Wreck of HIJMS Maya (まや)

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

Laid down at the Kawasaki Kobe Shipyard in December 1928, HIJMS Maya was the second member of the Takao Class of Heavy Cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy and commissioned into service in June 1932 as a member of Cruiser Division 4, IJN Second Fleet. Spending much of the next eight years engaged in Fleet exercises and battle maneuvers with her three sisterships and Japan’s Aircraft Carrier and Battleship forces, the Maya and her crew became highly proficient at the operation of their ship and its weaponry, which at the time was more than a match for any other Heavy Cruiser in the world.

Departing Japan for combat in late November 1941, the Maya and Cruiser Division 4 joined with Admiral Kondo's Second Fleet, Malay Force and appeared off the coast of the Philippines on December 10th where they began operations to support Japan’s invasion of the American-controlled islands. After screening troopships and transports as they landed invasion forces on Luzon and Ligayen, the Maya continued onward to the Dutch East Indies where she continued her invasion force screening work until March 1942. With Japan’s mission in both the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines completed, the Maya and her sister Takao were relieved from frontline service and returned to Japan for voyage repairs, as well as re-gunning and the addition of more potent anti-aircraft weaponry.

Returning to the fray in mid-April 1942, the Maya took a brief part in the search for Admiral Halsey’s Carrier force following the Doolittle Raid before she returned to prepare for her next major assignment against the American Navy; the Invasion of Midway. Forming part of the diversionary force bound for the Aleutians, the Maya again escorted troopships to the Island of Attu, which she shelled as Japanese forces went ashore on May 27th, followed by Kiska Island the next day. Once the garrisons on Attu and Kiska were firmly in place, Maya returned to Japan for training and exercises before US forces invaded the Island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons in early August. Maya and Cruiser Division 4 sailed for Truk shortly thereafter, beginning operations against the United States Navy and Army in early September by conducting regular missions to shell American installations on Guadalcanal and screen transports resupplying Japanese forces, a mission which became known as the ‘Tokyo Express’. So engaged, Maya was attacked unsuccessfully by a Submarine on November 14th as she withdrew from another shore bombardment mission and after suffering damage from a 500lb bomb near-missing her hull and a stubborn ammunition fire in one of her AA mounts caused by a crashing American plane, she returned to Japan for repairs that ended her time in the Solomons.

Returning to Aleutian waters upon the completion of her repairs in February 1943, Maya drew an escort assignment for a vital resupply and reinforcement convoy bound for Attu on March 23rd along with two Light Cruisers and four Destroyers. Four days out of port, the Japanese force was intercepted and brought to battle by an American naval force of two Cruisers and four Destroyers shortly after 0800hrs on March 27th in what would be known as the Battle of the Komandorski Islands. Faced for the first time with ships of her class, the Maya targeted the Heavy Cruiser USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) and engaged in a four-hour running battle with her counterpart and the US Destroyer force, scoring eight hits on the American Cruiser and two on a Destroyer and heavily damaging both. Maya herself also took several rounds from the Salt Lake City’s guns, but the damage to her fellow Cruiser Nachi and the prospect of air attack caused the Japanese force to withdraw from their mission. Forced back to the shipyard once again to repair her battle damage, by the time Maya emerged from the yard the Japanese mission in the Aleutians had changed from reinforcement and resistance to withdrawal. After covering the evacuation of Kiska from May through August, the Maya again returned to the shipyard for an upgrade to her anti-aircraft weaponry and left her Northern Waters patrols.

