"Ship of Nine Lives: The long struggle of cruiser KUMANO" Topic

"The fire-eating and impetuous Admiral William "Bull" Halsey – Commander of the hard-htting fast carrier Task Force 38 – reportedly once remarked that "if there was a Japanese ship he could feel sorry for at all, it would be the KUMANO". There was a good reason. Despite his well-documented loathing of his Japanese enemies, the heavy cruiser KUMANO had sought to cheat death with a tenacity that was truly admirable, indeed almost miraculous. That it was ultimately in vain – as it would be for virtually all IJN heavy ships – was more a testimony of United States logistical might and persistence than any failure of design or effort.

The KUMANO was one of the four MOGAMI-class cruisers, and like her two remaining sisters MOGAMI and SUZUYA, perished in the fierce air and surface actions during the Leyte campaign. By an eerie quirk, KUMANO's last epic battle to survive the crushing power of her adversaries would span exactly a month, from 25 October to 25 November. In this time frame she would be subjected to a veritable rain of torpedoes and bombs and attacked by almost every conceivable means, air, surface gunfire, and submarine torpedo attack. In absorbing each of these and remaining somehow afloat she built a reputation for being seemingly more indestructible than a battleship. This article tells the story as revealed on the Japanese side, and shows that the actual number of hits and damage was far-less than claimed. However, it takes nothing away from KUMANO's Captain Hitomi and his brave crew's fight to save her -- even the actual confirmed hits are a daunting number…"

link

Armand

Combined Fleet is one of the best resources on the IJN in WWII and contains several nuggets like this on on the fate of IJN ships.

Thanks for the link to one I either haven't read or had forgotten.

A votre service mon ami…

Armand