Description

The Fubuki type destroyer (known as the Toku-gata, or Special Type, in Japanese naval parlance) was revolutionary in naval design, given its greater size and armament versus other navies’ destroyers at the time of its introduction in 1929. The design packaged three twin 5 inch mounts in enclosed turrets, a heavy battery of nine 24” torpedoes with reloads, long range and a high speed in a powerful package whose destructive broadside outmatched anything comparable, including most navies’ light cruisers. Ayanami (pronounced Aay-ah-nom-me) was the lead ship of the ten units that comprised the second group of this design, referred to as the Type IIs. She was laid down on January 2, 1928 at the Fujinagata Shipyards in Osaka, Japan and commissioned on April 30, 1930. As with others of her class, Ayanami underwent modernization in the mid 1930s. She had an active and notable war record in Chinese waters in the late 1930s, and then in the South Pacific until sunk at the 2nd Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on the night of November 15th, 1942.