Must See Pictures of Yukikaze

[David C. Clarke]

You guys have to check out these newly released Photos of IJN DD Yukikaze after the war!!!! The rarity of good pictures of Japanese WWII destroyers is legendary, so--even disarmed-- these pictures are wonderful historical records.





Best,
David

[David C. Clarke]

And:




Best,
David

[David C. Clarke]

Now for the two rarest, the Bridge and engine room:





All of these pictures ar available from the U.S. Navy Historical Branch;

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-f ... kikaze.htm

I can't begin to explain how expensive these pictures would be, if you could find them, in a Japanese language book.
Please tell me if you like them!

Best,
David

[David C. Clarke]

By the way, Yukikaze was the only destroyer of her class--the Kagero Class--to survive the war. She fought in nearly every major campaign, including Yamato's last suicide sortie and ended up in the Chinese navy as a war reparation. Her anchor today is at Eta Jima, the former Imperial Japanese Navy officer's academy.

For you modelers, Nichimo makes a 1/200 scale kit of two Kagero classs ships, Kagero and Shiranuhi, either of which can be easily modified to represent Yukikaze.

Best,
David

[Gen_Del_Pilar]

Was Yukikaze officially credited with the sinking of USS Laffey (DD-459) or was that another vessel?

Btw, excellent pics!

[David C. Clarke]

Yukikaze was credited by the Japanese navy with sinking both Barton and Laffey, but these claims are hard to evaluate, as the battle was a melee'. My strictly personal opinion is that these claims are unlikely, but not impossible.

Best,
David

[Peter H]

Cool.

Destroyers appear to disappear from the historical record as preservation relics as well.The BIG ships seem to get all the attention.

Regards,
Peter

[Tom Houlihan]

Those ships are tiny!!! I have some sea-time under my belt in small ships, but I'm having trouble imagining going even near, let along through Tai-fun in one of those!!

[Xavier]

nice find David, it is the first time I have seen the actual mounts (tower, yoke & craddle) for the japanese binos on a enclosed bridge enviroment ..
Xavier
Instandsetzungtruppfuhrer

[tom!]

Hi.

Very nice pictures.

The second picture shows the radar antennas, too. Thats a very interesting find for me....

Thanks for sharing the info.

Yours

tom!

[David C. Clarke]

Those ships are tiny!!!

That's what I said when I actually stepped aboad the Fletcher class U.S.S. Kidd. In tonnage, Yukikaze and Kidd were very similar, but Japanese destroyers had minimal superstructures compared to Fletcher type destroyers, which improved Japanese DD's stability but really increases the perception that the ship is tiiiny.

Xavier, this is a case of finally finding a picture that I knew about. A much smaller version of the Bridge picture is tucked away in a book called "The Battle of Tassafaronga" which was published some years ago. I always wondered where the photo came from, as I had never before seen a photo of the inside of the bridge of a Japanese DD and my collection of IJN materials is fairly large.

Two things to note: First, the ship's wheel in a Kagero class was located one deck below the bridge, which is why you don't see it in the photo. Secondly, notice that there aren't any armored shutters for the Bridge windows. This is remarkable considering the ship's employment. The Japanese Destroyer captain Hara pointed out in his book that the Bridge roof was enough "to keep the rain off", so it's not like there was any armor up there to protect the cerew from strafing attacks.

But overall, the ship's condition in 1947, after four years of total war and two years of post war neglect, is absolutely remarkable! Yukikaze was considered a "lucky ship' in the IJN, just like Prinz Eugen in the Kriegsmarine. It's a shame that neither were preserved, but understandable. I just wonder how many more of these photos are waiting to be re-discovered!

Best Regards,
David

[zstar]

pictures not showing

[David C. Clarke]

Must be your browser, try using the link in the post.

Best,
David

[Zygmunt]

Please tell me if you like them!

I do! Very interesting; thanks David.

By the way, Yukikaze... ...ended up in the Chinese navy as a war reparation.

Really? When was that? Sometime after 1947, I take it, but do we know more? Did she see much service? I take it she didn't end up in Chinese Communist hands... or did she?
I did do some quick Googling to see if there were any straightforward answers to my questions, but alas, muddied those waters were...

Yukikaze was credited by the Japanese navy with sinking both Barton and Laffey, but these claims are hard to evaluate, as the battle was a melee'. My strictly personal opinion is that these claims are unlikely, but not impossible.

Your disclaimer about the uncertainty of what happened in the melee notwithstanding, what is your opinion on i) what Yukikaze may have achieved in that battle, and ii), what actually did happen to Barton and Laffey?

Zygmunt

[Gen_Del_Pilar]

Your disclaimer about the uncertainty of what happened in the melee notwithstanding, what is your opinion on i) what Yukikaze may have achieved in that battle, and ii), what actually did happen to Barton and Laffey?

Was about to ask a similar question. In addition to the two that David mentioned (wasn't aware of the Barton credit before btw), didn't Yukikaze have some sort of a claim to sinking DDs Gwin and even Johnston (the latter being the more unlikely)? And at Java Sea, did Yukikaze contribute to any spreads?