Japanese Battleship Nagato - World War II

World War II

At the outbreak of the Pacific war, the Nagato was flagship for the Combined Fleet. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto issued the signal "Niitaka yama nobore" (Climb Mount Niitaka) December 2, 1941 from the Nagato at anchor at Hashirajima to signal the Carrier Strike Force in the North Pacific to proceed in its attack on Pearl Harbor, committing Japan to the Pacific War. On December 7, she sortied for the Bonin Islands, (known in Japan as the Ogasawara Group) as flagship of the battle fleet, along with her sister ship Mutsu of Battle Division 1 and Hyūga and Ise of Battle Division 3. The force returned to the Combined Fleet's anchorage at Hashirajima on December 12, 1941 and remained there until a March 4 raid against the Japanese base on Marcus Island (Minami Tori Shima), 1,200 miles off the coast of Japan, by Halsey and his Task Force 16 caused the IJN to sortie out in search of the American raiders. Halsey had steamed away at high speed once he recovered his aircraft and the Japanese were unable to make contact. April saw Halsey return, this time steaming within 650 miles of the Japanese home islands along with the Hornet of Task Force 18 to launch the Doolittle Raid. Once again Nagato and the elements of Combined Fleet sortied in chase, but Halsey and his group slipped away before the IJN could engage him.

In May 1942 Nagato conducted gunnery practice along with Mutsu, Yamashiro, and the Hyūga. A deadly gun turret explosion on Hyūga caused the battleship group to return early to Hashirajima.

In June 1942 Nagato sailed with Admiral Yamamoto's Main Body during the Battle of Midway, along with Yamato, Mutsu, Hosho, Sendai, nine destroyers and four auxiliary ships. Following the disastrous events to the Japanese carrier force on June 4, Admiral Yamamoto attempted to lure the American forces west to within range of the Japanese air groups at the Wake Island base, and into a night engagement with his surface forces, but the American forces withdrew and Nagato saw no action. Following the link up with cruisers Nagara, Tone, Chikuma, battleships Haruna and Kirishima and the screening destroyers that were all that remained from the Mobile Force, survivors from the aircraft carrier Kaga were transferred to Nagato for the rest of the trip back to Japan.

1943 saw an intensification of the fighting in the South Pacific, and the Central Pacific came under threat. In August 1943 Nagato, along with Yamato and the majority of the Combined Fleet sailed for Truk in the Caroline Islands where she was stationed to be in position to respond to allied threats in the Central Pacific. With the September 18, 1943 Task Force 15 raid of Tarawa led by Admiral Charles Pownall, the fleet sortied for Eniwetok. They returned to Truk on September 23, having failed to engage the American Task Force. Task Force 14's attack of the Japanese base on Wake Island resulted in another attempt by the Japanese to engage the American forces, and Nagato and the bulk of the fleet sortied out from Truk on October 17, 1943 to meet them, but they failed to make contact.

After the evacuation of Truk in February 1944, she was based at Lingga near Singapore until the fleet sortied again in June 1944 for the disastrous Battle of the Philippine Sea. Four months later she sortied from Brunei Bay as a part of Admiral Kurita's Center Force in the desperate Battle of Leyte Gulf, which spelled an end to the Japanese Navy as an effective fighting force.