Cuttlefish
Posts: 2454
Joined: 1/24/2007 From: Oregon, USA Status: offline
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December 20, 1941 South China Sea His name is Lieutenant Commander Ishii, and he is the captain of Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Hibiki. For some he will need little introduction. Indeed we may think we know this man, this ship, this crew.* But since almost all of this war is yet to be fought let’s take a moment and look at Ishii and his ship. Captain Ishii is an aggressive commander, at times impatient and a little volatile. He has a temper which he is more likely to lose with superiors than with subordinates and this has perhaps cost him a promotion or two. He has spent most of his life at sea and is a consummate ship-handler and seaman. Ishii drives his men but is also very protective of them. He is, it has to be said, not much of an administrator. He despises paperwork and, though he recognizes the necessity for it, if matters were left in his hands important reports and requisitions would go unfiled. Fortunately his executive officer is a former academic and makes up for this deficiency. At the moment the captain is in his small cabin, a compact chamber about 8 by 10 feet in size. He is quite pleased with his crew’s performance in the recent battle. This was their first test under fire and they performed very well. His torpedo officer, Lieutenant Sugiyura, and his gunnery officer, Lieutenant JG Kuwaki, both deserved praise. Ishii told them so, then told them there were a number of things he wanted to see improved. Drills have been scheduled. Ishii is sitting at the small fold-down desk in his cabin writing a letter to his wife; this is one kind of paperwork he never neglects. We will leave him to complete his letter in privacy and turn our attention to the ship. Hibiki is a “special-type” destroyer, one of the last group of Fubuki-class destroyers built (Fubiki III type or Akatsuki-class, depending on who you talk to). Hibiki was in fact the first all-welded ship built by the IJN. The destroyer is 371 feet long and carries a crew of almost 200 men. Launched in 1933, Hibiki is a dangerous ship, with six 5” guns, nine torpedo tubes, a modest assortment of 25mm and 13.7 mm AA mounts, and a Type 94 Y-gun depth charge thrower on her stern. Her two engines are driven by three Kampon boilers. The ship’s active sonar is fairly good. Her passive sonar, like that aboard all Japanese destroyers, is mediocre at best and only functions at all if the ship is moving quite slowly. This is a dangerous ship, capable (in 1941, at least) of meeting any other destroyer in the world on equal or better terms. And even the most powerful battleship has to respect the threat represented by her torpedoes. All in all a good ship and a good crew. A lucky ship? Maybe. It’s still early in the war and a lot can happen. Perhaps if the destroyer happens to call at some recently liberated port in Borneo they can find a good luck charm. It’s been known to happen. --- * Hibiki was the focus of an AAR I did on the WITP forums called "Small Ship, Big War." Improbably, the ship survived the entire war, all the way through to the Japanese surrender in August 1945.
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