Wreck of HIJMS Minazuki (水無月)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, navy, shipwreck, destroyer (ship)

Laid down in March 1925 as the fifth member of the Mutsuki Class of Destroyers for the Imperial Japanese Navy, HIJMS Minazuki commissioned into service in March 1927 as a member of Destroyer Division 22, Squadron 5 in the IJN Third Fleet. Serving with many of her sisterships in Chinese waters during the Second Sino-Japanese War in the mid-1930's, the scope of the conflict quickly outranged the Miazuki's guns and she returned to more 'peacetime' operations based out of the Palau Islands until the continually deteriorating relations with the United States led to the outbreak of War in December 1941.

Assigned to the Philippines Invasion Force, the Minazuki and her crew began their role in the Second World War by escorting and then screening Japanese Troopships to Lingayen Gulf and Aparri as invasions were carried out in December after which the Minazuki escorted more Troopships bound for Java, where Japanese forces invaded in February 1942. The rapid pace of Japan's expansion and relative dominance of her Navy in the South Pacific by March 1942 led the elderly ships of Destroyer Squadron 5 to be reassigned to convoy escort work around the Empire, with the Minazuki and her crew assigned to the 1st Surface Escort Division of the Southwest Area Fleet in April 1942. Escorting merchant convoys through February 1943, the changing nature of the war with the United States saw the Minazuki assigned to the Eighth Fleet at Rabaul where she escorted supply transports, naval units and troopships bringing supplies to the fight against the Allies in the Solomon Islands chain.

Continuing her escort work through 1943, the Minazuki resumed an offensive role at the Battle of Kolombangara, first landing troops then exchanging fire with American Destroyers while evacuating the same forces troops from the island weeks later. With her new homeport of Rabaul under regular air attack by the end of 1943 and Allied forces attacking Bougainville, the Minazuki was increasingly pressed into frontline service against the US Navy and Allied ground forces, though her new mission found her used more as a troop transport rather than a traditional Destroyer. Damaged twice by air attacks while at Rabaul, the Minazuki returned to Japan for repairs at the end of the year, and by the time she returned to the frontline in February 1944 Rabaul was being steadily abandoned. Forming the last Destroyer convoy to depart Rabaul on February 20th, the Minazuki stood out once again for the Palau Islands where she resumed her operations as a convoy escort for the Central Pacific Area Fleet.

With Japan's lifelines of raw materials and fuel from the East Indies being severely threatened by American submarines as 1944 wore on, the Minazuki and many of Japans remaining Destroyers were reassigned to escort duty in the Southwest Area, with the Minazuki based at the Imperial Japanese Navy base at Tawi Tawi in late May 1944. Assigned to escort a convoy of tankers from Tawi Tawi to Balikpapan along with several other Destroyers and purpose-built escort ships, the Minazuki and her convoy departed the anchorage under the cover of darkness and started their run West to Borneo.

Almost immediately out of port the convoy crossed the path of the American Submarine USS Harder (SS-257), patrolling the waters off Tawi Tawi. The large tanker convoy attracted the Sub Commander's attention and soon his boat was closing on the convoy's position, running on the surface to make best use of his speed. Alert lookouts on the Minazuki sighted the onrushing submarine in the distance as it was illuminated by the moonlight, and the Veteran Destroyer quickly swung into action and began chasing down the American ship. Aboard the Harder, the sight of one of the convoy escorts swinging off station and heading straight at their position was enough for her Captain to order his boat submerged, but once under the surface he turned into the direction of his would-be attacker and fired a spread of three torpedoes at the Destroyer at a distance of 1,100 yards.

Bearing down on the submarine at near-flank speed, the Minazuki had little chance for evasive maneuvering once the torpedoes were sighted speeding in her direction, and a last minute turn only allowed one of the three to miss the ship while the other two impacted her fore and aft of her firerooms. Taking an immediate list and with large fires breaking out from her punctured fuel bunkers, the Minazuki's crew had little chance to counteract the torpedo damage before their ship rolled onto her side and sank, taking all but 45 of her crew with her to the bottom at this location on June 6th, 1944.

www.combinedfleet.com/minazu_t.htm