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The IJN Ikazuchi was a member of the Akatsuki class of destroyer of the
Imperial Japanese Navy. She was built at Uraga, Japan and was completed in
August 1932. She displaced 1680 tons.
She took part in operations during the war with China that began in
mid-1937 and was active through the first two and a half years of the
Pacific War. On 8 December 1941 she was one of the Japanese warships that
attacked Hong Kong, sinking two British gunboats. During the first months of
1942, Ikazuchi participated in the East Indies campaign, including the
invasion of Java and the Battle of the Java Sea on 1 March 1942 in which the
British cruiser HMS Exeter, destroyer HMS Encounter and U.S. destroyer USS
Pope were sunk.
In early June 1942 Ikazuchi took part in operations in the north Pacific
that resulted in the capture of Attu and Kiska islands. Later in the year,
she went south to join the protracted campaign to retake Guadalcanal and on
25 October she and two other destroyers conducted a daylight raid into the
waters off Guadalcanal. In the resulting action, the U.S. Navy fast
minesweeper USS Zane was damaged and fleet tug Seminole and patrol craft
YP-284 were sunk before the Japanese ships were driven off by U.S. Marine
coastal artillery. Ikazuchi also particpated in the first night action of
the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, on 13 November 1942. Stationed on the right
flank of the battleships Hiei and Kirishima with two other destroyers, she
engaged several U.S. warships, among them the cruiser USS Atlanta, and
received damage to her forward gun mount.
Ikazuchi returned to the north Pacific in 1943, and again engaged U.S.
Navy ships in the Battle of the Komandorski Islands on 26 March. Later, she
operated in the central Pacific. On 13 April 1944, while patrolling between
Guam and the Caroline Islands, Ikazuchi was torpedoed and sunk by the U.S.
submarine Harder.
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