Wreck of HIJMS Furutaka (古鷹)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, navy, shipwreck, cruiser

HIJMS Furutaka was the namesake ship of her class of Heavy Cruisers for the Imperial Japanese Navy and during World War Two had been heavily involved with some of the most historic actions of the early war: the Invasion of Guam, the Invasion of Wake Island, The Battle of Coral Sea and the Battle of Savo Island.

October 1942 found the Furutaka operating as part of Cruiser Division 6 based in the Shortland Islands, tasked with escorting troop and supply convoys to the contested islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi and reducing or destroying Allied Naval power in the area. On October 10th, 1942 the Furutaka and Cruiser Division 6 were ordered to escort a vital supply convoy to the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal, which had just suffered two defeats at the hands of advancing American forces which had captured a newly constructed Japanese airfield on the island. Tasked with screening the convoy safely down New Georgia Sound, or 'the Slot', the three Cruisers and their six escorting Destroyers under the command of Japanese Rear Admiral Aritomo Goto were then to proceed to the American airfield and shell it with specially designed artillery rounds. Departing the Shortland Islands at 1400hrs on October 11th, the Furukawa and Cruiser Division 6 linked up with their assigned convoy and proceeded South towards Guadalcanal, estimated to arrive around midnight.

Unbeknownst to the Japanese force, they were spotted by an American recon plane a mere 45 minutes into their trip, which radioed their course and speed to an American force under the command of Rear Admiral Norman Scott, consisting of four Cruisers and five Destroyers which moved into position in a battle line across the Northwestern shoreline of Guadalcanal and Savo Island, intent on blocking the Japanese force from entering the body of water known as Ironbottom Sound. As night fell the Japanese convoy parted ways and Cruiser Division 6 entered battle formation, with the Furutaka taking the Southernmost position in the formation, with the Flagship Aoba to her Port side and made their way towards Henderson field.

At 2300hrs an American search plane overflew the Japanese warships and again radioed their position and course to Admiral Scott, but the plane went unnoticed or unreported aboard the Furutaka or the other ships steaming with her as they made their way through several rain squalls towards their target at 30 knots. American ships made radar contact with the closest ship in the Japanese formation, the Furutaka, at 2332hrs, which allowed the American formation to maneuver into a position to 'Cross the T' of the Japanese battle line, which lacking radar and surrounded by heavy rain in the dark were completely unaware of the presence of the American fleet, which was now radar-targeting the entire of the Japanese force.

At 2343hrs a lookout aboard the flagship Aoba sighted the American ships as the Japanese formation emerged from a rain squall, but Admiral Goto thought the ships were the Japanese convoy they had escorted into the area and ordered all of his ships to begin flashing recognition signals towards the unknown ships. Aboard Furutaka, no sooner than the first part of the signal message been flashed out the entire Southwestern horizon exploded in fire as the whole US force commenced firing on the Japanese ships. The time was 2346hrs and the Battle of Cape Esperance was underway.

As Furutaka's crew raced to return fire the ship was struck with several rounds of Cruiser fire, then began to take concentrated close-quarter fire from the USS Duncan, a Destroyer which had closed to less than a mile away and was now pouring 5-inch rounds into the Furutaka's superstructure at point blank range. The flagship Aoba, still steaming to Port was decimated by hyper-accurate Cruiser fire and peeled away from the formation, laying a smoke screen from her smokestacks and from several massive fires burning on her wrecked decks, leaving the Furutaka steaming at the lead of the formation. The American Cruisers shifted their attention to the Furutaka, which took several more salvoes of accurate 8 & 6-inch shells from the American Cruisers before peeling out of formation herself, attempting to follow her flagship. Her gunners began firing at the US Destroyer which was still pounding away at her from close range, and quickly reduced the American ship to a burning wreck before targeting the muzzle flashes of the USS Salt Lake City and firing onto the American Cruiser. Several American shells impacted her stern area and managed to destroy her armored torpedo tubes, igniting the volatile gases used to propel the torpedoes and starting a massive fire which only helped the American ships target the ship in the night. At 2354hrs the Furutaka was struck in her engine rooms by two American torpedoes fired by the USS Buchanan, which brought the ship to a halt and robbed her gunners of the ability to operate the gun turrets. As she floated powerless and burning in the middle of the battle, the Furutaka took round after round of fire from the US ships before Captain Tsutau Araki, fearing the warheads on the ships burning torpedoes would detonate at any moment, ordered the ship abandoned.

After taking two torpedoes and over 90 hits of Cruiser and Destroyer fire, the Furutaka sank stern first at this location at 0228hrs on October 12th, 1942, taking 143 of her crew with her. Some 514 of her crew were rescued by Japanese ships, however 115 of her crew were captured by American forces and spent the rest of the war in POW camps.

www.combinedfleet.com/furuta_t.htm