was a of the Imperial Japanese Navy commissioned in April 1941. She saw an extremely successful career during her service in WW2, either helping to sink or capture 15 ships during the war: including the destroyers HMS Stronghold and USS Johnston. She also survived an encounter with US battleships during Operation Hailstone where she was lightly damaged by the longest ranged straddle in history. Nowaki was finally sunk at the battle of Leyte Gulf after rescuing survivors from the sunken heavy cruiser Chikuma, when she was caught by a US cruiser-destroyer force and sunk with all hands.
Design and description The Kagerō class was an enlarged and improved version of the preceding . Their crew numbered 240 officers and enlisted men. The ships measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of .Chesneau, p. 194 They displaced at standard load and at deep load.Whitley, pp. 200–01 The ships had two Kampon geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of for a designed speed of . The ships had a range of at a speed of .Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 148
The main armament of the Kagerō class consisted of six Type 3 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. They were built with four Type 96 anti-aircraft guns in two twin-gun mounts, but more of these guns were added over the course of the war. The ships were also armed with eight torpedo tubes for the oxygen-fueled Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo in two quadruple traversing mounts; one reload was carried for each tube. Their anti-submarine weapons comprised 16 depth charges.
Construction and career The destroyer was ordered in 1937. Nowaki was laid down on 8 November 1939 and launched on 17 September 1940. The ship was commissioned into the IJN on 28 April 1941, and she was assigned as the third ship of the 4th destroyer division (Arashi, Hagikaze, Nowaki, Maikaze). In the lead up to the second world war, Nowaki steamed through the Terashima Strait and regrouped with Admiral Kondō's fleet.
Start of WW2 With the start of the Pacific War on 7 December 1941, Nowaki steamed with the fleet to support the invasion of the Philippines, where she immediately scored her fist victory. The Norwegian cargo ship Helios was located by the 4th destroyer division, prompting Nowaki and Hagikaze to inspect her, and ordered Helios to regroup with the fleet, capturing the vessel, escorting her to Japanese waters where she was renamed the Setsuzan Maru and transferred to the Imperial Japanese Army. For the following days, Nowaki provided distant cover for the Japanese troop convoys invading the Philippines, and escorted the Malaya troop convoys. With the Philippines successfully captured, Nowaki switched her focus to the Dutch East Indies, escorting invasion convoys for Staring Bay, and operating in Dutch waters as distance support.
Battle of Tjilatjap In early March 1942, the Dutch East Indies had just fallen into Japanese hands, and many allied ships were fleeing to safety in Australia. Nowaki and Arashi were assigned to operate alongside the heavy cruisers , , and in hunting down these ships and prevent them from further serving the enemy. On 1 March, They were immediately successful in this role when Nowaki and Arashi located the Dutch freighters Tomohon and Parigi, and with gunfire sank both vessels without a fight. Later that day, Nowaki and Arashi located and sank the British minesweeper Scott Harley and the Dutch cargo ship Toradja, then halted and captured the Dutch steamship Bintoehan.
The next day, Nowaki and Arashi sank the Norwegian cargo ship Prominent. However, greater action was destined to ensue as they joined the heavy cruiser Maya as they were informed that land based aircraft had spotted an enemy warship. This was the destroyer HMS Stronghold, and the three ships sped to intercept the enemy. At 17:43, the trio spotted their target and closed the range, then at 18:21, Maya opened fire at , while Nowaki and Arashi unleashed their combined twelve 5-inch (127 mm) guns at 11,300. They immediately closed the range as Stronghold began to take hits aft and flooding began to slow the ship. Over the course of a half hour, Maya closed to , and Nowaki and Arashi to . Stronghold was completely disabled, on fire, and slipping beneath the waterline as the abandon ship order was issued and the destroyer sank at 19:00 with the loss of 70 men. Nowaki fired 345 5-inch (127 mm) shells, Arashi 290, and Maya 635.Western sources often state Nowaki and Arashi torpedoed HMS Stronghold for the final blow, but Japanese sources only list them sinking Stronghold by gunfire
On 3 March, Nowaki and Arashi tracked down the gunboat USS Asheville, which was also located by Japanese aircraft. After locating Asheville, they believed it was a merchant vessel and prepared a capture, only for Asheville to open fire with her three 4-inch (102 mm) guns to little effect. In response, Nowaki and Arashi closed to point blank range and dumped 300 5-inch (127 mm) rounds. Asheville's forecastle and bridge were almost entirely shot away, and the gunboat sank by the stern over a half hour with the loss of 170 sailors. Arashi only had room for a single survivor, Fed L Brown, who later died in a prisoner of war camp in March 1945.
Finally on 4 March, Nowaki found herself involved in an attack on an allied convoy destined for Australia, where she helped to sink the British oil tanker Francol, the minesweepers M-3 and M-51, and the depot ship Anking. A half hour later, the sloop HMAS Yarra bravely attempted to defend the remaining ships against her attackers, which prompted the gunfire of Nowaki, Takao, and Atago to blast Yarra and sink her in a blaze of glory. Atago and Arashi then captured the Dutch steamships Tjisaroea and Duymer Van Twist.
