World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseMatsu was the lead ship of her class of destroyers. She was commissioned in 1944 with Lieutenant Commander Tsuneo Yonei in command as a member of Destroyer Squadron 11 of the Combined Fleet. After training missions, she was assigned to Lieutenant Commander Gen Yoshinaga on 1 Jun. On 15 Jul, she was assigned to the Destroyer Division 43 of Destroyer Squadron 11. On 29 Jul, she departed from Tateyama, Chiba, Japan as the flagship of Rear Admiral Ichimatsu Takahashi of the 2nd Convoy Escort Group, which contained all of Destroyer Squadron 11's ships. This group escorted Convoy No. 4804 to Chichi Jima, arriving on 1 Aug. On 4 Aug, she led the escorting warships back toward Japan. The group of warships was spotted by an American search plane of Task Group 58.1, and a carrier air strike soon followed. Matsu was struck by a torpedo launched from a TBF Avenger aircraft, slowing her down. American destroyers arrived on the scene shortly after, with USS Cogswell, USS Ingersoll, and USS Knapp firing on Matsu, outgunning Matsu 15 to 3. Furthermore, Matsu's weaponry, completely specialized for anti-aircraft purpose, were completely open, thus the gun crews were quickly cut down by the high explosive shells from the American ships, significantly decreasing her ability to fight back. She was eventually sunk about 81 kilometers northwest of Chichi Jima with only six survivors. Both Lieutenant Commander Yoshinaga and Rear Admiral Takahashi were killed.

Matsu Operational Timeline

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