Destroyer Arashio

Arashio was laid down at Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation, Kobe on 1 October 1935, launched 26 May 1937, and commissioned in December 1937 (20 December in Japanese sources, 30 December in some English-language ones). Like her sisters, she was armed with six 127mm guns and eight Long Lance torpedo tubes. Arashio participated in the Dutch East Indies campaign, including the Battle of Badung Strait in February 1942 (which she joined late, without seeing combat), and subsequently served in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea campaigns. On 2–4 March 1943, Arashio was part of the escort of the ill-fated reinforcement convoy for Lae, New Guinea. The convoy was detected and relentlessly attacked by USAAF and RAAF aircraft using a devastating new technique of low-level skip-bombing. On 3 March 1943, Arashio was hit by three bombs from a USAAF B-25, went out of control and collided with the transport Nojima. The destroyer Yukikaze took off her 176 survivors; 72 men, including her captain, Hideo Kuboki, were killed. Her abandoned hulk was sunk by Allied aircraft on 4 March, about 55 nautical miles southeast of Finschhafen. Her sister ship Asashio was sunk on 3 March while trying to rescue survivors of Arashio and Nojima. The entire convoy was effectively destroyed: all eight transports and four of the eight escorting destroyers were sunk.