Isokaze was one of 19 s built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the 1930s. Isokaze escorted the aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor, before remaining with the Kido Butai for the first months of the war; helping to sink the 8,806 ton Dutch freighter Modjokerto. From 4-6 June, Isokaze escorted aircraft carriers during the battle of Midway where she evacuated the sinking aircraft carrier Sōryū before scuttling her with torpedoes. Isokaze then took part in a series troop and supply transport missions and patrol and escorting duties for the Guadalcanal campaign.
On 10 January 1943, Isokaze helped to sink the submarine USS Argonaut - the largest submarine of the US navy - before being crippled by bomb hits later that February which took her out of action until July. Isokaze partook in several small skirmishes and engagements against US destroyers throughout the Solomon Islands campaign, and patrol and transport duties throughout the Marianas campaign before escorting aircraft carriers at the battle of the Philippine Sea from 19-20 June 1944. Later that October, Isokaze served in the battle of Leyte Gulf (and was the photography ship while the fleet was anchored under Burnei). During the largest naval battle in history, Isokaze survived many waves of carrier aircraft and helped to sink the destroyer USS Johnston.
Isokaze met her end on 7 April 1945 escorting the battleship Yamato during operation Ten-Go. While attempting to assist the crippled light cruiser Yahagi, Isokaze herself was destroyed by bomb near misses and scuttled.
Design and description The Kagerō class was an enlarged and improved version of the preceding . Their crew numbered 240 officers and enlisted men. The ships measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of .Chesneau, p. 194 They displaced at standard load and at deep load.Whitley, pp. 200–01 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 for a designed speed of . The ships had a range of at a speed of .Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 148The main armament of the Kagerō class consisted of six Type 3 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. They were built with four 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 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
Isokaze was constructed in the Sasebo Naval Arsenal, laid down on 25 November 1938, launched on 19 June 1939, and commissioned on 30 November 1940. Upon commissioning, Isokaze was designated to the 17th destroyer division alongside her sistership Urakaze (flagship of captain Sugiura Kajū) with the destroyers Tanikaze and Hamakaze becoming eventual additions. Throughout her peacetime career, Isokaze transitioned between various naval facilities, and went through many crew adjustments, being incorporated into the first air fleet on 1 May 1941, and then destroyer squadron 1 later on 18 July. On 16 October, Isokaze took part in training duties in the Bungo Channel in the led up to the Pacific War.
1942
On 18 November 1941, Isokaze arrived in Saeki Bay alongside the rest of the 17th destroyer division to rendezvous with the six aircraft carriers of the Kido Butai - Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku - along with their escorts. The intent of the mission was completely mysterious to the crews of the Japanese ships, and the goal was only made public after Isokaze and the others departed on 23 November, they were attacking Pearl Harbor. On 7 December, the Japanese carriers launched a series of air attacks that kickstarted the Pacific war, sinking the battleships USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma and wrecking the destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes alongside damaging and temporarily sinking several more ships and destroying many aircraft during the raid. Isokaze then escorted the Kido Butai back to mainland Japan and returned to the Kure naval arsenal on the 24th. En route, Isokaze joined Hamakaze in attacking an enemy submarine, which they claimed to sink, but this was never confirmed. On 7 January 1942, Isokaze escorted the ammunition ship Nichiro Maru to Truk, then returned to Kure on the 14th, then escorted the 2nd replenishment unit for the Kido Butai during air strikes on Kavieng during the Rabaul landings, the raid on Port Darwin, and operations in the Java Sea.
On 1 March, Isokaze was operating alongside several destroyers of the 1st squadron when Japanese floatplanes spotted the 8,806-ton Dutch freighter Modjokerto at 10:40 and radioed her location to nearby Japanese naval units. Destroyer squadron 1 located Modjokerto at 11:25 and closed to point blank range, and a hail of 5-inch (127 mm) gunfire from Isokaze, Kagerō Shiranui, Kasumi, Ariake, and Yūgure sank the freighter in just 3 minutes with the loss of 42 men. On the 7th, Isokaze escorted the battleships Kongō and Haruna while they - joined by Urakaze and Tanikaze - bombarded and captured Christmas Island, then escorted the Kido Butai during the Indian Ocean Raid from 4-9 April where she engaged enemy aircraft twice and captured the crew of 6 from a downed flying-boat before transferring them to Akagi. The prisoners were treated with hospitality and a warm meal aboard the destroyer, something which was not transferred to the aircraft carrier. Isokaze finally arrived back at Kure on 27 April, and entered drydock from 5-15 May before departing for Hashirajima.
