Haguro (羽黒) was a Myōkō-classheavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, named after Mount Haguro in Yamagata Prefecture. Commissioned in 1929, Haguro saw significant service during World War II, participating in nine naval engagements between 1942 and 1945. As a heavy cruiser, she was better armed and armored then most surface vessels, and had multiple battles during her combat career including in the Java Sea, in the waters around the Solomon Islands, and the Philippines. She was sunk in 1945 during a fight with Royal Navy destroyers in the Malacca Strait, one of the last major Japanese warships to be sunk in open waters during World War II. The wreck was discovered in 2010.
Design
Haguro, 1936
Haguro was the third of the four-member Myōkō class of heavy cruisers (sometimes referred to as the Nachi class due to the 2nd ship, Nachi, being completed before Myōkō, despite starting construction after);[2] the other ships were Myōkō (妙高), Nachi (那智), and Ashigara (足柄).[3] The ships of this class displaced 13,300 tons, were 201 metres (659 ft) long, and were capable of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph).
Armament
Haguro was originally equipped with ten 20 cm (7.9-inch)/50 naval guns in five twin turrets, three forward and two aft, making her the most powerful heavy cruiser in the world at the time of her commissioning. Her secondary battery consisted of six Type 10 12 cm (4.7-inch) dual purposed guns in six single mounts, a pair of 13.2 mm machine guns, and twelve 61 cm (24 inch) torpedo tubes in four triple mounts, a pair on each side.[2]
In the mid 1930s, Haguro's offensive capabilities were drastically improved. Her 20 cm (7.9 inch) guns were removed and replaced by ten 203 mm (8-inch) guns, improving rate of fire and penetration power. Her 12 cm (4.7 inch) dual guns were replaced by eight 127 mm/40 dual purposed naval gun in four twin turrets, a pair on each side, and her triple torpedo tubes were replaced by quadruple torpedo mounts, making her total torpedo tubes a number of sixteen. Haguro's new AA battery also consisted of various 25 mm (1 inch) machine guns.[2]
Armor
Haguro's main belt was very thick for a cruiser, at 102 mm (4 inches) in thickness. She also carried 35 mm (1.4 inch) deck armor. She carried 76 mm (3 inch) barbette armor, and 25 mm (1 inch) turret armor. Her superstructure was mostly unarmored to avoid stability issues.[2]
Her service in World War II started in the Dutch East Indies, where she engaged the enemy off Makassar on 8 February 1942. Haguro then played a key role in the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942. Haguro and her sistership Nachi intercepted an Allied naval force consisting of two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and nine destroyers.[5]Haguro initially targeted the allied flagship, the light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter, scoring a pair of hits with her 8-inch (203 mm) main guns, before switching fire to the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter. Haguro won the gunfight, and crippled Exeter with gunfire, specifically a hit from her main battery that resulted in Exeter's speed drastically dropping, forcing her out of the battle.[5]Haguro then scored the longest ranged torpedo hit ever fired when from 22,000 yards, a spread of torpedoes from Haguro hit the destroyer HNLMS Kortenaer. Kortenaer immediately exploded and sank. Almost six hours later, just before midnight, she scored another torpedo hit, this time on the aforementioned De Ruyter, which sank the Dutch light cruiser to progressive flooding. [5]
On 1 March 1942 in another action south of Borneo, Haguro and Nachi had a hand in finishing what they started two days earlier when Exeter and her two escorting destroyers HMS Encounter and USS Pope unintentionally stumbled into the two Japanese cruisers and their two escorting destroyers while trying to make an escape from the Java Sea.[6] After a running gun battle lasting almost two hours that subsequently included the cruisers Myoko and Ashigara and their two destroyers, a shell hit again disabled Exeter’s engine room, and while floundering from scuttling charges[7][8] she was sunk by two torpedoes from one of the Japanese destroyers.[9] With their work accomplished Haguro and Nachi proceeded to leave the scene while Myoko and Ashigara combined fire to sink Encounter.[10]Pope temporally escaped, but within two hours would be crippled by aircraft from the light carrier Ryūjō[11] and then finished off by gunfire with the late arrival of Ashigara and Myoko.[12][13][14]
