JAPANESE CRUISER TATSUTA

Japanese light cruiser ''Tatsuta''
Career	Japanese Navy Ensign
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 Lance (SS-381) NNE of Hachijojima
General Characteristics (initial – final)
Displacement:	3,948 tons (normal); 4,350 tons (max)
Length:	142.9 meters overall
Beam:	12.3 meters
Draft:	4.0 meters
Propulsion:	Three Shaft Geared Turbine Engines; 10 Kampon boilers; 51,000 shp
Speed:	33 knots
Fuel & Range:	920 tons oil, 150 tons coal 5,000 nm @ 14 knots
Complement:	327
Armament:	★ 4 × 5.5-inch (140mm) guns, ★ 3 × 3.1-inch (80mm) guns, ★ 2 x 13 mm machine guns, ★ 6 × 550 mm torpedo tubes
Armor:	★ Belt 50mm ★ Deck 25mm

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.

Contents

Background

Service Career

Early career

Early Pacific War

Solomon Islands and New Guinea campaigns

Return to Japan

List of Captains (partial)

References

Books

External links

Gallery

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.

Service Career

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 a 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 13mm AA machine guns.

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.

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.

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 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.

List of Captains (partial)

★ Captain Yoshifumi Baba - 20 August 1941

★ Captain Matake Yoshimura - 20 July 1942

★ Captain Morie Funaki - 1 January 1943

★ Captain Nobuki Ogawa - 5 April 1943

★ Captain Takemi Torii - 22 December 1943

References

Books

★ Warship Losses of World War Two, , David, Brown, Naval Institute Press, 1990, ISBN 1-55750-914-X

★ Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II, , Andrieu, D'Albas, Devin-Adair Pub, 1965, ISBN 0-8159-5302-X

★ A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945, , Paul S., Dull, Naval Institute Press, 1978, ISBN 0-87021-097-1

★ Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War, , Eric, Lacroix, Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87021-311-3

External links

★ Imperial Japanese Navy Page (Combinedfleet.com)

Gallery