Japanese cruiser Tatsuta
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 Japanese light cruiser Tatsuta |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Sasebo Naval Yards, Japan |
| Ordered: | 1915 Fiscal Year |
| Laid down: | 24 July 1917 |
| Launched: | 29 May 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 31 May 1919 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed 13 March 1944 by USS Sand Lace (SS-381) NNE of Hachijojima |
| General characteristics (initial – final) | |
| Displacement: | 3,948 tons (normal); 4,350 tons (max) |
| Length: | 142.9 m overall (461 ft 10 in) |
| Beam: | 12.3 m (40 ft 4 in) |
| Draft: | 4.0 m (13 ft 2 in) |
| Propulsion: | Three Shaft Geared Turbine Engines; 10 Kampon boilers; 51,000 shp (38,000 kW) |
| Speed: | 33 knots |
| Fuel & Range: | 920 tons oil, 150 tons coal 5,000 nmi at 14 knots (26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 327 |
| Armament: | 4 × 140 mm (5.5 in) guns 3 × 80 mm (3.1 in) guns 2 x 13 mm machine guns 6 × 550 mm torpedo tubes |
| Armor: | Belt 50 mm Deck 25 mm |
IJN Tatsuta (龍田 軽巡洋艦 Tatsuta keijunyōkan?) was the second ship in the two ship Tenryu-class of light cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was named after the Tatsuta River in Nara prefecture, Japan.
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[edit] Background
The Tenryu class light cruisers were essentially enlarged destroyers, inspired by and designed with a similar concept to the Royal Navy Arethusa class and C class cruisers. These ships were designed to act as flagships for destroyer flotillas.
With improvements in oil-fired turbine engine technology, the Tenryu-class had more than twice the horsepower of the previous Chikuma-class, and were capable of the high speed of 33 knots (61 km/h).
[edit] Service career
[edit] Early career
Tatsuta was completed at the Sasebo Navy Yard on 31 March 1919. The following year, it was assigned to the Japanese 2nd Fleet, and patrolled the coast of Russia, providing support to Japanese troops in the Siberian Intervention against the Bolshevik Red Army.
On 19 March 1924, Tatsuta was involved in an accident outside Sasebo harbor, where it collided with (and sank) a training vessel.
Tatsuta was refitted between March 1927 and March 1930, when she was given a tripod foremast.
From 1937-1938, Tatsuta was assigned to patrols of the China coast, as the situation between Japan and China deteriorated into the Second Sino-Japanese War. During a refit in 1939, Tatsuta gained two additional 13 mm AA machine guns.
[edit] Early Pacific War
In late 1940, Tatsuta was based out of Truk, in the Caroline Islands, together with its sister ship Tenryu in CruDiv 18 of the Fourth Fleet under Vice Admiral Marumo Kunimori. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, CruDiv 18 was part of the Wake Island invasion force. Tatsuta was strafed with machine-gun fire by a USMC Grumman Wildcat on 11 December, but otherwise suffered no damage during the first Battle of Wake Island. Tatsuta also participated in the second (successful) invasion attempt on Wake Island on 21 December.
On 20 January 1942, Tatsuta and Tenryu were assigned to cover troop transports during the invasion of Kavieng, New Ireland. During a refit at Truk on 23 February, two Type 96 twin-mount 25 mm AA guns were installed aft, as part of the heightened awareness of the threat posed by American aircraft.
[edit] Solomon Islands and New Guinea campaigns
From March through May, Tatsuta and CruDiv 18 covered numerous troop landings throughout the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, including Lae and Salamaua, Buka, Bougainville, Rabaul, Shortland, and Kieta, and Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Tulagi and Santa Isabel Island.
Tatsuta returned to Japan for repairs on 24 May, remaining for a month. On 14 July 1942, in a major reorganization of the Japanese navy, CruDiv 18 under Rear Admiral Mitsuharu Matsuyama came under the newly created Eighth Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa. On 20 July, Tatsuta was assigned to cover Japanese troop landings in the invasion of Buna, New Guinea. The invasion force was attacked by USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresss and B-26 Marauder bombers, but Tatsuta was unharmed.
On 25 August, Tatsuta was again bombed by B-17s during its coverage of the landing of 1,200 troops of the Kure No. 5 Special Naval Landing Force at Milne Bay, New Guinea, but again escaped without damage. On 6 September, Tatsuta was part of the force assigned to evacuate the surviving troops after their defeat, and in the process bombarded the Gili Gili wharves and sank the 3,199-ton British freighter Anshun. On 6 October, Tatsuta was tasked with the mission to transport the Japanese 17th Army and troops to Guadalcanal.