Battle of Midway On 27 May, Isokaze and destroyer division 17 departed Hashirajima as an escort Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū on a mission to attack Midway Island, not only to capture the Island but to lure out American aircraft carriers for a decisive action. Isokaze was specifically assigned to guard Sōryū. Japanese aircraft attacked Midway Island and destroyed several land facilities, but as the battle continued it became clear the Americans were aware of their attack as Admiral Nagumo ordered his carriers to rearm to naval weaponry, leaving the flattops exposed with thousands of pounds in explosives loaded in their hanger bay. The initial waves of aircraft from Midway Island and USS Hornet were thwarted, but at 10:26 a wave of dive bombers from attacked the Japanese carriers to devastating effect. A squadron of aircraft from USS Yorktown attacked Sōryū and hit the carrier with three 1,000 pound bombs and detonated her ammunition and blasted her into a floating wreck. The American aircraft then attacked Isokaze and a bomb near miss damaged the destroyer around her fantail and ruptured her fuel tanks but did not effect her sailing or navigation abilities. In the meantime, dive bombers from USS Enterprise crippled both Akagi and Kaga while the mangled Sōryū came to a stop at 10:40 and the abandon ship order was issued 5 minutes later, prompting Isokaze and Hamakaze to moor alongside the aircraft carrier to rescue survivors on the deck and forecastle, and together they evacuated 392 men and remained with the carrier for several hours. At 19:12, the order to scuttle Sōryū was radioed and Isokaze fired 3 torpedoes that delivered the Coup De Grace. Sōryū sank by the stern in 5 minutes as Isokaze and Hamakaze sailed away and patrolled in a 5,500 yard (5,000 meter) circle of the fatally wounded Akagi before she too was scuttled alongside Kaga by destroyer division 4 (Arashi, Nowaki, Maikaze, Hagikaze), which they sailed with to rejoin Nagumo's taskforce.
As the battle continued, Hiryū crippled Yorktown with a wave each of dive and torpedo bombers - enabling Yorktown to be finished off and the destroyer USS Hammann sunk by the Japanese submarine I-168 - but was in turn destroyed by dive bombers from Enterprise and similarly scuttled by escorting destroyers, before the heavy cruiser Mikuma was sunk by several waves of dive bombers from Enterprise and Hornet, ending the battle of Midway in a crippling allied victory that turned the tide of the war against Japan. On the 13th, Isokaze returned to Kure, then on the 22nd entered drydock for repairs, which lasted until July 2. Isokaze spent the rest of the month transiting between bases. On August 24, Isokaze joined the destroyers Kagerō, Kawakaze, Mutsuki, and Yayoi in bombarding Henderson Field. The next day, she escorted the troop convoy force during the battle of the Eastern Solomons, then saw a series of failed troop transport missions. After surviving an encounter with a B-17 bomber, Isokaze escorted a convoy to Rabaul, then on September 11 attempted a troop transport mission, but returned to Rabaul after her consort, the Yayoi, was sunk by B-17 bombers, before seeing several more successful troop transport mission, then in October engaged in patrol duty before escorting carriers at the battle of Santa Cruz on the 26th, then returned to Truk on the 30th. From November 2 to 7, Isokaze escorted damaged ships to Sasebo for repairs, before being drydocked herself until the 18th, then departed for Yokosuka for troop transport and training missions.
1943
At the start of January 1943, Isokaze survived B-17 bomber attacks, then departed with Rabaul to escort a large troop convoy to Lae and back. En route, the troop ships Myōkō Maru and Nichryu Maru were sunk by air attacks, but the rest of the ships completed their mission. On the 10th, while returning to Rabaul, the convoy was located by the submarine USS Argonaut which closed for an attack. Argonaut was the largest submarine in the world at the time and the largest the US would produce during the duration of the war at 381 feet (116 meters) long, 33 feet 9.5 in (10.3 meters) wide, and displacing 3,100 tons. Unfortunately, Argonaut would be spotted by a Japanese seaplane and bombed before being depth charged by Maikaze. This was initially to unknown effect as Isokaze sailed to the scene until a bow emerged from below the waves as Argonaut attempted to surface. Isokaze opened fire alongside Maikaze and together the two destroyers blasted the submarine with a hail of 5-inch (127 mm) shells until she disappeared with the loss of all 105 lives aboard, the largest loss of life aboard an American submarine.
The convoy arrived at Rabaul that night, and Isokaze spent the rest of the month on troop transport missions. At the beginning of February, the Japanese enacted Operation Ke. The Guadalcanal campaign was deemed a failure and a fleet of 20 destroyers was tasked with evacuating Japanese troops from the Island, including destroyer division 17. Isokaze successfully completed the first evacuation run on the 2nd and the next on the 4th, but on the third run on the 7th Isokaze was covering the evacuation units when she was attacked by a flight of land-based dive bombers in the afternoon. Isokaze opened fire and shot down one aircraft, but in exchange two 500 pound high-explosive bombs plunged into the destroyer's bow ahead of her turret one and blew out both sides of the hull, killing 10 of her crew. Isokaze straggled under her own power before being towed by the destroyer Kawakaze for assistance and arrived back to the Shortlands the next day where she was patched up. She limped to Rabaul where she was fixed up by the repair ship Yamabiko Maru and departed to Truk from 27 February to 2 March and after another patch up. The ship finally returned to Japan from 22-29 March where she was dry-docked in Kure for more permanent repairs over the course of several months. Isokaze returned to sea on 12 June and spent the rest of the month on training duties.