Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Mutsuki

Back to Mutsuki

ClassMutsuki class
TypeDestroyer (DD)
FateSunk. With the Wake attack force in December 1941. Not sunk there. Sunk by Army B-17s on 25 August 1942 while assisting the bombed Kinryu Maru, about 40 miles northeast of Santa Isabel. Not credited to one plane. Forty-one men were killed.
Armament (class)Four single guns and two funnels. All of them were lost.
Command
  • Hatano, Kenji Captain at the Wake Island attack, December 1941; Relieved on 8 September 1942

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.

Mutsuki
Mutsuki, with the name on the hull and the fleet number 30 on the bow. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Mutsuki was a Mutsuki-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the flagship of Destroyer Division 30.

In December 1941 she went with the force that attacked Wake Island. Kenji Hatano was her captain for that attack.

On 11 December 1941 she took part in the bombardment during the Battle of Wake Island. On 23 December she was with the landing force. She came through the Wake operation afloat.

Her end came on 25 August 1942, about 40 miles northeast of Santa Isabel. She was standing by the bombed Kinryu Maru, assisting that ship, when Army B-17s sank her.

Forty-one of her men were killed. Credit for the sinking was not given to any one plane. Hatano was relieved on 8 September 1942.

The pictures on this page are the originals.