KIDO BUTAI
IJN Amagi: Tabular Record of Movement
© 2004 Anthony Tully
Initial Command Structure:
Commanding Officer: Captain Yamamori Kamenosuke. Assigned to Mobile
Force, CarDiv 1, Third Fleet.
10 August 1944:
Commissioned at Nagasaki.
Proceeds to Oita and
becomes flagship of Vice Admiral Ozawa Jisaburo's Mobile
Fleet till October.
September - December 1944:
Throughout this period, vessel never left the Inland Sea,
moving between Gunchu, Kure,
and Hashirajima.
23 October 1944:
Captain Yamamori relieved by Captain Miyazaki Toshio.
28 October 1944:
With UNRYU off Gunchu-koh.
27 November 1944:
Depart Iwakuni with KATSURAGI for exercises in the Inland Sea.
10 December 1944:
RAdm Keizo Komura releived by Radm Sueo Obayashi as ComCarDiv 1.
12 December 1944:
Arrives after exercises with KATSURAGI at Matsuyuma roadstead.
20 December 1944:
ComCarDiv 1 Obayashi makes AMAGI his flagship. Depart for torpedo attack
training exercises with land-based air.
21 December 1944:
Holding to a maximum speed of 12 knots to conserve fuel, AMAGI serves as target
in live torpedo practice in the Inland Sea.
20 January 1945:
At Iwakuni.
21 January 1945:
At Iwakuni. CarDiv 1 ordered to transport personnel and equipment of the Oita
Detachement of the Yokosuka Air Group from Kure and report to Iwakuni to report
for duty with said Air Group for torpedo adjustment and attack training.
1 February 1945:
Depart Iwakuni for Kure.
10 February 1945:
ComCarDiv 1 hauls down his flag.
AMAGI enters dock at Kure.
15 February 1945:
At Kure. Joined by
KATSURAGI.
24 February 1945:
Undocked.
15 March 1945:
AMAGI assigned to 2nd Fleet.
19 March 1945:
Air attack in morning at Kure
while anchored northwest of HARUNA. One bomb hit on edge of flight deck
starboard aft. Damage minor, though it jams the aft elevator in the down
position. AMAGI's gunners claim 12 planes shot down.
26 March 1945:
Ordered to repair damage and refit at Kure.
(Apparently for possible service with 1-YB).
28 March 1945:
In outer Kure harbor
roadstead. 1-YB including YAMATO departs for Mitajiri via Kubuto-shima; AMAGI
to remain behind. After Ten-Go and loss of 2nd Fleet, it is decided to
deactivate AMAGI to join her sister at Mitsuko-jima.
13 April 1945:
By this date, AMAGI has joined KATSURAGI at Mitsuko-jima in semi-permanent
mooring. Camouflaging begins.
20 April 1945:
Reassigned as `special duty' reserve ship of the 4th Kure Naval District.
Captain Miyazaki relieved by Captain Shiro Hiratsuka who leaves KATSURAGI to
take over AMAGI manned only by a skeleton crew. Captain Miyazaki assumed senior
responsibility for both idle carriers.
April to July 1945:
Never moves from semi-permanent mooring with starboard side 50 meters offshore
from the southwest end of Mitsuko-jima
Island in Kure
harbor. Heavily draped by camoufage nets with foliage and flight deck
camouflaged with false "trees" and "houses" with sand
poured to simulate roads to complete the effect.
24 July 1945:
Heavy air-raid on Kure
by TF 38 carrier planes. The first wave of attack did not score any hits, but
near-misses bracketed the bow on both sides. One landed very close along the
port side blasting a hole in the hull fifteen feet below the waterline which
caused the forward bomb magazine to immediately flood. The AMAGI listed
slightly to port. Then at around 1000 hours was struck by two bombs only
minutes apart. The first is a 500-pound bomb that detonates in the starboard
passageway beside No.2 stack, severely damaging the stack and blew a small hole
in the starboard hull below the flight deck. However, this damage paled before
that inflicted by a no less than 2,000 pound bomb that struck almost
exactly on the centerline dead amidships between the elevators. It penetrated
some 25 feet and exploded either against or just above the upper hangar deck.
