Kull
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Joined: 7/3/2007
From: El Paso, TX
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quote:
ORIGINAL: jiajia1
can you please post it here? I can not access the page.
Here's an excerpt. It comes from a dive site that I've found to be very reliable:
On 16 January 1944 Aikoku Maru departed Kure for the last time. The next day she arrived at Tokyo Bay. On 21 January 1944 the Aikoku Maru departed Tokyo Bay and arrived at Yokosuka the same day. Here she embarked personnel of the 66th Naval Guard Unit (629 men), 1,200 mines, dynamite, artillery shells, food and construction materials. These were all originally destined for Brown Island, Eniwetok, Marshall Islands.
On 24 January 1944 she departed Yokosuka and arrived at Tateyama the same day. On 25 January 1944 she departed Tateyama for Truk in convoy with 11,930-ton submarine depot ship Yasukini Maru and the Akagi Maru escorted by destroyers IJNS Michishio and IJNS Shiratsuyu and the minelayer IJNS Nasami.
At about 2 am on 31 January 1944 when 300 miles north-west of Truk, USS Trigger (SS-237), skippered by Lieutenant Commander Robert E. Dornin, attacked the convoy. Dornin fired three torpedoes by radar at the largest ship and the submarine's Executive Officer, Lieutenant Edward L. Beach, fired three other torpedoes from the bridge at the nearest destroyer using the Target Bearing Transmitter (TBT). The TBT's torpedoes ran erratically and missed. The three fired by radar also missed the big ships, but one hit and sank the Nasami.
When still on the surface, the Trigger turned away from a destroyer in the convoy and fired four stern torpedoes at her. They all missed. Masked by her heavy diesel exhaust, the Trigger headed away on a reciprocal course to the destroyer. Unaware that her opponent was on the surface, the destroyer dropped depth charges.
Dornin soon made a high speed "end-around." At about 5 am he fired five torpedoes in a surface radar attack on the largest ship. The Yasukuni Maru was hit by two torpedoes and sank about 30 minutes later at N9º 15' E147º 13'. There were 43 survivours. The Aikoku Maru escaped undamaged.
On 1 February 1944 the remaining vessels in the convoy arrived at Truk. Soon after she departed Truk for Brown Island, Eniwetok, Marshall Islands (also reported as Wake Island) with troop reinforcements, but was forced to abort due to American aircraft activity. I believe that she arrived at Pohnpei instead on 14 February 1944 but could not discharge completely her cargo of soldiers and supplies. The next day she left for Truk, arriving in the lagoon late on 16 February 1944.
All of the Combined Fleet's capital ships based at Truk had departed in anticipation of an American air raid as there were some surveillance flights over Truk a few days earlier. The Aikoku Maru began loading ammunition almost immediately so she would be able to depart for Rabaul as soon as possible. Troops of the 1st Amphibious Brigade aboard her were apparently crammed into their makeshift billets.
On 17 February 1944, the first day of "Operation Hailstone", the Aikoku Maru was anchored off the channel between Eten and Dublon Islands. This was one of the main anchoring points in Chuuk Lagoon and was close to the San Francisco Maru and Nippo Maru as well as many others. A photograph taken very early shows the Aikoku Maru lying untouched facing the east.
At dawn, on the first day of the raids, planes from USS Intrepid (CV-11) attack the Aikoku Maru. The first bomb hit the officers' wardroom galley and started a fire that spread quickly. She took three more hits by bombs.
At about 0815 the Aikoku Maru was attacked by Avenger dive bombers from USS Essex and USS Intrepid. At the same time, an Avenger TBM-1C (serial number BN 25270) from the USS Intrepid, piloted by Lt James Erwin Bridges, with crew Robert Ellis Bruton and James Albert Greem were approaching the ship from wave height. While the TBM-1C was attacking, the ship was hit in the front section of the ship by two bombs dropped from planes from the USS Essex. These bombs had a devastating impact, causing the Aikoku Maru to violently explode. Lt Bridges' (incorrectly referred to as Briggs in some reports) plane had just released its torpedo and was making good its escape, pulling up to clear the ship it had just attacked, when the other planes' bombs exploded. Lt Bridges, his plane and crew were destroyed. It is also possible that the plane was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and crashed into the bridge, falling into the hold causing the explosion. Whatever happened, it is known that Lt Bridges' Avenger did not return to her ship.
Another report says that a Mark 13 aerial torpedo hit her No. 1 hold and set off ordnance that sheared off the entire foreship. However, I do not believe that this report is correct.
To say that the resulting explosion was massive is to understate the situation. Two photographs taken by the attacking American aircraft show a huge "nuclear-bomb" type mushroom cloud rising over the wreck. Within a few seconds the cloud had risen thousands of feet in the air. Within 60 seconds of the fatal attack, the Aikoku Maru sank with the loss of not only all lives on board, but also the lives of some men on adjacent smaller boats and barges. It is not known how many died, but it is estimated that at least 450 men were lost. Another report says that virtually all of the ships' crew including Captain Nakamaruo and 945 sailors, passengers and men of the First Brigade, died in the explosion.
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test on type 93 long lance and torpedo CLS - 
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