WL415 HAYANAMI

Hayanami was a Japanese destroyer whose keel was laid in 1942, launched in December 1942, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in July 1943. The length of the ship at the time of launching was 119.2 m, width 10.8 m, and the actual full displacement - 2,520 tons. Destroyer Hayanami's top speed was up to 35.5 knots. The main armament at the time of the launch was 6 127 mm guns in three twin turrets, and the secondary armament were 25 mm cannons, depth charge launchers and eight 610 mm torpedo tubes with eight spare torpedoes. Hayanami was the twelfth Yugumo-class destroyer. Units of this type were created as part of the 1939 and 1941 Japanese fleet expansion program. Units of this class were in fact an improved Kagero type: they were slightly larger, with new main artillery turrets and an extended stern. The stock of depth charges was also increased. However, they had the same engine room, similar ship layout, and identical main and torpedo armaments. The weak anti-aircraft armament, which was systematically strengthened during the war in the Pacific, was still a drawback. The destroyer Hayanami began its short combat trail during World War II with the transfer of troops from Saeki to the base in Truk in October 1943. He will spend the next months of that year and the first of 1944 on transport functions and covering convoys. Hayanami was sunk on July 7, 1944 as a result of torpedoing by the American submarine USS Harder. With its destroyer, 208 crew members were drowned - only 45 Japanese sailors survived.