ijn asagumo (1937)

朝雲

Asagumo (朝雲, Morning Cloud) was the fifth of ten Asashio-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the mid-1930s under the Circle Two Supplementary Naval Expansion Program (Maru Ni Keikaku).

Commissioned in 1938, she fought in almost every major Pacific campaign of World War II. She escorted early invasions, fought in the Battle of the Java Sea, survived the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, and ran the Tokyo Express. She sank at the Battle of Surigao Strait in 1944.

Highlights:

  • 1942 (Java Sea & Guadalcanal): Helped sink the Allied destroyer HMS Electra and the U.S. destroyer USS Monssen.
  • 1943 (Bismarck Sea): Survived heavy U.S. airstrikes while rescuing survivors from sunken Japanese ships.
  • October 25, 1944 (Surigao Strait): An American torpedo blew off her bow. She limped away but was later sunk by U.S. Navy cruisers.

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