© 2009-2014 Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall
Revision 2
2 November 1944:
Tsurumi. Laid down at Nippon Kokan K. K.'s shipyard.
18 December 1944:
Launched and numbered CD-77.
31 March 1945:
Completed and registered in the IJN.
21 April 1945:
CD-77, CD-196, CD-198 and CD-221 depart Maizuru en route to Nanao.
15 August 1945:
Japan accepts the Allies “Potsdam Declaration” (of unconditional surrender) and hostilities cease.
30 November 1945:
Removed from the Navy List.
1 December 1945:
Assigned to the Allied Occupation Powers as a minesweeper. [1]
March 1946:
Operating off Kikai Jima with kaibokan YASHIRO, KURAHASHI CD-48 and CD-49 together with US minesweepers USS SHOVELER (AM-382) and USS REDSTART (AM-378). When not minesweeping the ships were anchoring off Amami-Oshima.
18 June 1947:
Dai-ichi Building, Tokyo. Japanese warships are to be divided into four roughly equal lots among the "Big Four" victorious nations (i.e. U.S., U.K., USSR, China). Vice Admiral Robert M. Griffin, commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Far East, conducts the first drawing of lots that includes a total of 24 destroyers and 68 kaibokan. The Soviet Union is allotted 34 former IJN warships, including 7 destroyers and 17 escort vessels.
28 August 1947:
Nakhodka Bay, Siberia, Maritime Province. CH-77 is ceded to the Soviet Navy as a war reparation.
Late October 1947:
Transferred to Vladivostok.
Authors' Note:
[1] In 1945, the U. S. Army Air Force launched a five-phased campaign known as “Operation Starvation” to mine Japan’s home waters. The USAAF used 80 to 100 B-29 “Super Fortress” heavy bombers of the 21st Bomber Command based at Tinian in the Marianas. The B-29s could carry seven 2,000 lb. or twelve 1,000 lb. mines.
Beginning on 27 March 1945 and continuing until 5 August 1945, the B-29s flew 1,529 nighttime radar sorties and laid 4,900 magnetic, 3,500 acoustic, 2,900 pressure and 700 low-frequency mines for a total of more than 12,000 mines laid in Japanese waters. These mines sank 294 ships, damaged 137 beyond repair and damaged another 239 that could be repaired. The total was 1, 250,000 tons sunk or damaged or about 75 percent of Japanese shipping available in March 1945. Only 15 B-29s were lost during the mining campaign.
Postwar, removal of these mines posed a major challenge for the Allied Occupation Forces. They pressed 269 Japanese ships of various types into mine sweeping service to augment their own efforts.
Thanks to Mr. Gilbert Casse of France and M Willmann.
-Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall
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