Japanese cruiser Haguro - Definition

CruiserHaguro.jpg Cruiser Haguro
Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	16 March 1925
Launched:	24 March 1928
Commissioned:	25 April 1929
Fate:	Sunk in the Indian Ocean on 16 May 1945
Struck:	20 June 1945
General Characteristics
Displacement:	13,300 tons
Length:	661 ft 9 in (201.70 m)
Beam:	68 ft 0 in (20.73 m)
Draught:	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m)
Propulsion:
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	773
Armour:
Armament:	Ten 8 inch (200 mm) guns
Aircraft:	one

Haguro (羽黒) was the last of the four-member Myoko class of heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was named after a mountain in Yamagata Prefecture. The other ships of her class were Myoko (妙高), Nachi (那智), and Ashigara (足柄).

The ships of this class displaced 13,300 tons, were 201 metres long, and were capable of 36 knots (67 km/h). They carried one aircraft and their main armament was ten 8 inch (200 mm) guns.

Haguro was laid down at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki on 16 March 1925, launched and named on 24 March 1928, and was commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 25 April 1929. Her service in World War II started in the Dutch East Indies, where she engaged the enemy off Makassar on 8 February 1942, played a role in the sinking of HMS Exeter and HMS Encounter in the battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, and was engaged in another action off south Borneo on 1 March 1942. On 7 May 1942 she participated in the battle of the Coral Sea, moving on to the Solomon Islands where she took part in the battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August 1942, the evacuation from Guadalcanal at the end of January 1943, and took light damage in the battle of Empress Augusta Bay on 2 November 1943. On 19 June 1944 she survived the battle of the Philippine Sea, and on 23 October – on 25 October 1944 she took light damage in the battle of Leyte Gulf, before finally being sunk in the Indian Ocean on 16 May 1945.