Wreck of IJN Hyuga

Japan / Hiroshima / Kure /
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The Hyuga was the sister ship of the battleship Ise. Both ships were designed to be Fuso class battleships, but due to some flaws found in the design, they were designed as a new class of battleships. The Hyuga saw extensive from the late 1920s and the early 1930s. The Hyuga did not see a lot of action in the early stages of the war in the Pacific, but did suffer casualties nonetheless. During a gunnery practice with the Nagato and Mutsu, the left gun breech in the No. 5 turret blows up and kills 51 crew men. The magazines were flooded to save the ship from any further damage or explosions. She returns home to get some repairs done, not including the No. 5 turret which was removed and replaced with a circular armor plate that supported more anti aircraft guns. The Hyuga was part of a screen that covered the Aleutians Force while the Battle of Midway commenced. Due to the enormous losses suffered by the Japanese during the Battle of Midway, the need for aircraft carriers arose and it was decided to convert the Ise and Hyuga to aircraft carrier/battleship hybrids. After this conversion, both ships saw action during the Battle off Cape Engaño as part of Vice Admiral Jizaburo Ozawa's Northern Force which was the decoy force to lure Admiral William Halsey's 3rd Fleet away from guarding the Leyte operations. The aircraft carrier Zuikaku, one of the ships in the force and the last surviving aircraft carriers that participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, was sunk as a result of this battle. One of the final missions the Hyuga was asked to complete along with her sister Ise and the light cruiser Oyodo was to bring badly needed war supplies to Japan. During the closing days of the war; specifically in late July of 1945, the Hyuga was attacked by planes from Task Force 38. The ship suffers heavy damage and the crew chose to run her aground. The Hyuga was stricken from the Navy List in late 1945 and was scrapped in late 1947.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Hyūga
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Coordinates:   34°9'59"N   132°32'59"E

Comments

  • http://www.combinedfleet.com/Hyuga.html
  • Is around Kure any visible wreck of the ship(s)?
This article was last modified 11 years ago