were hit by torpedoes and exploded.

This engagement was followed by the Battle of Sunda Strait, the next day on 28 February 1942, at which Naka was not present.

In March, Naka was assigned patrol duties between Java and the Celebes. However, on 14 March 1942, Naka received orders to become flagship for the Christmas Island invasion force. The force consisted of Naka, CruDiv 16's Nagara and Natori, DesDiv 9's Minegumo and Natsugumo, DesDiv 16's Amatsukaze and Hatsukaze, DesDiv 22's Satsuki, Minatsuki, Fumitsuki and Nagatsuki, oiler Akebono Maru and transports Kimishima Maru and Kumagawa Maru. Landing operations progressed without opposition on 31 March 1942, however, USS Seawolf fired four torpedoes at the Naka, but all missed. Seawolf tried again with two more torpedoes the following day, 1 April 1942, and this time one hit to starboard near her No. 1 boiler. Natori towed the badly damaged Naka to Bantam Bay, Java for temporary repairs, and Naka then proceeded to Singapore under her own power. The damage was sufficient to justify a return to Japan for further repairs in June. Naka remained in Japan in reserve until April 1943.

On 1 April 1943, Naka was assigned to the new CruDiv 14 under Rear Admiral Kenzo Ito with Isuzu, arriving at Truk on 30 April 1943: For the next several months, Naka was assigned to make troop transport runs around the Marshall Islands and Nauru.

On 21 October 1943, Naka and Isuzu embarked Army troops at Shanghai. The convoy was intercepted by USS Shad in the East China Sea on 23 October 1943, which fired 10 torpedoes, failing to damage either cruiser.

On 3 November 1943, convoy was attacked 60 nautical miles (111 km) north of Kavieng by 13th Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers. Naka suffered a near-miss, and arrived at Rabaul on 5 November 1943, the same day as the Carrier Raid on Rabaul. Naka was slightly damaged by near-misses from dive bombers from USS Saratoga and USS Princeton.

On 23 November 1943, Naka departed Ponape with troop reinforcements for Tarawa, but the island fell to the Americans before the reinforcements can be landed.

From 17-18 February 1944, Naka assisted light cruiser Agano, which had been torpedoed the day before by USS Skate. Immediately after Naka departed, Truk was attacked by US Navy Task Force 58 in Operation Hailstone. The Americans sank 31 transports and 10 naval vessels (two cruisers, four destroyers and four auxiliary vessels), destroyed nearly 200 aircraft and damaged severely about 100 more, eliminating Truk as a major base for the IJN. Naka was attacked 35 nautical miles (65 km) west of Truk by three waves of SB2C Helldivers and TBF Avengers from USS Bunker Hill and TBFs of VT-25 of the USS Cowpens. The first two strikes failed to score a hit, but Naka was hit by a torpedo and a bomb in the third strike and broke in two, sinking at 07°15′N, 151°15′E. Some 240 crewmen perished, but patrol boats rescued 210 men including Captain Sutezawa.

Naka was removed from the Navy List on 31 March 1944:

[edit] List of Captains

Captain	From	To
Cmdr. Choji Inoue ^[2]	15 April 1925	30 November 1925
Cmdr. / Capt. Choji Inoue ^[3]	30 November 1925	1 December 1926
Capt. Kamezaburo Nakamura	1 December 1926	5 April 1927
Capt. Motosuke Mito	5 April 1927	1 November 1927
Capt. Isao Monai	1 November 1927	10 December 1928
Capt. Jiro Ban	10 December 1928	30 November 1929
Capt. Chuichi Nagumo	30 November 1929	1 December 1930
Capt. Sadao Yamada	1 December 1930	1 December 1931
Capt. Koki Yamamoto	1 December 1931	1 December 1932
Capt. Shigeru Sonoda	1 December 1932	15 November 1933
Capt. Eiji Goto	15 November 1933	15 November 1934
Capt. Kasuke Abe	15 November 1934	25 May 1935
Capt. Marquis Tadashige Daigo	25 May 1935	15 November 1935
Capt. Aritomo Goto	15 November 1935	1 December 1936
Capt. Koso Abe	1 December 1936	2 August 1937
Capt. Motoji Nakamura	2 August 1937	1 December 1937
Capt. Chimaki Kono	1 December 1937	15 November 1938
Capt. Shutoku Miyazato	15 November 1938	15 December 1938
Capt. Tamotsu Takama	15 December 1938	15 November 1939
Capt. Teruo Akiyama	15 November 1939	15 October 1940
Capt. Baron Matsuji Ijuin	15 October 1940	11 August 1941
Capt. Yoshioki Tawara	11 August 1941	7 July 1942
Capt. Ryuji Nakazato	7 July 1942	1 October 1942
Capt. Banjiro Takagi	1 October 1942	25 February 1943
Capt. Yoshijiro Imaizumi	25 February 1943	7 January 1944
Capt. Yoshimasa Sutezawa	7 January 1944	17 February 1944

[edit] References

[edit] 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.
Hara, Tameichi (1961). Japanese Destroyer Captain. New York & Toronto: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-27894-1. - First-hand account of the torpedoing of Naka at Christmas Island by the captain of the Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze
Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0-68911-402-8.
Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-893-X.
Lacroix, Eric; Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
Whitley, M.J. (1995). Cruisers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-141-6.