Fate
In May 1945, Haguro was the target of the British "Operation Dukedom" and was ambushed. The 26th Destroyer Flotilla found her with the destroyer Kamikaze just after midnight on May 16, 1945, and began the attack. During the battle, the Kamikaze was lightly damaged, but Haguro was hit by gunfire and three Mark IX Torpedoes. The Haguro soon began to slow down and took a 30-degrees list to port.
At 2:32 AM the Haguro began to go down stern first in the Malacca Strait, 55 miles (89 km) off Penang; Kamikaze rescued 320 survivors, but nine hundred men– including Vice Admiral Hashimoto and Rear Admiral Sugiura–perished with her. Rear Admiral Sugiura was later promoted to Vice Admiral posthumously on May 16. The battle was the last gun action ever fought between surface ships.
Haguro was stricken from the navy list on June 20, 1945.
The wreck was discovered in 2003, showing significant superstructure damage from her last and earlier battles.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Cruiser Haguro
Famous quotes containing the word fate:
“Ev’n thou who mourn’st the Daisy’s fate,
That fate is thine—no distant date;
Stern Ruin’s ploughshare drives , elate,
Full on thy bloom,
Till crush’d beneath the furrow’s weight,
Shall be thy doom.”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls,—the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot- box once a year, but on what kind of a man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“‘Tis weak and vicious people who cast the blame on Fate. The right use of Fate is to bring up our conduct to the loftiness of nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)