IJN Sakawa - Japan's Forgotten And Unfortunate Cruiser
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- Опубликовано: 20 май 2024
- If you bring up Operation Crossroads, there are certain ships that will be mentioned. Saratoga, for example. Or the battleships, ranging from Arkansas to Pennsylvania. And that's just the American ones. You'll also probably hear about Nagato and Prinz Eugen, the war prizes.
What you probably won't hear about, except maybe a footnote, is Sakawa.
The second Japanese warship present at Bikini. A light cruiser, that was a leaky mess by the time of the tests. And was, for all intents and purposes, obliterated by the first test.This is a ship that typically gets only a brief mention, if anything at all.
Which is a shame, because she's a nice ship. Simply one that never had the chance, through no fault of her own, to see real combat.
Further Reading:
www.amazon.com/Japanese-Cruis...
www.amazon.com/Imperial-Japan...
www.amazon.com/Warships-Imper...
www.combinedfleet.com/sakawa_t...
She survived the war without damage. I’d say she was a lucky ship.
So I wondered when I watched Godzilla Minus One why the IJN destroyers had English names painted on the sides. I thought it was the English subtitle thing they do for kanji in Japanese films and anime, and now know it was historically accurate. Those kaiju making mofos did their homework!
Cool, huh?
Japan emulated the British navy.
Only it is not a Englisch translation but a Arabic one....
@@Triggernlfrlcan you elaborate?
That movie really was impressive for its historical accuracy mixed in with the Godzilla storyline.
It'd say she might have been fortunate as unlike Yahagi her crew survived to take part in the post war recovery of Japan
Agano class cruisers' 6" guns were early 1910s vintage. Their rate of fire was only a little better that that of 8" guns, making their AA usefulness doubtful. By way of contrast, Brooklyn and Cleveland class cruisers' 6" guns' rate of fire was ~50% greater, and the shell weight 30% greater. The Brooklyns and Clevelands were turret farms compared to the Aganos' six 6" guns.
Mind the Aganos were functionally a 'super-destroyer,' intended to be a command-center for flotillas of modern destroyers like the Akizukis and Shimakazes. They were labeled cruisers because they conformed to pre-war cruiser definitions and were armored, but they were really only armed and armored to fight the ever-bigger destroyers taking to the seas in the later war. The old guns were not impressive weapons for fighting cruisers, but even the biggest US destroyers would not want to take a hit from the big shells they fired. The armor was not thick, but thick enough to keep most Allied destroyer shells out of the citadel at expected ranges.
What really mattered was that they could carry the best in Japanese RADAR comfortably, giving Flotillas leaders much better "vision" than was the case for most of the war where the IJN destroyer fleet had little to no RADAR. If the war had gone on longer and Japan had the fuel left to run them, destroyer raids under the lead of a ship like Sakawa could have really been painful to American forces as they spread ever thinner to cover the enormity of Japan's waters.
I believe you leave out some important details. Besides the huge Pacific Fleet, large segments of the USAAF in Europe would supplement the presence in the Pacific, as well as some allied support although I have little faith in “our friends” willingness to continue fighting the war at the intensity they did when it was at their front door (Australia, New Guinea excepted). When the ASW tactics are applied to the Japanese home waters looking for surface ships as well as subs, there’d be little places for Japanese task forces to hide.
As sad as their careers were, you can't help but love the looks of the modern IJN CL's, if you didn't knew about the "specs" i could easily see them getting mixed with the CA's.
Regarding Sakawa, i remember reading that after the blast she burned for 24hrs
In case you didn't had enough missfortune...
i personally think the last/modern japanese light cruisers were quite hideous, especially with the large scout airplane hangars and torpedo cuttouts.
Skynea, was flagship of Destroyer SQUADRON 11. Sakawa replaced Tama as flagship of the training or newly commissioned destroyers, like the Matsus and Tachibanas before they were usually assigned to DesDiv43, 52 and 53.
Destroyer DIVISION 11 was Fubuki, Hatsuyuki and Shirayuki with Murakumo, Yugiri and Amagiri reinforcing to replace losses. Disbanded on 15 Dec1943.