After either helping to sink or capture 13 enemy ships, the depleted Nowaki returned to Staring Bay on 7 March, then from 18 March to 3 April, escorted Atago on an inspection cruise across Tarakan, Balikpapan, Makassar, Singapore, and Penang. Nowaki finally returned to the homeland on 18 April, and was drydocked in Yokosuka for a much needed refit.
Battle of Midway
At the start of June 1942, destroyer division 4 left Yokosuka for a planned invasion of Midway Island; the Japanese aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū would lure out American aircraft carriers, and combined air and surface attacks would sink them in a decisive battle, while a large troop convoy would land in the Midway Atoll and capture the island. In what became the battle of Midway, Nowaki and the rest of the 4th destroyer division were assigned directly as anti-aircraft escorts to the carriers, and sailed with Admiral Nagumo's main strike force. As the carriers attacked Midway Island, the submarine USS Nautilus attacked the fleet, Arashi failed to depth charge and sink the submarine, which enabled Arashi to be spotted by a wave of planes from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and followed back to the main formation. The initial air attacks from USS Hornet were repelled, but a flight of dive bombers from the aircraft carriers Enterprise and USS Yorktown bombed Akagi, Kaga, and Sōryu, Hiryū initially survived and helped to sink Yorktown, but was herself sunk by Yorktown and Enterprise dive bombers.
Nowaki's crew could only watch as Akagi, Kaga, and Sōryū exploded after being hit by US aircraft. Nagumo had continued a rearming process to land based weaponry in spite of knowledge of a potential enemy task force, and the bomb hits detonated the thousands of pounds worth of explosives inside the fight deck. All damage control efforts to save the ships failed, and there was only one thing left to do. Nowaki removed Admiral Nagumo from the destroyed Akagi and acted as Japanese flagship for the remainder of the battle, before helping to scuttle the dying Akagi with her torpedoes. Other destroyers did the same to the other carriers, ending arguably the most devastating Japanese defeat of the entire war.
Solomon Islands
After the Battle of Midway, Nowaki transferred Nagumo to the light cruiser Nagara, then escorted the light carrier Zuihō to the Aleutian Islands, where she spent the next few days on patrol duty, before finally returning to Yokosuka. On 14 July, the 4th destroyer division was reassigned to destroyer squadron 10, and on 16 August, departed Kure to escort the Japanese fleet to Truk, arriving at their destination on 21 August. A week later, the Japanese aircraft carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku and their escorts fought the American aircraft carriers Enterprise and USS Saratoga at the battle of the Eastern Solomons, with Nowaki again serving as an anti-aircraft platform. No waves of aircraft attacked the main fleet this time, but Saratoga aircraft still sank the light carrier Ryūjō of the decoy force, while land based aircraft sank the destroyer Mutsuki and the troop transport Kinyu Maru, ending the battle in an American victory as Nowaki and her companions returned to Truk.Hammel (1999), pp. 209–225
From 1–9 September, Nowaki escorted the tanker Toa Maru - which was towing the crippled and disabled destroyer Shirakumo - to the Shortlands and back, and spent the rest of the months on patrol duty off Truk. The first half of October saw troop transport missions to Guadalcanal, where an air raid lightly damaged Nowaki with near misses, killing 11 and wounding 19, before escorting the supply group which supported the Japanese aircraft carriers at the battle of Santa Cruz. Waves of aircraft from Shōkaku, Zuikaku, Junyō, and Zuihō crippled the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (later finished off by destroyers Akigumo and Makigumo) and sank the destroyer USS Porter, and damaged multiple other American ships would suffering a single loss, ending the battle in a Japanese victory. Afterwards, she escorted the badly damaged Shōkaku to Kure, before departing for Rabaul as a consort to the escort carrier Akitsu Maru. At the start on December, Nowaki took part in a troop transport mission to Guadalcanal.
On 7 December, Nowaki was underway as part of a troop transport mission to Guadalcanal when land-based aircraft attacked the formation, and Nowaki was singled out. A bomb near miss landed right next to the ship's starboard center; so close it effectively acted as a torpedo hit. The engine and boilers were completely flooded, and Nowaki stopped dead in the water. The destroyer Naganami took Nowaki under tow, while the destroyers Arashi and Ariake escorted them to the Shortlands. From the 13 to 18 December, Maikaze further towed the crippled Nowaki to Truk, where over the next month she was patched up to just about get her engines up and running. From 16–24 February 1943, Nowaki escorted a convoy to Yokosuka, where she could receive more permanent repairs. The damage was so devastating, Nowaki spent until early August docked in Yokosuka under repair, where she was refitted with type 13 and 22 search radars and multiple new AA gun placements, and commander Kanada Takao took over command of Nowaki. During the break from action, Arashi and Hagikaze were sunk at the battle of Vella Gulf, and the destroyer Yamagumo was added to destroyer division 4.