5/10/43 IJN destroyer Shimakaze is comissioned into service

Name translation: Island Wind
Length/beam/draft 413'/37'/14'
Displacement 3000 tons - that's a huge
destroyer.

"One word sums up this magnificent vessel:
power. She had a top speed of almost 40
knots (that's really moving, people), 6 x 5"
guns, and a main torpedo battery of 15
(count 'em) 24" tubes. She was, in my
opinion, the most powerful destroyer of the
war -- the superb U.S. Allen Sumner had
comparable gun power and better fire
control, and the French Mogadors had the
same speed and superior 8 x 5.5" gunpower
(not to mention almost 1,000 tons of full
load displacement -- nearly a light
cruiser), but neither of these classes had
the kind of torpedo battery capable of
scuppering an entire squadron of opponents
at a crack. Of course, because of her
outsized powerplant she was far too
expensive to be built in any sort of
quantity (Japan was losing the war big-time
by the time she was launched), and her
sixteen sister ships were never laid down."

"The SHIMAKAZE (hull number 125, ordered
under the 1939 Program) was planned and
built as the experimental prototype of a new
class of heavy fleet destroyer, designated
"Type C." Sixteen other units were ordered
but later cancelled due to more pressing
wartime needs. Though never repeated,
SHIMAKAZE was a successful design, combining
large size (some 25 feet longer than
YUGUMO), firepower (six 5" guns in new Type
D turrets), and heavy torpedo armament
(three quintuple sets of 24" tubes, the most
powerful such broadside ever mounted on a
Japanese destroyer) with a 40-knot top
speed. The latter was thanks to new high-
pressure, high-temperature boilers which
developed nearly 80,000 shaft horsepower and
would have propelled all future Japanese
destroyer designs, had circumstances
permitted their construction.
All experimental projects were set aside at
the beginning of the war in favor of more
urgent work, so SHIMAKAZE, though laid down
in July of 1941, was not completed until the
spring of 1943. The delays in her
construction did, however, enable her to be
fitted with the very latest equipment, and
SHIMAKAZE was one of the first Imperial
warships to mount radar when completed.
As none of her contemporaries could match
her performance characteristics, SHIMAKAZE
was never assigned to any individual
destroyer division, but operated more or
less independently within the squadron
structure. If SHIMAKAZE's service as radar
guide and screen flagship for the Kiska
evacuation was the high point of her career,
then her "non- participation" in the Battle
off Samar (held back due to her being
encumbered by MAYA survivors) was probably
the low: her mighty torpedo batteries would
never have had better targets. Her crew
fought hard and died bravely with her under
overwhelming air assault in Ormoc Bay. But
overall, SHIMAKAZE seems to have enjoyed a
very "ordinary" career for a warship of such
extraordinary potential."

The only known picture of Shimakaze, running
flat out with a bone in her teeth

It was unfortunate for the US that during Japanese war games there was a destroyer captain, named Hara, who's hobby was Geometry (IIRC) that wrote a paper on torpedo tactic attack angles. His tactics were adopted by the Japanese Imperial Navy, which were far superior to the US, and in combination with their top secret Long Lance (oxygen torpedo) wreaked havoc on US fleets, most noticeably at Guadalcanal.

Picture didn't come through, please try to post it again. Thanks.

Heady Lamar invented a guidance system that made our torpedo's more accurate. The Navy turned it down said it wouldn't work. The torpedo's we use today use that system.

From an Army times article I read years ago. The German tanks of WWII were invented by an American. He went to the Army experts with the plans. They laughed at him. Said the tank would be to slow,88mm gun was not a good idea,diesel engines were not good in combat vehicles.The new Sherman was a much better tank. I think someone was wrong.

You are correct.
I read Hara's book "Japanese Destroyer Captain" about a year ago. He was a bold, very clever fighting man. One of the few destroyer captains to survive the war. He was promoted and given the brand new light cruiser Yahagi which was escorting the Yamato and also sunk along with her. But Hara survived.
Very good book if you like that kind of stuff.
Hara

Try this

Yes, read the same book

You are probably talking about the J Walker Christie tank suspension system (torsion bars). The US rejected it so he sold the design to the Russians who used it on the T-34 tank, arguably the best all around tank of WW2. The development of the M4 Sherman tank borders on criminal (like the Mk 14 torpedo).
Heady Lamar and her composer patented frequency jumping guidance (for torpedoes). At the time the navy wasn't all that interested in using inventions from the civilian market but my guess is the technology to implement it didn't exist back then. It is now the basis for CDMA (Verizon) cell phones and GPS satellite signals.

Both the Japanese and Germans were great at engineering but both countries lacked the natural resources to engage in a long, large multi front war. Research monthly production reports from Dec 41 for the US, Japan and Germany.

Pretty interesting about the Shimakaze. That could have greatly altered the war had they built them prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I don't remember the name of the book but it covered the faulty magnetic exploder on IIRC the Mk14 torpedo. Interesting read about faulty equipment that not only fail to perform but endangered the men who used it because of that failure.

Rick

Decommissioned by US Task Force 38, 11 November 1944....

When the war started for the US, Japan was at about 80% of its maximum industrial output. The US was just coming out of the great depression and 50%
of its existing factories were unused. Yamamoto knew this and warned the Emperor to no avail.
The Mk14 magnetic exploder was developed just before the war but due to budget constraints only 2 live test shots were done on a target ship. One
torpedo failed to explode and the other sank the ship. It was then declared ready to deploy. Sent out with a known 50% failure rate. Here began the
problem; all complaints went to rear admiral Christie who was in command of the south west submarines (Australia) who also happened to have been in
charge of development of the magnetic exploder. What's he gonna say? 'Yea, we sent you out with junk'? No, he refused to allow commanders to
deactivate the exploders and blamed everything on the captains. Eventually admiral Kinkade became his boss and authorized deactivating the magnetic
device. Later, tests using fishing nets proved the torpedoes were running an average of 8' too deep (missing ships under them). Turned out to be the
device used to calibrate the running depth mechanism was itself out of calibration. Finally, after retrieving dud torpedoes fired at a cliff, it was
determined that the contact exploder firing pin was too heavy and impact inertia would fracture them before they could fire the detonator.