Japanese destroyer Akigumo (1941)

Akigumo (秋雲) was one of 19 Kagerō-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the 1930s.

Design and description
The Kagerō class was an enlarged and improved version of the preceding Asashio-class destroyer. Their crew numbered 240 officers and enlisted men. The ships measured 118.5 m overall, with a beam of 10.8 m and a draft of 3.76 m. They displaced 2065 t at standard load and 2529 t at deep load. 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 52000 shp for a designed speed of 35 kn. The ships had a range of 5000 nmi at a speed of 18 kn.

The main armament of the Kagerō class consisted of six 12.7 cm Type 3 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. They were built with four 25 mm 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 61 cm 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.

Career
Akigumo was an escort in the carrier fleet that carried out the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Shortly after the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the early hours of 27 October 1942, Akigumo along with the destroyer JAPANESE DESTROYER Makigumo sank the heavily damaged and abandoned American aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). US naval ships had attempted to scuttle Hornet earlier but failed to do so before Japanese naval forces forced the US ships to withdraw.

Akigumo served during the Pacific war in various theatres and by 1943/44 received the typical mid-war radar and AA refits, bringing the light AA outfit finally to four triple and one twin Type 96 25 mm mounts, plus some singles, and mounting both the active type 22 and the passive type E-27 radars.

On 11 April 1944, Akigumo was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Redfin (SS-272) 30 mi southeast of Zamboanga Peninsula, Philippines (6.71667°N, 122.38333°W).