Mutsuki-class destroyer

Mutsuki in 1930
Class overview
Name:	Mutsuki class
Builders:	Maizuru Naval Arsenal Mitsubishi-Nagasaki Uraga Dock Company Ishikawajima Shipyards Fujinagata Shipyards Sasebo Naval Arsenal
Operators:	Imperial Japanese Navy
Preceded by:	Kamikaze class
Succeeded by:	Fubuki class
Built:	1924-1927
Planned:	12
Completed:	12
Lost:	12
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	1,315 long tons (1,336 t) normal, 1,445 long tons (1,468 t) full load
Length:	97.54 m (320.0 ft) pp, 102.72 m (337.0 ft) overall
Beam:	9.16 m (30.1 ft)
Draught:	2.96 m (9.7 ft)
Propulsion:	4 × Ro-Gō Kampon water-tube boilers 2 × Kampon geared turbines[1] 38,500 ihp (28,700 kW) 2 shafts
Speed:	37.25 knots (68.99 km/h)
Range:	3,600 nautical miles (6,700 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h)
Complement:	154
Armament:	(As originally built) 4 ×Type 3 120 mm 45 caliber naval gun, 2 × Type 92 7.7 mm machine gun, 2 × triple Type 12 torpedo tubes (12 × 610 mm Type 8 torpedoes), 18 × depth charges 16 × Ichi-Gō naval mines[2] (Mutsuki, December 1941) 4 ×Type 3 120 mm 45 caliber naval gun 2 × Type 93 13 mm AA guns, 2 × Type 92 7.7 mm machine gun, 2 × triple Type 12 torpedo tubes (12 × 610 mm 8th Year Type torpedoes), 18 × depth charges (Uzuki, December 1942) 4 ×Type 3 120 mm 45 caliber naval gun, 2 × Type 93 13 mm AA guns, 2 × Type 92 7.7 mm machine guns, 2 × triple Type 12 torpedo tubes (12 × 610 mm 8th Year Type torpedoes), 18 × depth charges 1 × landing craft (Uzuki, September 1944) 2 ×Type 3 120 mm 45 caliber naval gun, 16 × Type 96 25 mm AT/AA Guns, 1 × triple Type 12 torpedo tubes (6 × 610 mm 8th Year Type torpedoes), 36 × depth charges

The Mutsuki-class destroyers (睦月型駆逐艦, Mutsukigata kuchikukan) were a class of twelve destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy.^[3] All were given traditional poetic names of the months of the year by the Lunar calendar or phases of the moon. Some authors consider the Kamikaze and Mutsuki-class destroyers to be extensions of the earlier Minekaze class.^[4]

Background

With the imposition of the Washington Naval Treaty limiting the number and size of capital warships, increased emphasis was placed by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the quantity and firepower of its destroyer fleet to counter what was perceived to be the growing threat from the United States Navy. The Mutsuki-class destroyers were an improved version of the Kamikaze class destroyers and were ordered under the 1923 fiscal budget.^[5]

Along with the Minekaze and Kamikaze classes, the Mutsuki-class ships formed the backbone of Japanese destroyer formations throughout the twenties and thirties. The Minekaze and Kamikaze classes were withdrawn from front line service and reassigned to secondary duties towards the end of the 1930s, but the Mutsukis were retained as first line destroyers due to their range and their more powerful torpedo armament.^[6] All saw combat during World War II, and none survived the war.

Initially, the Mutsuki-class ships had only hull numbers due to the projected large number of warships the Japanese navy expected to build through the Eight-eight fleet plan. This proved to be extremely unpopular with the crews and was a constant source of confusion in communications. In August 1928, names were assigned.^[7]

Design

Office of Naval Intelligence recognition drawing of Mutsuki class

The Mutsuki-class destroyers were based on the same hull design as the previous Kamikaze class, except with a double curvature configuration of the bow, a feature which became a standard in all later Japanese destroyers.

The Mutsuki class was the first to be fitted with the newly developed 24-inch (610 mm) torpedoes, with greater range and larger warhead than previous torpedoes in the Japanese inventory. Originally Type 8 torpedoes were carried, arranged in two triple mountings. These were later replaced with the famous Type 93 "Long Lance" oxygen-propelled torpedoes during World War II.

In September 1935, many ships in the navy were severely damaged by a typhoon while on training exercises, in what was later termed the "Fourth Fleet Incident", including a number of the Mutsuki-class destroyers, which had several plates buckled and bridges wrecked. During 1936-37 the Mutsuki-class ships were retrofitted with a strengthened, more compact, bridge, with redesigned watertight shields on the torpedo mounts. With the new shields the torpedoes could be worked in all weather conditions thus extending the useful life of the class.^[8]

From 1941-1942 the Mutsuki-class destroyers were refitted with the 120 mm/45 main guns reduced to two single mounts and ten Type 96 25 mm AT/AA Guns added. The minesweeping and minelaying equipment was removed and replaced with four depth charge launchers, with 36 depth charges.

In June 1944, the surviving vessels were again refit, with the number of Type 96 25 mm antiaircraft guns increased to twenty, and an additional five Type 93 13 mm AA Guns also installed.

Operational history

The Mutsuki class formed the 5th and 6th Destroyer Squadrons. Mutsuki and Kisaragi participated in the Battle of Wake Island at the start of the war, during which time Kisaragi was lost due to aircraft bombardment. The remaining eleven vessels participated in the invasions of the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies. In the subsequent Solomon Islands campaign surviving ships were exposed to considerable danger as fast transports in “Tokyo Express” missions in trying to re-supply island garrisons. Mutsuki, Nagatsuki, Kikuzuki, Mikazuki and Mochizuki were lost due to air attack in various battles in the Solomons.^[9]

Surviving vessels participated in the New Guinea campaign, mostly in the role of “Tokyo Express” transports. Yayoi was lost in an air attack off New Guinea and Fumizuki in Operation Hailstone at Truk. In the final stages of the war, Uzuki was lost to US PT-boats and Satsuki and Yūzuki to an attacks and Minazuki to submarine torpedoes in the Philippines.

None of the Mutsuki-class destroyers survived the war.^[10]

List of ships

References

Notes

Books

• Evans, David (1979). Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-192-7. 
• Brown, David (1990). Warship Losses of World War Two. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-914-X. 
• Howarth, Stephen (1983). The Fighting Ships of the Rising Sun: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895–1945. Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-11402-8. 
• Jentsura, Hansgeorg (1976). Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-893-X. 
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958). The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942 – February 1943, vol. 5 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-58305-7. 
• Nelson, Andrew N. (1967). Japanese–English Character Dictionary. Tuttle. ISBN 0-8048-0408-7. 
• Watts, Anthony J (1967). Japanese Warships of World War II. Doubleday. ASIN B000KEV3J8. 
• Whitley, M J (2000). Destroyers of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 1-85409-521-8. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mutsuki class destroyers.

• Nishida, Hiroshi. "Materials of IJN: Mutsuki class destroyer". Imperial Japanese Navy. 
• Globalsecurity.org. "IJN Mutsuki class destroyers". 
• Jones, Daniel H. (2003). "IJN Minekaze, Kamikaze and Mutsuki class Destroyers". Ship Modeler's Mailing List (SMML). 

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