Ōi in 1923 at Kure Harbor, Hiroshima |
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| Career (Japan) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Ōi |
| Namesake: | Oi River |
| Ordered: | 1917 Fiscal Year |
| Laid down: | 24 November 1919 |
| Launched: | 15 July 1920 |
| Commissioned: | 10 October 1921[1] |
| Struck: | 10 September 1944 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed by USS Flasher 570 nmi (1,060 km; 660 mi) south of Hong Kong, South China Sea at , 19 July 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Kuma-class light cruiser |
| Displacement: | 5,100 long tons (5,200 t) (standard) |
| Length: | 152.4 m (500 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 14.2 m (46 ft 7 in) |
| Draft: | 4.8 m (15 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power: | 90,000 shp (67,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 4 × Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines 12 × Kampon boilers 4 × shafts |
| Speed: | 36 kn (67 km/h; 41 mph) |
| Range: | 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement: | 450 |
| Armament: | 7 × 5.5-inch (140 mm) guns (7x1) 2 × 80 mm guns, 8 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (4x2) 48 naval mines |
| Armor: | 64 mm (belt) 29 mm (deck) |
| Aircraft carried: | 1 × floatplane |
| Aviation facilities: | 1 × catapult |
IJN Ōi (大井 軽巡洋艦 Ōi keijun'yōkan) was the fourth of five Kuma-class light cruisers, which served in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She was named after the Oi River in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan.
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As with her sister ships, Ōi was intended for use both as a long-range, high-speed scout ship and also as a command vessel for destroyer or submarine flotillas.
Ōi was completed at Kawasaki Heavy Industries shipyards at Kobe on 4 May 1921. From 1928-1931, she was assigned to be a training vessel at the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in Etajima, Hiroshima. At the time of the Shanghai Incident of 1937, Ōi was re-assigned to patrols of the China coast, but it resumed its training role from the end of 1933 to mid-1937. After August 1937, as the Second Sino-Japanese War continued to escalate, Ōi was assigned to cover the landings of Japanese forces in central China, but it was again assigned to training duties from December 1937 through the end of 1939.
On 25 August 1941, Ōi returned to Maizuru for conversion to a "torpedo cruiser" with 10 Type 92 Model 3 quadruple mount 1-cm torpedo tube launchers (a total of 40 tubes), housing long-range oxygen-propelled Type 93 “Long Lance” torpedoes arranged in two broadside rows of five, i.e. 20 per side. Modifications were completed 30 September, and Ōi was assigned to the First Fleet, CruDiv 9 under Rear Admiral Fukuji Kishi together with her sister Kitakami.
During the attack on Pearl Harbor of 7 December 1941, Ōi escorted the battleship force of the Combined Fleet from its anchorage at Hashirajima in Hiroshima Bay to the Bonin Islands and back.
On 12 January 1942, Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Matome Ugaki inspected Ōi, and expressed strong disapproval of the Navy's plans for the use of the newly remodeled torpedo cruisers and urged a revision to the Navy's tactics. While the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff debated the issue, Ōi was assigned to escorting transports between Hiroshima and Mako, Pescadores Islands from the end of January through mid-April.
On 29 May, during the Battle of Midway, Ōi was part of Vice Admiral Takasu's (Aleutian Screening) force, and returned safely to Yokosuka on 17 June.
From August–September, Ōi and Kitakami were converted into fast transports. Their ten quadruple torpedo tubes were reduced to six, for a total of 24 tubes. They were equipped with two Daihatsu landing craft (barges) and fitted with two triple-mount Type 96 25-mm AA guns. Depth charge launching rails were also installed. Ōi was then used to transport the Maizuru No. 4 Special Naval Landing Force to Truk in the Caroline Islands.
From the end of October through most of December, Ōi ferried troops and supplies from Truk and Manila to Rabaul, New Britain and Buin, Bougainville. On 21 November, CruDiv 9 was disbanded and Ōi was assigned directly to the Combined Fleet. On 24 December, Ōi returned to Kure for maintenance.
From 12 January 1943, Ōi participated in the operation to reinforce Japanese forces in New Guinea. It ferried a convoy with IJA's 20th Infantry Division from Pusan to Wewak, New Guinea via Palau in January, and a convoy with IJA's 41st Infantry Division from Tsingtao to Wewak in February.
On 15 March, Ōi was assigned to Admiral Shiro Takasu's Southwest Area Fleet and was assigned to escort two convoys from Surabaya to Kaimana, New Guinea in April, and from Surabaya to Ambon and Kaimana in May. While at Makassar on 23 June, she was attacked by Consolidated Aircraft B-24 Liberators of the 5th Air Force's 319th Bombardment Squadron, but was not damaged.
On 1 July, Ōi was assigned to CruDiv 16 of the Southwest Area Fleet, and was based at Surabaya as a guard ship. After patrols in the Java Sea, she was repaired at Seletar Naval Base, Singapore in August.
From the end of August 1943 to the end of January 1944, Ōi and Kitakami made four troop transport runs from Singapore and Penang to the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands.
From 27 February, Ōi — with light cruiser Kinu and destroyers Uranami, Amagiri and Shikinami — was assigned to escort the heavy cruisers Tone, Chikuma and Aoba for commerce raiding in the Indian Ocean, but in general remained in the vicinity of Singapore and Balikpapan and Tarakan in Borneo until the end of April. During the month of May, Ōi was primarily involved in troop transport operations between Tarakan, Palau and Sorong, and in June she was re-assigned to patrols in the Java Sea.
On 6 July, Ōi departed Surabaya for Manila. On 19 July, she was sighted in the South China Sea, 570 nmi (1,060 km; 660 mi) south of Hong Kong by the United States Navy submarine USS Flasher. When the cruiser was 1,400 yd (1,300 m) astern, Flasher fired her four stern tubes, hitting Ōi with two torpedoes portside aft. One was a dud, but the other torpedo exploded and flooded Ōi's aft engine room. Flasher then fired four bow torpedoes from 3,500 yd (3,200 m), but all missed. At 17:25, Ōi sank by the stern at . Shikinami rescued Captain Shiba and 368 crewmen, but another 153 crewmen went down with the ship.
Ōi was removed from the Navy List on 10 September 1944.
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