Keep up the good work. Love the videos
Sakawa's story has a different level of bad luck...
Ignoring politics, that's a depressing tale of a ship.
Thanks for posting!
Great work Skynea. I like the Agano class cruisers, poor Sakawa.
Sinking Eugen in crossroads was a huge shame
I really wish the USN had decided to bring Nagato back to America as a war trophy, which would have possibly saved her to be the last IJN ship to survive to today. But I'm a huge IJN geek.
She wasn't sunk at Crossroads. She was towed to Kwajalein for possible clean up. While anchored in the atoll, she capsized overnight and sank. She is still there today, a very popular dive sight.
@picklerick8785 well there is Mikasa a pre dreadnought
admirals were playing with the enemy toys back there. it's like giving a toy of hated kid to another one. he will play with no fear of broke them, viceversa the hidden purpose is to destroy them.
Thank you for providing more information on this ship. Wikipedia and Combined Fleet don't offer much
Best channel on RUclips by far
A beautiful and potentially capable ship, perhaps comparable to the RN Arethusas. How weird to equip it with those antique main guns!
Japan could not produce enough new guns to meet the needs of the fleet and they had a supply of good-condition older-design guns which were more than good enough to kill destroyers, which is all a destroyer-flotilla leader really needs to be capable of.
I bet they picked up the recycling habit from the RN.
@@genericpersonx333 It might be difficult to hit an enemy destroyer with six slow-firing guns. ;)
@@RayyMusik So here is the thing: they were not that slow.
The IJN rated them for about six shots a minute.
The Mk 16 6-inch guns on the USS Cleveland, around thirty years later, were only rated for eight to ten rounds a minute.
Yes, faster, but we are talking just a matter of seconds per shell.
Yet another thing to remember is the Agano Class were not intended to sail alone, but with a small fleet of destroyers with them. By 1944, this included very modern destroyers like Akizuki and Shimakaze, and they would have their modern 100mm and 127mm guns, so in a gun fight, the Aganos would be shooting slower, but even a single hit from them could be lethal to a Fletcher or the like.
@@genericpersonx333 Big difference firing 6 guns compared to 12 or 15 like guns on the Clevelands and Brooklyns.
thank you for another interesting and informative video. well done and recommended
Survived the war to get nuked. What a life.
As was my father's ship.
Very interesting topic keep it up the great content 👍
Agano had a different fridge structure than yahagi sakawa and noshiro. Personally I think these are the best looking cruisers japan had. There isn't must about agano either in pictures only she was torpedoes at operation hailstone in 44. Yahagi was sunk with yamato, noshiro sunk at samar and sakawa at bikini
Another interesting topic. I can't say I ever heard of her.
She displaced 2/3rd of a modern Burke.
Anti-sonar coating for submarines, surely.
Unless it was anti radar for periscopes or conning towers.
For Al Gore's Rhythm!
Its interesting that they would use Western letters for the name on the side of this ship.
Ah, the reason makes perfect sense. Thank you.
admirals were playing with the enemy toys back there. it's like giving a toy of hated kid to another one. he will play with no fear of broke them, viceversa the hidden purpose is to destroy them.
Wait, so American sailors were arrested for sabotage...on a Japanese ship?
No they were arrested for sabotaging a former Japanese ship now an American ship as they should have been.
@@user-ci7xi5kv8p I know, it was a joke. I was pointing out the irony. ;-)
Deserves to be forgotten.
Remember the native population of the islands were used a lab rats then peasant labour.
Why were the Japanese so mean⁉️
A sad story, she could have had a long but peaceful career had she been saved
👍🏻✌️🏴🇬🇧
Deserves to be forgotten-played no important role in anything
Agreed.
Unfortunately, far too many equally or even more unimportant and undeserving-of-attention vessels from both sides of the war are wrongly hyped up as important. Looking at you, Iowas and Kongos.
I’ve liked to imagine a 2nd more irrational operation ten-go
Lead by ijn nagato and ijn Sakawa along with light cruisers kitakami and kashima
And about a dozen destroyers
Thrown against a battle line of American battleships. Somewhere in the broad vicinity of of the volcanic island tori-shima