Hasegawa 40106 IJN Destroyer Type Koh Yukikaze Completion 1940 Detail Up Version

The Yukikaze was a Japanese destroyer whose keel was laid in 1938, launched in March 1939, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in January 1940. The length of the ship at the time of launching was 118.4 m, width 10.8 m, and the actual full displacement – 2,600 tons. Destroyer Yukikaze had a maximum speed of 34.5 knots. The main armament at the time of the launch was 6 127 mm guns in three twin turrets, and the secondary armament was 4 25 mm cannons, depth charge launchers and eight 610 mm torpedo tubes with eight spare torpedoes.

The Yukikaze was the eighth Kagero-class destroyer and the only one to survive World War II. Units of this type were created as part of the Japanese fleet expansion program of 1937 and 1939. They returned to the use of strong artillery (6 127 mm guns), which had already appeared on the Fubuki-class destroyers in the 1920s. The provisions of the disarmament treaties were also not respected, thanks to the czum the Japanese designers had complete freedom in designing. As a result, ships with strong artillery and torpedo armaments, good sea performance, and especially – unlike the previous Japanese destroyers – had no problems with stability and overall durability of the structure. The only drawback was the weak anti-aircraft armament, which, however, was systematically strengthened during the war in the Pacific. Destroyer Yukikaze’s combat career was very rich and began in World War II with supporting Japanese landing operations in the Philippines in December 1941. Then, at the beginning of 1942, he supported further Japanese actions in the region of the Dutch East Indies. In June he took part in the Battle of Midway, and from August 1942 he served in the area of the islands of the Solomon Islands archipelago, fighting in the struggle for Guadalcanal. He was an important element there, the so-called Tokyo Express, i.e. the use of Japanese fast destroyers and light cruisers to transfer supplies to soldiers fighting in the Gudalcanal. In the course of the fighting, he took part in the battle near the Santa Cruz Islands (October 1942). In 1944 he also fought in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and in Leyte Bay – he survived both of those battles! Moreover, in April 1945 it was used as a cover for the battleship Yamato during Operation Ten-Go. After this operation, it served in its home waters and, despite numerous Allied air attacks and damage after landing on a mine, it remained until the end of the war. In July 1947 it was handed over as war reparations to the Chinese fleet, where it served under the name Tan Yang until 1956. Destroyer Yukikaze aka. Tan Yang was scrapped in 1970.