The Kagerō class was an enlarged and improved version of the preceding. Their crew numbered 240 officers and enlisted men. The ships measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of. They displaced at standard load and at deep load. The ships had two Kampon geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of for a designed speed of. The ships had a range of at a speed of. The main armament of the Kagerō class consisted of six Type 3 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. They were built with four Type 96anti-aircraft guns in two twin-gun mounts, but more of these guns were added over the course of the war. The ships were also armed with eight torpedo tubes for the oxygen-fueled Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo in two quadruple traversing mounts; one reload was carried for each tube. Their anti-submarine weapons comprised 16 depth charges.
Construction and career
In June 1942 the ship participated in the Battle of Midway where she was damaged by air attacks. On 5 June, the day after the main Battle of Midway, Tanikaze was sent by Admiral Nagumo to ensure the last IJN aircraft carrier had actually sunk, to scuttle her if necessary, and collect any survivors. Tanikaze had the unfortunate luck of being seen by 61 US Dauntlessdive bombers sent to destroy Hiryū if she was still afloat. After they were unable to locate the aircraft carrier, the dive bombers turned back to simultaneously attack the hapless Japanese destroyer, since their bombs needed to be jettisoned before landing anyway. Through aggressive maneuvering by the ship's Captain Katsumi Motoi, not one of the 61 dive bombers managed a direct hit. The log of Tanikaze reported "Medium damage from air attack with 6 dead on June 5", but the ship survived. Later that year, Tanikaze was busy with transport missions to Guadalcanal and in the first months of 1943, she aided in the evacuation of Japanese forces from the island. On 9 June 1944, Tanikaze was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine in Sibutu Passage near Tawitawi, southwest of Basilan. 114 crew members were killed, while 126 survivors, including her commander Lieutenant Commander Shunsaku Ikeda , were rescued by the destroyer, which five months later would be sunk by the submarine with all hands, including all survivors from Tanikaze.
