Destroyer Oboro

Oboro was an Ayanami-class destroyer — the second sub-group of the Fubuki "Special Type" — laid down at Sasebo Naval Arsenal on 29 November 1929, launched 8 November 1930, and commissioned 31 October 1931. At the outbreak of the Pacific War she covered the invasion of Guam, then spent early 1942 at Kwajalein and, from April, on patrol and escort duty out of Yokosuka. In June 1942, Japan seized Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians as a strategic diversion and to establish a defensive perimeter. In the autumn of 1942 Oboro was put on supply runs from Yokosuka to the Aleutians under harsh North Pacific conditions. On 17 October 1942, on a run to Kiska, Oboro was attacked by U.S. Army B-26 bombers about 30 miles northeast of the island, at approximately 52°17′N 178°08′E; a bomb hit among the munitions she was carrying blew her up, leaving only 17 survivors. Her loss, along with the destroyer Hatsuharu damaged in the same attack, demonstrated the difficulty of maintaining Japanese positions in the Aleutians under growing U.S. air power.