The resulting blast was tremendous, completely blowing apart the adjacent
hangar walls and flight deck. The flight deck for a length of 200 feet was
bulged up, the sides of the hangar bulkheads amidships blown out and a 50 meter
section hurled out and overboard. The blast shock dropped the forward elevator
and caused a large longitudinal crack in the forward flight deck that caused
the deck to droop downward. Finally, the bomb blew a 25-foot hole in the upper
hangar deck and fragments of it passed through the lower hangar deck below,
destroying watertight integrity of decks and bulkheads in the lower amidships
over a wide area.
On the bridge the Commanding Officer and others miraculously survived the
catastrophic blast, and there was little fire. However, at this time a 5-inch
rocket zoomed right past the island and smacked into an intact part of the
flight deck to starboard between the forward elevator and the base of the
island. At the same time
near-misses were landing close alongside to port, detonating below the
waterline, whose fragments riddled the port shell in places. Boiler Rooms # 4
and 6 on the port side began to flood, and AMAGI began to settle deeper into
the water. Though the carrier is in no danger of sinking, the commanding
officer (it may not have been Captain Shiro aboard this morning) is unnerved by
the damage and the rocket hit and orders her abandoned some time noon. With some reluctance, the
engineering watch evacuates, finally moving to do so after an additional
near-miss to port abreast the after elevator grazes an anti-aircraft gun and
opened the port after engine room to the sea.
The carrier is all but abandoned when attacked again at 1530 by another
20 planes, after which, when the port after engine room begins to flood, the
last watch evacuates. However, hearing the survivors reports that evening the
Kure Navy Yard Superintendent censures the premature abandonment, and at the
end of the day the AMAGI is still afloat and with only a slight port list and
trim at the bow. Her flight deck however, is completely demolished.
25 to 27 July 1945:
No clear details available. However, it is known that with their bulkheads perforated
and weakened, # 3 and 5 Boiler Rooms adjacent to starboard gradually flooded as
well. It appears that during this time the AMAGI became heavily flooded below
decks, and sat deep in the water. Any additional uneven flooding would (and
did) produce a loss of stability.
28 July 1945:
Again bombed during heavy air raid on Kure
from TF 38. Although suffered only one, possibly two, further direct hits, many
near-misses to port opened plating and accelerated progressive flooding. One
bomb observed as a direct hit on the flight deck near the port deck edge
opposite the No.2 stack. Since the ship had been abandoned, no real details are
known, but the damage from this and a fullisade of near-misses to port exaberate
the progressive flooding already in progress. The AMAGI begins to list more
notably to port, and as she heels water enters the gashes torn in the hull
above the waterline by the fragments of exploding bombs alongside. Though a
small fire-fighting crew from Kure
Navy Yard is aboard, they report that progressive flooding has spread over the
third deck. Ship made further unstable by the weight of water poured into
hangar by fire fighters.
29 July 1945:
Listing increased through the night and by morning AMAGI's bow was nosing
under. At 1000 hours she lurched sharply to port, and capsized, toppling over
to an angle of 70 degrees. The bulk of the ruined flight deck and the two
elevators fell overboard when she did. She grounded with bow submerged and
flight deck canted slanting into the water, starboard screws exposed.
Casualties in the two days of action are unknown, but said to be light.
13 October 1945:
At time of Kure
inspection hand-over, AMAGI has only 1 officer and 4 petty officers and men
still assigned as caretaker crew.
28 November:
AMAGI wreck boarded and inspected by NavTech teams.
30 November 1945:
Removed from Navy List.
16 February 1946:
Raising and scrapping authorized.
13 November 1946:
Righting operations on AMAGI hulk commence.
5 December 1946:
Afloat again, AMAGI docked and scrapping commences.
12 December 1947:
Scrapping completed.
Note: Many accounts incorrectly state that Amagi was
sunk on 24 July 1945;
however, 28 July found her still upright with only a slight list to port. The
fatal damage apparently came from the near-misses of 28 July further
waterlogging the ship and adding water to spaces remaining unflooded on 24 July
. Given the lack of list in the days following the first attack, and the
quickened pace of listing in the evening of the 28th, the best available
evidence indicates that the attacks of the 28th, not the 24th, were the fatal
ones, and not redundant as sometimes alleged.
Remarks:
Last Japanese fleet carrier sunk in the Pacific War.
Acknowledgements: Special thanks go to Bill Somerville for correspondence
that helped make sense of the locations of the Amagi in the 1945 period.
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