Ships
- IJN Yugumo Captain from 16 October 1941
Commander Shigeo Semba of the Imperial Japanese Navy became captain of the destroyer Yugumo on 16 October 1941. He joined her at Maizuru, on the Sea of Japan, while the naval arsenal was still finishing the ship. In that navy the captain of a new destroyer commonly came aboard during fitting-out, so the crew, the watches, and the drills took shape under the officer who would take her to sea.
Yugumo was the lead ship of her class. Maizuru Naval Arsenal had laid her down on 12 June 1940 and launched her on 16 March 1941. She was a fleet destroyer of a little over 2,000 tons in standard condition, powered by geared turbines for a designed speed of 35 knots. Six 12.7-centimeter guns were mounted in three twin turrets. Eight 61-centimeter torpedo tubes, with a reload carried for each tube, formed the core of her armament, together with 25-millimeter anti-aircraft guns and depth charges. She was built to screen heavier ships and to fight in a night torpedo attack.
The arsenal completed Yugumo, and the navy commissioned her on 5 December 1941, with Semba already her captain. Three days later, on 8 December by the Japanese calendar, the Pacific War opened. A destroyer finished in that week still had her working-up ahead of her. Semba’s immediate task was to exercise the guns and the torpedoes and to train the crew in station-keeping until the fleet could place Yugumo in a screen.
As the first ship of the class, Yugumo carried a new design into service, and the habits of that hull, those gun mounts, and that torpedo arrangement were proved under her first captain. Semba’s command began in the short interval between completion and war, when a commander was judged by how quickly a newly gathered crew could fight the ship the dockyard had just delivered.