Japanese destroyer Hamakaze (1940)

Hamakaze (浜風) 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 Type 3 127 mm guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. They were built with four Type 96 25 mm 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 610 mm 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
Hamakaze was heavily involved in the fighting in 1943 in the Solomon Islands chain. On July 6, Hamakaze landed troops during the battle of Kula Gulf, but saw no direct combat. On July 13, Hamakaze served in the battle of Kolombangara, where alongside the destroyers Yukikaze, Kiyonami, and Yūgure, she took part in a mass torpedo attack that sank the destroyer USS Gwin and crippled the light cruisers USS Honolulu and USS Saint Louis. On August 18, Hamakaze was involved in the battle off Horaniu, helping to defend Japanese troop transports against an American destroyer flotilla, where she was damaged by a single 5-inch (127 mm) shell hit.

On 7 April 1945, Hamakaze escorted the battleship JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Yamato from the Inland Sea on her Operation Ten-Go attack on the Allied forces on Okinawa. She was sunk by aircraft of Task Force 58 primarily from USS San Jacinto and sank 150 mi southwest of Nagasaki (30.78333°N, 128.13333°W).