was one of twelve s, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1920s. Retreating after the sinking of destroyer by American coast-defense guns during the Battle of Wake Island in December 1941, Kisaragi was sunk with all hands by American aircraft. She had the distinction of being the second major Japanese warship lost during the war (after Hayate earlier the same day).

She should not be confused with an earlier World War I-period destroyer with the same name.

Design and description

The Mutsuki class was an improved version of the s and was the first with triple torpedo tubes. The ships had an overall length of and were between perpendiculars. They had a beam of , and a mean draft of . The Mutsuki-class ships displaced at standard load and at deep load. They were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were designed to produce , which would propel the ships at . The ships carried of fuel oil which gave them a range of at . Their crew consisted of 150 officers and crewmen.

The main armament of the Mutsuki-class ships consisted of four Type 3 guns in single mounts; one gun forward of the superstructure, one between the two funnels and the last pair back to back atop the aft superstructure. The guns were numbered '1' to '4' from front to rear. The ships carried two above-water triple sets of 61-centimeter torpedo tubes; one mount was between the forward superstructure and the forward gun and the other was between the aft funnel and aft superstructure. Four reload torpedoes were provided for the tubes. on 3 June 1922,

Kisaragi was sailing away from the island when she was attacked and sunk by Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters of Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-211 that had taken off earlier armed with bombs. What happened next is unclear as sources disagree: older American accounts attribute her loss to a bomb dropped by Captain Henry Elrod that landed amongst her depth charges on Kisaragis stern, which detonated and sank the destroyer; Japanese accounts say that one bomb demolished the ship's bridge and that she blew up five minutes later, with the blast originating from amidships. The sinking of Kisaragi would contribute to Elrod being posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Notes

Sources

  • Mutsuki-class destroyers on Materials of the Imperial Japanese Navy