Wreck of HIJMS Agano (阿賀)

 Second World War 1939-1945  Add category

HIJMS Agano was the lead ship of Her Class of Light Cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, laid down at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal in June 1940 and commissioned in October 1942 as the Flagship of Destroyer Squadron 10, IJN Third Fleet. With Japan at war with America and her Allies, the Agano and her crew immediately began training which would last for two months before she put to sea in November 1942, bound for Truk.

Agano and her crew were immediately deployed as an escort for the Japanese Carrier Junyo and several troopships as part of Operation Mu; The Reinforcement of Wewak in mid-December, and then proceeded to screen the closing stages of the Japanese withdrawal from Guadalcanal in January 1943, codenamed Operation Ke. Returning to Japan and slated to sail for the Aleutian Islands as part of a massive Japanese surface force to repel the American campaign to retake the Aleutian Islands, the Agano instead entered a shipyard for upgrades and overhaul after Attu fell to US forces in May 1943.

Emerging from the yard in July 1943, the Agano would spend the next few months alternatively escorting Carrier groups and operating with fellow Cruisers in hunter-killer groups chasing after reports of American Fleet movements around the Marshall Islands, all without contact. The American Invasion of Bougainville in November 1943 prompted the Agano's reassignment to Rabaul, where she would see her first major combat experience in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay on November 2nd, 1943, but she fired only a few shells in the Japanese defeat and returned to Rabaul unscathed.

Anchored in Rabaul harbor awaiting reinforcement, the Agano like many other ships in the harbor came under concentrated American air attack over the next few days, suffering a near-miss bomb hit which killed one of her crew on November 5th and major damage on November 11th from a US torpedo bomber. Following onsite repairs to get her seaworthy, the Agano departed Rabaul for Truk the next day, but only hours outside of Rabaul she was torpedoed again and severely damaged by the submarine USS Scamp (SS-277) off New Hanover Island. The second torpedo all but destroyed her propeller shafts and left her unable to make her own way and down by the Stern, but the Agano was placed under tow all the way to Truk lagoon, where she arrived for major repairs on November 16th.

Three months passed before the Agano was considered able to sail under her own power, even though only two of her four propellers were operational and limited supplies to affect repairs meant the cofferdams erected around her damaged hull sections leaked heavily and required constant pumping. Departing Truk for Japan under heavy escort under the cover of darkness on February 15th 1944, the Agano limped Northwards through the night. The following day having made only 160 miles in 18 hours, the Agano was sighted by the submarine USS Skate (SS-277) on patrol in advance of a forthcoming US raid on Truk. Though heavily defended, the slow moving Cruiser made an easy target for the US Sub, and at 1644hrs the Skate fired four torpedoes at the Agano, striking her with two on her Starboard side amidships.

As her escort ships chased away the submarine, the Agano's crew raced to save their ship. Struck in her #3 and #5 boiler rooms, the Agano lost headway and went dead in the water, listing to Starboard. Fires from ruptured fuel tanks began to encircle the ship, but were kept at bay by damage control crews long enough for the wounded to be evacuated and extra pumps to be brought onboard, but by 2130hrs the Captain of the Agano radioed that all five of the ships boiler rooms were flooded, fires burning onboard were burning out of control and the ship was listing past 10 degrees. All non-essential crew were removed onto the Destroyer HIJMS Oite starting at 2000hrs and by 2300 with the ship clearly lost, the order was passed to abandon ship. Captain Matsuda departed the Agano at 2330hrs onto the Oite, which stood by until the Veteran Cruiser finally rolled over and sank at this location at 0517hrs on February 17th 1944, taking 203 of her crew with her.

After the Agano sank the HIJMS Oite made for Truk with 523 rescued crew onboard and crowding her decks. As she approached Truk, reports came in that the base was under heavy air attack by American planes, which eventually located and began attacking the Oite herself. Overloaded, unstable and unable to effectively use her deck guns, the Oite was torpedoed and sank as she entered Truk Lagoon, taking 172 of her crew and all of the survivors from the Agano with her to the bottom.


www.combinedfleet.com/agano_t.htm