Asashimo on November 27, 1943. |
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| Career (Japan) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Asashimo |
| Completed: | 27 November 1943 |
| Struck: | 10 May 1945 |
| Fate: | Sunk in action, 7 April 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Yūgumo-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 2520 tons |
| Length: | 119.15 m |
| Beam: | 10.8 m |
| Draught: | 3.75 m |
| Speed: | 35 kn |
| Complement: | 228 |
| Armament: | • 6 × 127 mm/50 caliber DP guns • up to 28 × 25 mm AA guns • up to 4 × 13 mm AA guns • 8 × 610 mm torpedo tubes for Type 93 torpedoes • 36 depth charges |
Asashimo (朝霜, "Morning Frost") was a Yūgumo-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was sunk with all hands during Operation Ten-Go, while escaping with other escorts while both the Yamato and the Yahagi were attacked and sunk by US aircraft, as were for the other destroyers.
On 29 February 1944, while escorting a large convoy en route to Truk, Asashimo detected the USS Rock (SS-274) making a night surface approach on the convoy. Rock fired a spread of four torpedoes from her stern tubes at the closing Asashimo without scoring a hit. Then illuminated by the destroyer's searchlight, and under fire from the ship's 5-inch (130 mm) guns, Rock dived. For 4 hours Asashimo continued depth charge attacks, without success. That night Rock surfaced and found that her periscopes were excessively damaged and that her bridge had been riddled with shrapnel. The damage necessitated a return to Pearl Harbor for repairs. Later that night, the busy Asashimo' sank Trout. Japanese records examined after the war indicate that one of their convoys, Matsu No. 1, was attacked by a submarine on 29 February 1944 in the patrol area assigned to Trout. Carrying the 29th Infantry Division of the Kwantung Army from Manchuria to Guam, Matsu No. 1 consisted of four large transports escorted by three Yugumo-class destroyers of Destroyer Division 31: Asashimo, Kishinami, and Okinami. The submarine badly damaged one large passenger-cargo ship and sank the 7,126-ton transport Sakito Maru. Asashimo detected the submarine and dropped 19 depth charges. Oil and debris came to the surface and the destroyer dropped a final depth charge on that spot. The submarine was using Mk. XVIII electric torpedoes, and it was also possible that one of those had made a circular run and sunk the boat, as happened with Tang.
On 6 April 1945, Asashimo escorted the battleship Yamato from the Inland Sea on Operation Ten-Go towards Okinawa. She was sunk with all hands, a total of 326 crewmen, on 7 April by aircraft of Task Force 58, of USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) after falling astern of the Yamato task force due to engine troubles, 150 miles (275 km) southwest of Nagasaki. The others, including Hamakaze, were sunk during the same attack, also by aircraft of San Jacinto, but several destroyers, such as Suzutsuki survived with heavy damage. Asashimo was sunk at ().
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