Tenryū in Yokosuka, 1925 |
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| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Tenryū |
| Ordered: | 1915 Fiscal Year |
| Builder: | Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan |
| Laid down: | 7 May 1917 |
| Launched: | 11 March 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 20 November 1919 |
| Struck: | 20 January 1943 |
| Fate: | Sunk by USS Albacore (SS-218) off Madang, New Guinea, 18 December 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Tenryū-class cruiser |
| Displacement: | 3,948 long tons (4,011 t) standard 4,350 long tons (4,420 t) full load |
| Length: | 142.9 m (468 ft 10 in) o/a |
| Beam: | 12.3 m (40 ft 4 in) |
| Draught: | 4 m (13 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion: | 3 shaft geared turbine engines 10 Kampon boilers 51,000 shp (38,000 kW) 920 tons oil, 150 tons coal |
| Speed: | 33 knots (38 mph; 61 km/h) |
| Range: | 5,000 nmi (9,300 km) at 14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 327 |
| Armament: |
• 4 × 140 mm (5.5 in) guns |
| Armour: |
Belt: 50 mm (2.0 in) |
Tenryū (天龍) was the lead ship in the two-ship Tenryū-class of light cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Tenryū was named after the Tenryū River in Nagano and Shizuoka prefectures.
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The Tenryū-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 Tenryū class had more than twice the power of the previous Chikuma-class and were capable of reaching the high speed of 33 knots (61 km/h).
Tenryū was completed on 20 November 1919, at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. 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.
The ship was refitted between March 1927 and March 1930, when it was given a tripod foremast. From 1931 to 1933, Tenryū was assigned to patrols of the Yangtze River in China and was thus in combat during the January 28 Incident at Shanghai in 1932.
From 1937 to 1938, Tenryū 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, it gained two additional 13 mm AA machine guns. From 1939 to 1941, the ship served primarily as a training vessel.
In late 1940, Tenryū was based out of Truk, in the Caroline Islands, together with its sister ship Tatsuta 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. Tenryū was strafed with machine-gun fire by a USMC Grumman F4F Wildcat that damaged three torpedoes on its deck on December 11, 1941, but otherwise suffered no damage during the first Battle of Wake Island. The cruiser also participated in the second (successful) invasion attempt on Wake Island on December 21.
On 20 January 1942, Tatsuta and Tenryū were assigned to cover troop transports during the invasion of Kavieng, New Ireland, in the Bismarck Archipelago. 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.
From March through May, CruDiv 18 and Tenryū covered numerous troop landings throughout the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, including Lae and Salamaua, Buka, Bougainville, Rabaul, Shortland, Kieta, Manus Island, the Admiralty Islands, Tulagi, and Santa Isabel Island.
Tenryū returned to Japan for repairs on 23 May, remaining for a month.
On July 14, 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 July 20, Tenryū 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 Tenryū was unharmed.
On 9 August 1942, Tenryū was in the Battle of Savo Island, together with the cruisers Yūbari, Aoba, Kako, Kinugasa, Furutaka, and Chōkai, and the destroyer Yūnagi, which attacked US Task Group 62.6 that was screening transports with Allied invasion forces for Guadalcanal. During nighttime gun and torpedo action, Tenryu sank the USS Quincy with two torpedoes. She also contributed to sinking the USS Astoria, USS Vincennes, and HMAS Canberra. In addition, the USS Chicago, USS Ralph Talbot, and USS Patterson were damaged. Tenryū was hit by the Chicago, with 23 crewmen killed. Tenryū remained based out of Rabaul through the end of August, escorting convoys of troops and supplies.
On 25 August, Tenryū was again bombed by B-17s during its coverage of the landing of 1200 troops of the Kure No. 5 Special Naval Landing Force at Milne Bay, New Guinea, but again escaped without damage. On 6 September, Tenryū was part of the force assigned to evacuate the surviving troops after their defeat and in the process sank the 3,199-ton British freighter MV Anshun (1930).
On 1 October, the cruiser was hit by a bomb dropped by a B-17 of the 19th Bomb Group, Fifth Air Force while at Rabaul. The bomb killed 30 crewmen, but the ship was not severely damaged. Tenryū was then tasked with "Tokyo Express" transport runs from Rabaul to Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal, through early November.
On 8 November, the Tenryū convoy was attacked by PT boats (PT-37, P-39, and PT-61), but escaped without damage.
On 13 November 1942, Tenryū departed Shortland for Guadalcanal as part of the Japanese task force for the bombardment of Henderson Field. The task force was attacked the next day by USS Flying Fish and torpedo-bombers from USS Enterprise and Marine Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo-bombers from Guadalcanal. During the subsequent battle, Kinugasa was sunk and Chōkai was slightly damaged. A Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bomber crashed into the cruiser Maya. Tenryū was undamaged and returned to Shortland.
On 16 December 1942, Tenryū departed for Madang, New Guinea, in an attack force with the destroyers Isonami, Inazuma, Suzukaze, and Arashio and the armed merchant cruisers Aikoku Maru and Gokoku Maru, successfully landing its forces on 18 December.
The following day, as Tenryū was departing, it was attacked by USS Albacore (SS-218), which fired three torpedoes each at a transport and what it identified as a destroyer. The torpedoes missed the transport, but one hit Tenryū in the stern. Tenryū sank at 11:20 p.m. on 19 December 1942, at . Twenty-three crewmen were lost, but Suzukaze rescued the survivors, including Captain Ueda.
Tenryū was struck from the Navy list on 20 January 1943.
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