Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Abukuma

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ClassNagara class
TypeLight cruiser (CL)
FateSunk. Nagara-class light cruiser, flagship of Destroyer Squadron 1 with the Pearl Harbor striking force. A torpedo damaged her in Surigao Strait on 25 October 1944. Army bombers sank her the next day off Negros. Not one ship.
Armament (class)5,500-ton light cruiser. Four funnels, used as a destroyer-squadron flagship.

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

The armament line is the class drawing, not a measurement of this hull.

Abukuma
Abukuma cl1941.jpg. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Abukuma was a Nagara-class light cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In December 1941 she was flagship of Destroyer Squadron 1 with the striking force that went to Pearl Harbor.

On 7 December 1941 she flew that flag over the destroyer squadron screening the carriers. The attack left her unhit.

On 25 October 1944 she entered the Battle of Surigao Strait. A torpedo struck her on the way in, damaged her, and she fell out of the column.

The torpedo came from the boat PT-137. Lieutenant (junior grade) Isadore Michael Kovar fired at a destroyer and could not see the cruiser when he fired. The torpedo ran on and hit Abukuma.

Army bombers sank her the next day off Negros. PT-137 had damaged her; the bombers sank the ship the following day. That sinking is not credited to one ship.

The pictures on this page are the originals.