FUJ.41007 IJN Nachi ''Heavy Cruiser''

FUJ.41007

                  '' IJN Nachi - Heavy Cruiser ''

Nachi was laid down at the kure Naval Arsenal on 26 November 1924, launched and named on 15 June 1927, and was commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 26 November 1928. Her service in World War II started in the Dutch East Indies, where she engaged the enemy off Makassar on 8 February 1942. She played a key role in the battle of the Java Sea on 27 February,and was involved in the sinking of HMS Exeter and Encounter in another action off south Borneo on 1 March.

Nachi then moved to the Aleutian Islands where she was engaged in the diversionary attack on the islands on 3 June; she was back in the Aleutians when she was damaged on 26 March 1943 in thebattle of the Komandorski Islands, and was engaged in an action at Kiska  in July 1943. By October 1944, she was in the Philippines where she was damaged in the Battle of Surigao Strait on 25 October 1944.

She was finally sunk by aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS Lexington and Ticonderoga in Manila Bay on 5 November 1944. Of the crew, 807 were lost, including the captain ; 220 survived. Its flag commander, Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima, survived; he was ashore when Task Force 38 struck.

Nachi was attacked by three enemy aircraft waves and hit least nine times with torpedoes as well as rockets. Nachi was broken by two big explosions into three parts and sank in middle of a large oil slick.