Wreck of HIJMS Yūbari (夕張)

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck

HIJMS Yubari was Light Cruiser laid down in June 1922 as an experimental 'Scout Cruiser' utilizing Destroyer armor, armament and engineering plants on a Light Cruiser hull and scale. Commissioned into service in July 1923 with the Imperial Japanese Navy's Cruiser Division 3 in the IJN First Fleet, she proved to be a successful proof-of-concept design which was later incorporated into later Imperial Japanese Navy warships.

Spending much of her early service life engaged in evaluations and training of her design features, the Yubari's capabilities were first showcased to foreign powers in 1925 when she shadowed a US Navy Battlegroup off Hawaii engaged in wargames and was able to soundly outmaneuver and outrun a group of US Destroyers sent to chase her off. Assigned to the role of Flagship for Japanese Destroyer Squadron 1, the Yubari continued her peacetime role for the next several years, but was nonetheless called upon for combat in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Operating as Flagship for Destroyer Squadron 5, she oversaw the evacuation of Japanese civilians from Southern China and then covered invasion forces landing at Hanzhou. After her service off China, the Yubari returned to Japan and spent much of 1938 under an extensive refit and modernization overhaul.

Conducting peacetime exercises and patrols into the 1940's, the Yubari's role as Flagship saw her anchoring at Kwajalein with the rest of Destroyer Squadron 6 in early December 1941 where they linked up with an invasion force preparing to assault the American base at Wake Island. Departing on December 8th in conjunction Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Yubari and the invasion force arrived off Wake on December 11th and her guns fired their first rounds of World War Two at 0600hrs to begin the assault. Three hours later and after losing two ships with their entire crews, the assault was called off and the force retired to Kwajalein in defeat. A second and much larger invasion on December 21st gave Yubari and her crew their first victory of the war as the small US garrison on Wake was overrun and the island fell.

1942 found Yubari operating out of Truk where she joined with Carrier Division 5 during the Invasions of Rabaul, Kavieng, Lae and Salamaua, after which her homeport shifted to Rabaul. Conducting operations in the Solomon Islands for the rest of 1942 and into 1943, the Yubari was heavily involved in the Guadalcanal Campaign, clashing with the US Navy at the Battle of Savo Island and escorting troop and supply convoys of the 'Tokyo Express' until the island was abandoned in early 1943. Continuing her fight against the Americans up the Solomon Islands chain, the Yubari was repeatedly damaged by US aircraft while at anchor or on patrol but each time her crew kept her in the fight until she eventually struck a US mine in July 1943 that sent her back to Japan for repairs. Returning briefly to the fray in November the Yubari became Flagship of Destroyer Squadron 3 replacing her fellow Light Cruiser Sendai, sunk at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay only days prior. While at Rabaul, the Yubari was again damaged repeatedly by US Army aircraft flying from recently captured islands, and heavy damage received from American bombers while escorting a troop convoy on November 18th sent her back to Japan once again for major hull repairs which kept her out of action until 1944.

Emerging from the yard as Flagship of Combined Destroyer Squadron 3 in February 1944, the Yubari escorted a troop reinforcement convoy to the Mariana’s before she herself took aboard a load of troops and supplies at Saipan and stood out for the Palau Islands on April 23rd. Arriving at Sonsorol Island in company with the Destroyers HIJMS Samidare and HIJMS Yuzuki on the morning of April 27th, the Yubari discharged her cargo of troops and supplies onto the island and made ready for sea. Getting underway at 0942hrs, her Captain shaped a course for sea out of the atoll’s shallow waters and ordered the ship brought to cruising speed as the ship cleared Sonsorol and entered open waters. Minutes later, lookouts sighted the telltale wakes of torpedoes approaching the ship and sounded the alarm as a spread of four torpedoes churned towards the ship. Skillful evasive maneuvering allowed Yubari to evade the first attempt of the USS Bluegill (SS-242) to sink her, but a second spread of two torpedoes fired by the American sub followed the first and left the Yubari no room to escape. Both torpedoes hit the Yubari on her starboard side in her #1 boiler room in close succession, causing heavy damage and rapid flooding of both her #1 and #2 boiler rooms which robbed the ship of power. Slowing to a halt, the Yubari went dead in the water as her crew set about damage control efforts to save their ship. Chased away by Destroyers, the USS Bluegill couldn’t deliver a fatal shot to the idle Cruiser, and was forced to withdraw from the area.

Listing heavily to Starboard, the Yubari’s crew managed to get her flooding under enough control for her engineers to attempt to restart her center engine and shaft at 1400hrs, but their efforts failed when they found her fuel lines contaminated with seawater. A last-ditch attempt was made to tow the Yubari to shallow water but this too failed to save the ship. A feverish night of damage control followed as the Yubari’s crew labored to save their ship, but by dawn on April 28th the situation had not improved and progressive flooding had brought the ship further down by the bow and over to Starboard. Fearful of air and submarine attacks in the coming daylight, the Yubari was ordered abandoned at 0524hrs and by 0544hrs the ship was left adrift. Having lost nineteen of her crew to the torpedo attack, the Yubari herself finally gave out and sank bow-first at this location at 1015hrs on April 28th, 1944.

www.combinedfleet.com/yubari_t.htm