Duly upgraded once again, the Maya steamed to Truk where she began troop transport missions to the embattled Japanese base of Rabaul and also carried out patrols around the Marshall Islands through October 1943. With the Americans now invading the island of Bougainville and posing a direct threat to Rabaul’s harbor and airfields, Maya and Cruiser Division 4 steamed from Truk to Rabaul in early November to prepare an attack on US forces operating off Bougainville. After refueling and reprovisioning, the Maya and her sister Cruisers were getting underway when Rabaul harbor came under massed air attack from US Navy aircraft, and with no maneuvering room the Maya was overwhelmed by the multi-direction assault. Repeatedly strafed and near-missed by bombs, gunners aboard Maya did their best to drive off their attackers, however a single dive-bomber managed to penetrate her defenses and sent a 500lb bomb through her deck plating and into her #3 engine room, where it exploded and started a massive fire in addition to killing 70 of her crew. Forced to limp back to Japan on only two engines, the Maya was out of service getting a major overhaul through April 1944. Emerging from the shipyard as a heavily modified anti-aircraft Cruiser with one less main gun turret and a larger number of anti-aircraft guns, the Maya joined the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Mobile Fleet in May and in less than a month was back in action against American forces at the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Though she never came within sight of the American Fleet, the Maya and her formation built around the Carrier HIJMS Chiyoda came under massed air attack on the afternoon of June 20th. Damaged once again by enemy aircraft, Maya’s gunners nonetheless prevented the loss of any ships in her formation in the action, after which she once again returned to Japan for battle damage repairs and further upgrades to her AA weaponry before she departed for Singapore in July.

The American Invasion of the Philippines at Leyte Gulf led the Japanese Navy to finally plan and execute their long-awaited “Decisive Battle” using almost all of their remaining surface units, including Maya and her crew. Steaming to Borneo, she joined forces with three Battleships, six Cruisers and ten Destroyers to form the ‘Center Force’ of a three-pronged Naval Assault on the American beachhead. Departing Brunei on October 22nd, 1944 under strict radio silence, Maya and the Center Force made their way Northwest along the coast of Palawan Island under the cover of darkness, hoping to elude American air and sea patrols until they were already inside the Philippine Archipelago. However, shortly after midnight the ships of the Center force came into range of the radar systems aboard the American Submarines USS Darter (SS-227) & USS Dace (SS-247) which were picketing the Western approaches to the Mindoro Strait. Both Submarines quickly alerted US forces and raced Northwards to outflank their quarry and as the sun began to light the Eastern sky, both American ships submerged and moved into a cross-firing position to jointly attack the large Japanese formation, using the rising sun to both shade their movements and also illuminate their targets.

Aboard the Maya, the morning watch was rotating in as the sun began to rise and her lookouts began to scan the horizon and sky for any sign of the enemy. Still maintaining strict radio silence, the convoy sped Northward with no indication they were under direct threat until 0533hrs when Maya’s sistership Atago was struck along her Port side with four torpedoes, followed seconds later by Maya’s other sistership Takao being hit twice. All six shots fired by the USS Darter had found their mark with remarkable results; Takao lost her steerage and veered out of formation while Atago burst into flame, rolled to Starboard and sank within 18 minutes. Maya began evasive maneuvering along with the rest of the Japanese force, but shortly after Atago had sunk one of her turns brought her across the bow of the waiting USS Dace, which promptly fired six torpedoes into the Maya’s course. Lookouts sighted the inbound torpedoes and her Captain ordered a emergency turn to Port, however Maya was only able to escape two of the shots before four torpedoes struck home on her portside, walking aft at 0555hrs. Struck in her forward chain locker, opposite No. 1 gun turret, her No. 7 boiler room and in her aft engine room, the Maya wallowed under the force of the explosions along her length and suffered numerous secondary explosions of her boilers and ready munitions. Within five minutes of being struck, Maya had come to a dead stop and was listing heavily to Port as massive amounts of seawater rushed into holes punched by the torpedoes. The order to abandon ship came only minutes after she went dead in the water, but before most of her crew could get topside the Maya rolled over and sank bow-first at this location at 0605hrs on October 23rd, 1944 in 1000 fathoms.

Of her crew of 1,105, 336 men including her Captain went down with the Maya. A further 134 of Maya’s crew, placed aboard the SuperBattleship HIJMS Musashi following their rescue, were lost when American air attack sank her the following day in the Sibuyan Sea.

www.combinedfleet.com/maya_t.htm