Nagato-class Battleship

Nagato-class Battleship

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This article refers to the entire Nagato-class; it is not about an individual vessel.

ww2dbaseThe Nagato-class battleships were designed by Japanese Navy Captain Hiraga Yuzuru, thus they were the first Japanese battleships to be designed domestically. They were also the first battleships in the world to mount 410-milimeter guns, making Nagato and Mutsu the most powerful warships of the early 1920s. At the onset of the Pacific War, despite being aged, Nagato was the flagship of the Combined Fleet, aboard which Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto oversaw the Pearl Harbor attack.

Last Major Revision: Jan 2009

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Nagato-class Battleship Operational Timeline

15 Nov 1920	Nagato was commissioned into service.
24 Oct 1921	Mutsu was assigned to the Sasebo Naval District, Japan.
12 Apr 1922	Mutsu hosted the Prince of Wales and his aide Lieutenant Louis Mountbatten.
28 Aug 1922	Mutsu and other ships of Japanese Navy Battleship Division 1 participated on a parade of force along the eastern coast of Russia.
1 Sep 1923	Mutsu transported food and medical supplies for victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake.
20 Oct 1927	Mutsu was Emperor Showa's flagship during the annual Japanese Naval Review.
29 Mar 1929	Mutsu was assigned to Japanese Navy Battleship Division 3.
1 Dec 1932	Mutsu was assigned to Japanese Navy Battleship Division 1.
1 Jun 1934	Mutsu was assigned to the Yokosuka Naval District, Japan.
5 Sep 1934	Mutsu entered Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan for a reconstruction.
30 Sep 1936	Mutsu completed her reconstruction at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan.
1 Dec 1936	Mutsu was assigned to Japanese Navy Battleship Division 1.
11 Aug 1937	Mutsu departed Sasebo, Japan to patrol the Chinese coast.
20 Aug 1937	Mutsu embarked 2,000 men of the Japanese Army 11th Division.
23 Aug 1937	Mutsu arrived at Shanghai, China and disembarked 2,000 troops of the Japanese Army 11th Division.
24 Aug 1937	Mutsu provided naval gunfire support off Shanghai, China.
15 Nov 1938	Captain Aritomo Goto was named the commanding officer of battleship Mutsu.
1 Nov 1939	Captain Aritomo Goto was relived as the commanding officer of battleship Mutsu.
18 Jan 1942	Mutsu towed the old Italian-built armored cruiser Nisshin as a target ship for battleship Yamato's gunnery trials off Kurahashi Island, Japan.
14 Jun 1942	Mutsu arrived in Japan after the Midway operation.
20 Jun 1942	Captain Teijiro Yamazumi was named the commanding officer of battleship Mutsu.
14 Jul 1942	Mutsu was transferred to Combined Fleet Battleship Division 2.
14 Jul 1942	Nagato was transferred to Combined Fleet Battleship Division 2.
9 Aug 1942	Mutsu was assigned to Japanese Navy Second Fleet.
11 Aug 1942	Mutsu departed Yokosuka, Japan.
20 Aug 1942	Mutsu sortied to hunt for USS Long Island which was delivering aircraft for Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, but failed to make contact.
24 Aug 1942	Mutsu escorted carriers during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons.
9 Sep 1942	Mutsu was assigned to the Guadalcanal Operation Force based at Truk, Caroline Islands.
20 Sep 1942	Some of Mutsu's anti-aircraft personnel were disembarked to train ground-based anti-aircraft personnel at Rabaul, New Britain.
7 Jan 1943	Zuikaku, Mutsu, and Suzuya departed Truk, Caroline Islands, escorted by Yugure, Inazuma, Isonami, Asashio, and Ariake.
12 Jan 1943	Zuikaku, Mutsu, and Suzuya arrived at Kure, Japan, escorted by Yugure, Inazuma, Isonami, Asashio, and Ariake.
10 Mar 1943	Captain Teruhiko Miyoshi was named the commanding officer of battleship Mutsu.
13 Apr 1943	Mutsu arrived at Kure, Japan and took on a full load of ammunition and supplies destined for the Aleutian Islands, but that mission would soon to be canceled.
27 May 1943	Mutsu arrived at Kure, Japan and entered dry dock No. 4 for hull scraping and re-painting.
8 Jun 1943	Mutsu suffered an explosion due to unknown cause at 1213 hours about three kilometers north of Oshima Island in Japan. 1,121 men were killed; several hundred survivors were treated at military hospitals in Japan and then shipped off to various garrisons in order to maintain secrecy of this accidental explosion.
9 Jun 1943	Mutsu sank in the Hashirajima anchorage, Japan at 0200 hours from damage suffered during the explosion on the previous day.
17 Jun 1943	Captain Teruhiko Miyoshi's body was recovered from the wreck of battleship Mutsu in the Hashirajima anchorage, Japan.
6 Jan 1944	The families of the men lost during the 1943 sinking of battleship Mutsu was finally notified; they were not informed that the ship had been destroyed in an accident.
1 Sep 1944	Mutsu was struck from the Japanese Navy list.
18 Jul 1945	American battleships USS North Carolina, USS Alabama, USS Iowa, USS Missouri, and USS Wisconsin and British battleship HMS King George V bombarded Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan with 2,000 shells; the Taga Works and Mito Works of Hitachi Manufacturing Company were moderately damaged, and the Yamate Plant and the copper refining plants of Hitachi Mine were lightly damaged; civilian housing areas were also attacked, causing many deaths. Japanese battleship Nagato was damaged in port at Yokosuka, Japan by aircraft from carrier USS Shangri-La; a Japanese destroyer, a submarine, and three smaller vessels were sunk during the attack on Yokosuka. Aircraft from USS Yorktown struck the Tokyo area. P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang aircraft of US Far East Air Forces attacked various targets on Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, focusing largely on communications lines, bridges, shipping, and population centers.
20 Mar 1970	The Fukada Salvage Company acquired the rights to the wreck of battleship Mutsu.

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Nagato-class Battleship