Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Yukaze

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ClassMinekaze class
TypeDestroyer (DD)
BuilderMitsubishi, Nagasaki
Launched1921-05-28
Commissioned1921-08-24
FateAfloat. Surrendered at Kure. She was a repatriation ship from October 1945 to August 1947, when she was handed to the Royal Navy at Singapore as a prize and broken up.
Armament (class)Older fleet destroyer. Four single guns and two funnels.

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.

Yukaze
Yukaze at Kure, 16 October 1945. The destroyer Kiri is among the ships in the background. U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-351880 (National Archives). Wikimedia Commons File:80-G-351880 YUKAZE (Japanese destroyer, 1921).jpg. Public domain.

The name means evening wind. Yukaze was a Minekaze-class destroyer built by Mitsubishi at Nagasaki. She was laid down on 14 December 1920, launched on 28 May 1921 and commissioned on 24 August 1921 in Destroyer Division 3. On 11 October 1928, on a night exercise in the Uraga Channel, she collided with her sister Shimakaze, which needed long repairs. In 1937 and 1938 she patrolled the central China coast.

At Pearl Harbor she was in Carrier Division 3 of the First Fleet at Kure, escorting the old carrier Hosho, and so she took part in the Battle of Midway. After Midway Hosho trained aviators in the Inland Sea under the Third Fleet, and Yukaze stayed her escort to the end of the war.

She was removed from the Navy List on 5 October 1945 and used as a repatriation ship from October 1945 to August 1947. She was then turned over to the Royal Navy as a prize at Singapore and broken up there.

Sources: Wikipedia, Japanese destroyer Yukaze, rewritten here.

The pictures on this page are the originals.