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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Photo # NH 73045:  Japanese destroyer Mutsuki underway during the later 1930s

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- JAPANESE NAVY SHIPS --

Mutsuki (Destroyer, 1926-1942).
Originally named (Destroyer) Number 19

Mutsuki, name ship of a class of twelve 1315-ton first-class destroyers, was built at Sasebo, Japan. Completed as (Destroyer) Number 19 in March 1926, she was renamed Mutuski in 1928. Prior to World War II, she took part in the arduous exercises that helped prepare the Japanese Navy for war and was also present during combat operations in China. On 11 December 1942, a few days after Japan began the Pacific War, Mutuski participated in the initial attempt to capture Wake Island, an effort repulsed with heavy casualties by U.S. Marine Corps gunners and aviators. In May 1942, she was part of the Port Moresby Invasion Group during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

On 24 August 1942, as the Japanese made their first major attempt to recapture Guadalcanal, Mutuski briefly bombarded U.S. Marine Corps' positions at Henderson Field. The next day, she went alongside the disabled transport Kinryu Maru to rescue that ship's crew and troops. While so immobilized, a formation of U.S. B-17 bombers appeared. Aware of the poor accuracy of high-level bombing, the destroyer's captain elected to continue his rescue efforts. However, in a rare event, the bombers scored well and Mutuski was sunk. Her captain, hauled from the water with his ship's other surviving crewmen, is said to have remarked "even the B-17s could make a hit once in a while!".

This page features our only views of the Japanese destroyer Mutuski.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 3067

Mutsuki
(Japanese Destroyer, 1926)

Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken circa the late 1920s or during the 1930s.

The original print was received by the Office of Naval Records and Library in 1938.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 42KB; 740 x 250 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 51868

Mutsuki
(Japanese destroyer, 1926)

Photographed from USS Barker (DD-213) while underway off Shanghai, China, in February 1932.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 48KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 51894

Mutsuki
(Japanese destroyer, 1926)

Moored off Shanghai, China, in February 1932, with the bows of two sister ships visible at left.
Photographed by G.J. Freret, Jr., USN.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 73045

Mutsuki
(Japanese destroyer, 1926)

Underway during the later 1930s, after being fitted with raked funnel caps and torpedo tube shields.

Donation of Kazutoshi Hando, 1970.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 545 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 7 December 2001
New imade added 23 July 2002