Japanese destroyer Yūgure (1934)

Yūgure (夕暮) was the sixth and last, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the Circle One Program (Maru Ichi Keikaku). Three were laid down in JFY 1931 and the next three in JFY 1933.

History
Construction of the advanced Hatsuharu-class destroyers was intended to give the Imperial Japanese Navy smaller and more economical destroyers than the previous and Akatsuki-class destroyers, but with essentially the same weaponry. These conflicting goals proved beyond contemporary destroyer design, and the initial ships of this class were top-heavy design, with severe stability problems and with inherent structural weaknesses. After the "Tomozuru Incident" of 1934 and "IJN 4th Fleet Incident" in 1935, Yūgure underwent extensive design changes and modifications prior to launch to remedy these issues.

Yūgure was laid down at Maizuru Naval Arsenal in Maizuru, Kyoto on April 9, 1933, launched on May 6, 1934 and commissioned on March 30, 1935.

Operational history
At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Yūgure was assigned to Destroyer Division 27 of Destroyer Squadron 1 of the IJN 1st Fleet together with her sister ships JAPANESE DESTROYER Shiratsuyu, JAPANESE DESTROYER Shigure, and JAPANESE DESTROYER Ariake, and was based at Hashirajima in Japanese home waters on anti-submarine patrol.

In January 1942, Yūgure escorted aircraft carriers JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Hiryū and JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Sōryū to Palau and to Ambon during the invasion of the Netherlands East Indies, and was a participant in the Darwin air raid of February 19, 1942. Afterwards, she was based at Staring Bay, in Sulawesi from which she conducted escort patrol missions to the end of March. She returned to Sasebo Naval Arsenal for repairs from March 22 to April 15, 1942. At the end of April, she went to Truk as part of the escort for JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Shōkaku and JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Zuikaku and was part of Admiral Takagi's force at the Battle of the Coral Sea.

In May, Yūgure was assigned escort JAPANESE CRUISER Myōkō and JAPANESE CRUISER Haguro back to Kure. During the Battle of Midway, she was part of the escort for the Aleutian diversionary force under Admiral Shirō Takasu. Reassigned to the IJN 2nd Fleet on July 14, she was then detached for temporary duty with the IJN 4th Fleet in a sortie from Truk to Jaluit on August 20. After bombarding Ocean Island on August 23, a landing party from Yūgure occupied that island on August 26 as part of "Operation RY" until relieved by a garrison force on August 30. Yūgure was then assigned to the Solomon Islands, participating in numerous Tokyo Express high speed transport runs throughout the Solomon through January 1943. Although she did not participate in the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, she assisted in rescue operations afterwards, taking on crew from the stricken battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Hiei

After returning to Sasebo for repairs through the middle of January 1943, Yūgure escorted a convoy to Tsingtao, and from there to Palau and Wewak by the end of February. She escorted another convoy from Truk to Wewak and back to Yokosuka in March and again in May. She returned to Truk at the end of the month as escort for JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Unyō, returning with JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Musashi at the end of May. In early June, she escorted JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Hiyō to Turk, and returned with the same damaged ship a few days later. In late June, she escorted JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Ryūhō from Yokosuka to Truk. In early June, she was assigned to cover troop transport runs to Kolombangara.

On 12 July 1943, Yūgure participated in the Battle of Kolombangara, assisting in sinking USS Gwin (DD-433) and damagng USS Honolulu (CL-48) and USS St. Louis (CL-49).

However, a few days later on the night of 19 July 1943, while on a troop transport run to Kolombanara, Yūgure was bombed and sunk by U.S. Marine TBF Avengers from Guadalcanal, north-northwest of Kolombangara (-7.41667°N, 156.75°W). The rescue destroyer JAPANESE DESTROYER Kiyonami was also sunk, leaving no survivors from among the entire combined Kiyonami-Yūgure crews of 468 men.

Books

 * OCLC 77257764
 * OCLC 77257764
 * OCLC 77257764
 * OCLC 77257764
 * OCLC 77257764