KUSENTEI!

© 2006-2016 Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall

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1940:
Yokohama. Laid down at Yokohama Dry-dock of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as Subchaser No. 192.

7 October 1941:
Launched and renumbered CH-25.

29 December 1941:
Completed and registered in the Kure Naval District. Assigned to the Kure Guard Unit. Lt (LtCdr posthumously) Haruyama Sugino is the Commanding Officer.[1]

January 1942:
Patrols the Bungo Strait.

3 April 1942:
At 1700 departs Sukumo.

4 April 1942:
At 1500 arrives at Saiki.

6 April 1942:
At 0800 departs Saiki.

7 April 1942:
At 1030 arrives at Sukumo.

9 April 1942:
At 1000 departs Sukumo and soon after arrives at Saiki.

11 April 1942:
At 1030 departs Saiki.

16 April 1942:
At 1500 arrives at Sukumo.

18 April 1942:
At 0930 departs Sukumo.

19 April 1942:
At 1240 arrives at Sukumo.

20 April 1942:
At 1021 departs Sukumo but returns to port later that day.

22 April 1942:
At 0600 departs Sukumo but returns to port later that day.

24 April 1942:
At 1010 departs Sukumo and at 1705 arrives at Kure.

1 May 1942:
Assigned to Vice Admiral Hosogaya Boshiro's (36) (former CO of MUTSU) 5th Fleet in SubChasDiv 13 with CH-26 and CH-27.

18 May 1942:
At 0900 CH-25, CH-26 and CH-27 depart Kure.

20 May 1942:
At 1600 CH-24 and at 1700 CH-25 arrive at Nagaura. CH-26 and CH-27 arrive at Yokosuka at 1400.

22 May 1942:
At 0900 SubChasDiv 13 (CH-25, CH-26 and CH-27) and CH-24 departs Yokosuka. SubChas Div 13 Patrols in the Aleutians.

23 May 1942:
At 1100 the escorts arrive at Ominato.

26 May 1942:
At 0910 CH-25, CH-26 and CH-27 depart Ominato and at 1530 arrive at Kawauchi Wan.

28 May 1942:
At 1200 CH-25, CH-26 and CH-27 depart Kawauchi Wan.

1 June 1942:
The escorts arrive at Paramushiro.

2 June 1942:
The escorts depart Paramushiro.

5 June 1942: Operation “AL”- The Invasion of the Aleutians:
Twenty ships of 5th Fleet, including light cruisers KISO and TAMA, three destroyers, three corvettes, three minesweepers and four transports carry the Adak-Attu and Kiska Occupation Forces to the Western Aleutians. The Adak occupation is cancelled and the Adak-Attu Occupation Force is directed to seize only Attu.

6 June 1942:
At 1500, Captain (later Rear Admiral) Ono Takeji’s (44) Occupation Force lands a battalion of Special Naval Landing Force troops at Reynard Cove on Kiska without opposition.

7 June 1942:
At 0300, Rear Admiral (later Vice Admiral) Omori Sentaro's (41) (former CO of ISE) Adak-Attu Occupation Force lands a battalion of Army troops on Attu, also without opposition. That evening CD-25, CD-26 and CD-27 arrive off Kiska.

15 July 1942:
W of Sredni Point, Kiska. LtCdr (NC posthumously) Mannert L. Abele‘s (USNA ’26) (former CO of USS S-31)USS GRUNION (SS-216) attacks three warships he takes to be destroyers, but are, in fact, Lt Haruyama Sugino's subchaser CH-25 and CH-26 and CH-27. Abele torpedoes and sinks both CH-25 and CH-27 and possibly damages CH-26, all at 52-02N, 177-42E. CH-26 searches for survivors, but none are found. [2]

20 July 1942:
Removed from the Navy List.

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Authors’ Notes:
[1] According to some Japanese sources CH-25 was completed on 31 Jan 1942.

[2] LtCdr Abele and USS GRUNION were lost on this, USS GRUNION's first war patrol. Japanese sources indicate that on 30 July 1942, USS GRUNION was sunk by the deck gun of freighter KANO MARU after the submarine attacked the maru with dud Mark XIV torpedoes, then surfaced to engage with her own deck gun. KANO MARU herself, was sunk a week later at Kiska Harbor by USN PBY "Catalinas".

Thanks go to Bruce Abele, son of LtCdr Abele, for identifying CH-25's final CO. Abele also located the son of Lt Haruyama. Thanks also to Mr. Gilbert Casse of France and Mr Matthew Jones of USA.

-Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall.

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