Haguro (羽黒) was a heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, named after Mount Haguro in Yamagata Prefecture. Commissioned in 1929, Haguro saw significant service during World War II, participating in nine naval engagements between 1942 and 1945. As a heavy cruiser, she was better armed and armored than most surface vessels, and had multiple battles during her combat career. In the early part of the war, she engaged in vigorous shore bombardment duties to support the Japanese invasions of the Philippines and Dutch East Indies, and took part in the destruction of the Allied cruiser force defending the Dutch East Indies in the Battle of the Java Sea from 27 February to 1 March 1942. With torpedo hits, Haguro sank the Allied flagship, the light cruiser , and the destroyer , and received primary credit for sinking the heavy cruiser with gunfire, and was not damaged during the entire battle.

After patrol duty, from 7–8 May, Haguro escorted aircraft carriers during the Battle of the Coral Sea, escorted the invasion force at the Battle of Midway, and escorted carriers during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August. After a long series of patrol and escorting duties, Haguro fought an American cruiser-destroyer force at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, where she helped to damage the light cruiser , but was hit by ten shells from enemy cruisers, but most were duds, so she got off with light damage. After more patrol duties and surviving the occasional air raid, Haguro escorted carriers at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where she aided the sinking aircraft carrier , and fought in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, surviving the submarine and air attacks that sank several Japanese ships, and in turn damaging several American warships and helping to sink the destroyer , while taking minor damage from shell and bomb hits.

After escaping back to mainland Japan, Haguro spent most of 1945 transiting between bases transporting cargo. In May, she was transporting troops when she was ambushed by Royal Navy destroyers in the Malacca Strait, the last surface battle between enemy warships. Haguro was sunk by at least nine torpedo hits and nearly an hour of gunfire. The wreck was discovered in 2010 and illegally salvaged in 2014.

Design

Haguro was the third of the four-member of heavy cruisers (sometimes referred to as the Nachi class due to the second ship, , being completed before , despite starting construction after); the other ships were Myōkō (妙高), Nachi (那智), and (足柄). The ships of this class displaced 13,300 tons, were long, and were capable of .

Armament Haguro was originally equipped with ten 20 cm (7.9-inch)/50 naval guns in five twin turrets, three forward and two aft, making her the most powerful heavy cruiser in the world at the time of her commissioning. Her secondary battery consisted of six Type 10 12 cm (4.7-inch) dual purposed guns in six single mounts, a pair of 13.2 mm machine guns, and twelve 61 cm (24 inch) torpedo tubes in four triple mounts, a pair on each side.

In the mid 1930s, Haguros offensive capabilities were drastically improved. Her 20 cm (7.9 inch) guns were removed and replaced by ten 203 mm (8-inch) guns, improving rate of fire and penetration power. Her 12 cm (4.7 inch) dual guns were replaced by eight 127 mm/40 dual purposed naval gun in four twin turrets, a pair on each side, and her triple torpedo tubes were replaced by quadruple torpedo mounts, making her total torpedo tubes a number of sixteen. Haguros new AA battery also consisted of various 25 mm (1 inch) machine guns.

Armor Haguros main belt was very thick for a cruiser, at 102 mm (4 inches) in thickness. She also carried 35 mm (1.4 inch) deck armor. She carried 76 mm (3 inch) barbette armor, and 25 mm (1 inch) turret armor. Her superstructure was mostly unarmored to avoid stability issues.

Construction and career Haguro was laid down at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki on 16 March 1925, launched and named on 24 March 1928, and was commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 25 April 1929. In October 1930, Haguro embarked on a voyage carrying Emperor Hirohito from Kobe to the battleship from the 22nd to 25th.

Between 1931 and 1933 she was commanded by Nomura Naokuni who subsequently achieved flag rank. In 1936, Haguro received her first modernizations, and took part in a variety of troop-ferrying and convoy-escorting missions during the Sino-Japanese war, but did not see combat.

Second World War

By the time of Japan's entry into World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Haguro was en route to the Philippines as part of a large cover force to support Japanese landings. Haguro saw her first action just four days later bombarding Legaspi, then she bombarded Davao on the night of 19–20 December after escorting troop transports, before she conducted more shore bombardment on Jolo on 24 December. On 4 January 1942, she survived B-17 bombing attacks undamaged, then took part in several more shore bombardment missions to aid in the invasion of Celebes. On 26 January, the submarine fired four torpedoes at Haguro, but none hit their mark. On 10 February, Haguro bombarded Makassar, then on 20 January bombarded Timor to support Japanese troop landings.

