Battle of the Malacca Strait

The Battle of the Malacca Strait, sometimes called the Sinking of the Haguro, and in Japanese sources as the Battle off Penang (ペナン沖海戦), was a naval battle that resulted from the British search and destroy operation in May 1945, called Operation Dukedom, that resulted in the sinking of the Japanese cruiser JAPANESE CRUISER Haguro. Haguro had been operating as a supply ship for Japanese garrisons in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal since 1 May 1945.

Battle
On 9 May, Haguro left Singapore, escorted by the destroyer JAPANESE DESTROYER Kamikaze, to re-supply the Port Blair garrison on the Andaman Islands and to evacuate troops back to Singapore. The Royal Navy was alerted to this by a decrypted Japanese naval signal, subsequently confirmed by a sighting by the submarines HMS Statesman and HMS Subtle. Force 61 of the Eastern Fleet set sail on 10 May from Trincomalee, Ceylon to intercept the Japanese flotilla. The Japanese were unwilling to risk any battle and, on receipt of an air reconnaissance warning, they returned to Singapore.

On 14 May, Haguro and Kamikaze tried again and left Singapore. The next day, they were spotted by aircraft from Force 61. The subsequent dive bombing attack by Grumman Avenger IIs of 851 Squadron caused only minor damage to Haguro, for the loss of an aircraft whose crew was taken prisoner by the Japanese.

Information was relayed to the Japanese that two British destroyer squadrons had been sighted heading towards them. Again, they reversed course to return to the Malacca Strait. This change had been anticipated, however, and the 26th Destroyer Flotilla (HMS Saumarez (G12), HMS Verulam (R28), HMS Venus (R50), HMS Vigilant (R93), and HMS Virago (R75)), commanded by Captain Manley Laurence Power (in Saumarez) steamed to intercept. In heavy rain squalls with lightning, Venus made radar contact at 34 nmi. The British destroyers arranged themselves in a crescent cordon and allowed the Japanese ships to sail into the trap.

At 01:05, Saumarez's 4.7 in guns commenced fire at a range of 1.8 nmi while closing at 60 kn and hit Haguro with the second salvo. Saumarez turned sharply right to pass astern of Haguro and raked Kamikaze with her 40 mm guns as the Japanese destroyer appeared off the port bow and swept by at a relative speed of 50 kn. Haguro returned six main battery salvos at Saumarez before being hit at 01:15 by three torpedoes from Saumarez and Verulam. Venus hit Haguro with one torpedo at 01:25, and Virago stopped Haguro with two more torpedo hits two minutes later. Haguro sank at 02:09 after receiving another torpedo from Vigilant, two more from Venus, and nearly an hour of gunfire from the 26th Flotilla. This was the last surface battle of World War II.

Kamikaze was also damaged, but escaped, returning the next day to rescue survivors. About 320 survived, but over 900 died, including the Japanese commanders, Vice-Admiral Hashimoto and Rear-Admiral Sugiura.

Saumarez's main aerial (in British terminology of the time, an aerial was the radio) and a funnel top had been shot away and an 8 in shell nicked the forecastle. Two men were killed and three burned in the boiler room when a 5 in shell severed the main steam pipe. There was no damage to the remainder of the 26th Flotilla.