[edit] Return to Japan
Tatsuta returned to Maizuru on 19 January 1943 for repairs, and remained in Japan until October making training cruises in the Inland Sea with newly commissioned destroyers. On 8 June, while Tatsuta was moored near Hashirajima, the battleship Mutsu exploded and sank due to an accidental magazine explosion. Tatsuta participated in the rescue operation and recovered 39 wounded survivors.
On 20 October 1943, Tatsuta returned to Truk, and made several troop transport runs to Ponape over the couple of weeks. On its return to Japan on 5 November, the Tatsuta convoy was attacked by USS Halibut near the Bungo Suido. However, the Halibut's main target was the aircraft carrier Junyo and battleship Yamashiro, and Tatsuta was ignored.
Tatsuta remained in Japan, resuming its training operations through March 1944.
On 11 March 1944, Tatsuta was assigned to escort a major reinforcement convoy to Saipan. The convoy was attacked by the submarine USS Sand Lance on her first war patrol, 40 miles (64 km) NNE of Hachijojima on 13 March 1944. Two of four torpedoes hit and sank Tatsuta at . Twenty-six crewmen were killed. The destroyers Nowaki and Uzuki rescued the survivors including Captain Torii and Rear Admiral Tamotsu Takama.
Tatsuta was removed from the Navy List on 10 May 1944.
[edit] List of Captains
Chief Equipping Officer - Cmdr. / Capt. Otohiko Kagara - 1 May 1918 - 31 March 1919
Capt. Otohiko Kagara - 31 March 1919 - 1 October 1920
Capt. Ryokichi Odera - 1 October 1920 - 20 November 1921
Cmdr. / Capt. Tatsuzo Kawamura - 20 November 1921 - 29 May 1922 (Promoted to Captain on 1 December 1921.)
Capt. Takeshi Takahashi - 29 May 1922 - 20 November 1922
Capt. Meijiro Tachi - 20 November 1922 - 10 May 1923
Capt. Masashi Takeuchi - 10 May 1923 - 1 December 1923
Capt. Hisao Ichimura - 1 December 1923 - 25 March 1924
Capt. Sunao Matsuzaki - 25 March 1924 - 10 November 1924
Cmdr. / Capt. Shiba Shibayama - 10 November 1924 - 1 December 1925 (Promoted to Captain on 1 December 1924.)
Capt. Yoshiyuki Niiyama - 1 December 1925 - 20 May 1926
Capt. Heiji Takagi - 20 May 1926 - 1 November 1926
Capt. Kanekoto Iwamura - 1 November 1926 - 1 December 1927
Capt. Matsushi Yamamoto - 1 December 1927 - 1 May 1929
Capt. Takeo Kawana - 1 May 1929 - 30 November 1929
Capt. Kunji Tange - 30 November 1929 - 20 November 1930
Capt. Takao Sakuma - 20 November 1930 - 1 December 1931
Capt. Masukichi Matsuki - 1 December 1931 - 1 December 1932
Capt. Aritaka Aihara - 1 December 1932 - 15 November 1933
Capt. Shiro Oshima - 15 November 1933 - 1 November 1934
Capt. Chuichi Hara - 1 November 1934 - 15 November 1935
Capt. Sukeyoshi Yatsushiro - 15 November 1935 - 1 June 1936
Capt. Teizaburo Fukuda - 1 June 1936 - 1 April 1937
Capt. Gihachi Takayanagi - 1 April 1937 - 1 December 1937
Capt. Jihei Yamaguchi - 1 December 1937 - 20 August 1938
Capt. Yasunoshin Ito - 20 August 1938 - 25 May 1939
Capt. Tadayuki Matsura - 25 May 1939 - 25 September 1940
Capt. Masao Sawa - 25 September 1940 - 20 August 1941
Capt. Yoshifumi Baba - 20 August 1941 - 20 July 1942
Capt. Matake Yoshimura - 20 July 1942 - 1 January 1943
Capt. Morie Funaki - 1 January 1943 - 5 April 1943
Capt. Nobuki Ogawa - 5 April 1943 - 22 December 1943
Capt. Takemi Torii - 22 December 1943 - 13 March 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.
- Lacroix, Eric; Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
[edit] External links
- Parshall, Jon; Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp, & Allyn Nevitt. Imperial Japanese Navy Page (Combinedfleet.com). Retrieved on 2006-06-14.
[edit] Gallery
 IJN Tatsuta in 1919 |
 IJN Tatsuta in Inland Sea with destroyer flotilla 1920s |
 IJN Tatsuta at Kure in 1928 |
 IJN Tatsuta in 1927 with IJN Nagato and IJN Mutsu |
 IJN Tatsuta in 1927 with weather balloon |
 IJN Tatsuta in May 1932 |
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