Battle of the Java Sea

On 26 February, Haguro and her sister ship Nachi were escorting a large Japanese troop convoy passing through the Java Sea to support the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies. En route, one of Nachis floatplanes spotted a large Allied task force consisting of two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and nine destroyers attempting to intercept and destroy Japanese troop convoys. Haguro sped at full speed as Nachis floatplane radioed the Allied ships' action.Hara (1961) Chapter 13

Afternoon battle By 6:00 on 27 February Haguro located the enemy ships and closed to a reasonable firing range. At around , Haguro fired her ten 8-inch (203 mm) guns, immediately targeting the Allied flagship, the Dutch light cruiser . As the range drew closer, Haguro succeeded in hitting De Ruyter twice. The first hit the auxiliary motor room and started a small fire, killing one crewman and injuring six others, while the second penetrated unarmored portions of the ship without exploding. Even when they did not hit, Haguros shells still straddled De Ruyter several times, causing light damage. In turn, several Allied cruisers targeted Haguro, which they reported to have blown up and sunk with gunfire damage.

In reality, Haguro was not hit once, and as a torpedo attack from Japanese destroyers forced the Allied ships to conduct evasive maneuvers, Haguro switched fire to the heavy cruiser , one of the most capable ships of the task force. Exeter responded back, but gunnery was poor, and by the eighth salvo she had only managed to straddle Haguro. In stark contrast, closing to about Haguro hit Exeter twice. One 8-inch (203 mm) shell struck the stern below the waterline, and more critically the other penetrated deep inside the ship and exploded, destroying six of her eight boilers and killing 14 men. Exeters speed dropped to , and the crippled ship was forced to withdraw from the battle. Almost simultaneously, Haguro fired a spread of eight type 93 torpedoes, and around 15 minutes later, one of these torpedoes hit the Dutch destroyer . The destroyer was blown in half, the bow section rapidly sinking, and the stern section sinking several minutes later. Forty sailors went down with the ship. Fired from a distance of 22,000 yards, this was probably the longest ranged torpedo hit in history.

Night ambush Immediately afterwards, Japanese ships sank the destroyer , and with one cruiser crippled and two destroyers sunk, Admiral Doorman aboard De Ruyter ordered a false retreat from the battle and seemed to do so successfully. However, unknown to Doorman, one of Haguros floatplanes tracked down his ships and trailed the force. Haguro, joined by Nachi, used the details given to them to sail to an interception point. It was just before midnight that Haguro located the enemy force again, which were unaware of her presence. At around , a stealthy torpedo attack was prepared, Nachi fired eight torpedoes, while Haguro unleashed four. A torpedo from Nachi hit the light cruiser , which ignited her main battery magazines, blowing the cruiser in two and sinking her in two minutes with the loss of all but 19 men. Four minutes later, one of Haguros torpedoes hit De Ruyter, destroying all power as the De Ruyter stopped dead in the water with significant flooding, and a massive fire broke out and enveloped the cruiser. Haguro's torpedo hit killed much of De Ruyter's damage-control crew, and the loss of all power disabled most of De Ruyter's damage-control equipment, meaning the massive fire could spread throughout the ship. Simultaneously, flooding slowly overwhelmed damage control and De Ruyter's list steadily increased. Over three hours, De Ruyter capsized and sank with the loss of 367 men, including Admiral Doorman and Captain Eugène Lacomblé. Shouts of Banzais could be heard across Haguro's deck as, having sunk the Allied flagship, the cruiser steamed from the battlefield. Depending on the source, she was either undetected, or spotted but Allied gunfire was ineffective.

Second battle of the Java Sea

On 1 March 1942, Haguro was assisting in the Java Sea landings when intelligence informed her that the still crippled Exeter, escorted by the destroyers and , unintentionally stumbled into her sister ships Myōkō and Ashigara while trying to escape from the Java Sea, with a long-range gunfight ensuing. Haguro and Nachi joined the battle almost an hour later, but neither side had managed to land a single hit. Together Haguro and Nachi engaged the cruiser, scoring their first hit five minutes later when a critical 8-inch (203 mm) shell hit disabled Exeters electrical power, followed by another that exploded and destroyed Exeters two remaining boilers, leaving her dead in the water."Action Report: Captain O. L. Gordon, HMS Exeter, Battle of the Java Sea". See entry #33. Gunfire from all four cruisers then destroyed Exeters guns and lit her aflame, leading to her crew scuttling her."Action Report: Captain O. L. Gordon, HMS Exeter, Battle of the Java Sea". See entry #46."Lt Cmdr George Cooper account of HMS Exeters last action". See paragraph five. By this point, Haguro was almost entirely out of ammunition, with enough rounds for 13 salvos and just 4 torpedoes, causing her to retire from the engagement, while Myōkō and Ashigara joined the destroyers and in sinking the Encounter with gunfire.Myoko See TROMS for the four Japanese cruisers involved. Pope temporarily escaped, but within two hours was crippled by aircraft from the light carrier and then finished off by gunfire with the arrival of Ashigara and Myōkō. See entry for 1 March 1942.

Further operations