Japanese destroyer Asashimo
Asashimo on 27 November 1943.
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| History | |
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 Empire of Japan
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| Name: | Asashimo |
| Completed: | 27 November 1943 |
| Struck: | 10 May 1945 |
| Fate: | Sunk in action, 7 April 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Yūgumo-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 2520 tons |
| Length: | 119.15 m (390.9 ft) |
| Beam: | 10.8 m (35 ft) |
| Draught: | 3.75 m (12.3 ft) |
| Speed: | 35 kn (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
| Complement: | 228 |
| Armament: |
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Asashimo (朝霜?, "Morning Frost") was a Yūgumo-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was among the several ship sunk during Operation Ten-Go by attacking US aircraft in 1945.
On 29 February 1944, while escorting a large convoy en route to Truk, Asashimo detected the submarine USS Rock making a night surface approach on the convoy. Rock fired a spread of four torpedoes from her stern tubes at the closing Asashimo without scoring a hit. Illuminated by the destroyer's searchlight, and under fire from the ship's 5-inch (130 mm) guns, Rock dived. For four hours Asashimo continued depth charge attacks, without success. That night Rock surfaced and found that her periscopes were excessively damaged and that her bridge had been riddled with shrapnel. The damage necessitated a return to Pearl Harbor for repairs. Later that night, the busy Asashimo sank the submarine USS Trout. Japanese records indicate that one of their convoys, Matsu No. 1, was attacked by a submarine on 29 February 1944 in the patrol area assigned to Trout. Carrying the 29th Infantry Division of the Kwantung Army from Manchuria to Guam, Matsu No. 1 consisted of four large transports escorted by three Yūgumo-class destroyers of Destroyer Division 31: Asashimo, Kishinami, and Okinami. The submarine badly damaged one large passenger-cargo ship and sank the 7,126-ton transport Sakito Maru. About 2,200 of the 3,500 men aboard the Sakito Maru died, which included a large portion of the 18th Infantry Regiment.Asashimo detected the submarine and dropped 19 depth charges. Oil and debris came to the surface and the destroyer dropped a final depth charge on that spot. The submarine was using Mk. XVIII electric torpedoes, and it was also possible that one of those had made a circular run and sunk the boat, as happened with USS Tang.
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