25 October 1944, in the very center Battleship Yamato, and to the right Haguro, underway off Samar Philippines
Between the 22nd to 26th of October, 1944, Haguro partook in the battle of Leyte Gulf. Haguro operated in Takeo Kurita's center force, consisting of the "super battleships" Yamato and Musashi, the largest and most powerful battleships ever made, the older battleships Nagato, Kongō, and Haruna, nine other heavy cruisers, a pair of light cruisers, and fifteen destroyers.[5] Haguro survived submarine attacks that sank the heavy cruisers Atago and Maya, and crippled the heavy cruiser Takao, completely undamaged. The next day, Haguro survived the US carrier aircraft attacks that sank Musashi and damaged Yamato, Nagato, and the cruiser Tone, again undamaged. After Myōkō was crippled by an air dropped torpedo and forced to leave the battle, Vice Admiral Hashimoto transferred his flag to Haguro.[5]
The next day, Haguro partook in the Battle off Samar against Taffy 3. During the battle, Haguro targeted the escort carrier USS Kalinin Bay, who reported spotting a "Nachi class cruiser" from 18,000 yards. Haguro landed fourteen hits on the jeep carrier, but in turn was lightly damaged by a pair of 5-inch (127 mm) shells from the US carrier.[15] After Kurita ordered a retreat, Haguro survived air attacks into the 26th completely undamaged. She and the rest the center force arrived at Brunei on the 28th.[5]
In May 1945, Haguro was the target of the British "Operation Dukedom" and was ambushed. The 26th Destroyer Flotilla found her with the destroyer Kamikaze just after midnight on 16 May 1945, and began the attack. During the battle, Kamikaze was lightly damaged, but Haguro was hit by gunfire and three Mark IX torpedoes from the British destroyers. She soon began to slow down and took a 30-degree list to port.
At 02:32, Haguro began to go down stern first in the Malacca Strait, 55 mi (48 nmi; 89 km) off Penang; Kamikaze rescued 320 survivors, but 751 men,[5] including Vice Admiral Hashimoto and Rear Admiral Sugiura, perished with her.[16] Rear Admiral Sugiura was posthumously promoted to vice admiral on 16 May. Haguro was the last major Japanese warship to be sunk in a surface action during the war.[17]
Haguro was stricken from the navy list on 20 June 1945.
USAAF gun camera footage of Haguro under attack at Rabaul
Shipwreck
On 4 March 2003, a group of specialized shipwreck divers operating off MV Empress discovered the wreck of Haguro in 67 metres (220 ft) of water in the Malacca Strait south of Penang.[18] The wreck sits upright, covered in places by discarded trawler nets with her hull opposite her forward turrets buried in the seabed to about her original waterline, but this level gradually reduces until at the stern her outer propellers and shafts are actually up above the seabed. Her foremast and the top half of the bridge structure are missing/collapsed. Her mainmast is collapsed. Her funnels are missing. British hits are visible in places. The bow section forward of No. 2 turret is badly damaged by torpedo hits. Haguro's No. 1 turret and barbette are uprooted and lie against the hull, the rear of the turret on the starboard sea bed and the barrels pointing vertically towards the surface. Her No. 2 turret is trained to starboard at approximately the 1 o'clock position, with its roof collapsed and both barrels and breeches missing, as they were not replaced after being damaged by a bomb at the earlier Battle of Leyte Gulf. Her No. 3 turret's guns are askew and trained to the port quarter at the 8 o'clock position. Both her stern main turrets' guns point almost directly astern. Just behind the No. 5 turret, the wreck is broken in half, although the very stern section is still "partially" attached and heavily damaged on the port side.[19]
In 2010 a further diving expedition surveyed the wreck in detail.[20] In 2014 the wreck was among five located in the region reported to have been heavily destroyed by illegal salvors.[21]
^Kehn, Donald M. Jr. (2017). In The Highest Degree Tragic: The Sacrifice of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet in the East Indies during World War II. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books. pp. 414–415. ISBN978-1-61234-820-9.
^Womack, Tom (2016). The Allied Defense of the Malay Barrier, 1941-1942. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. pp. 250–251. ISBN978-1-47666-293-0.
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