Japanese cruiser Kuma
Encyclopedia
was a Kuma-class
Kuma class cruiser
-See also:*List of World War II ships...

 light cruiser
Light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...

 in the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

, named after the Kuma River
Kuma River (Japan)
is a river in Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyūshū, Japan. It is 115 km long and has a drainage area of 1,880 km².It is considered to be one of the three most rapid rivers of Japan ....

 in Kumamoto prefecture
Kumamoto Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyushu Island. The capital is the city of Kumamoto.- History :Historically the area was called Higo Province; and the province was renamed Kumamoto during the Meiji Restoration. The creation of prefectures was part of the abolition of the feudal system...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Background

Kuma was the lead ship
Lead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...

 of the five vessels in the Kuma-class of light cruisers and was intended for use both as a long-range, high speed scout ship, and also as a command vessel for destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

 or submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 flotillas.

Early career

Kuma was completed at the Sasebo Navy Yard on 31 August 1920. Immediately after commissioning, Kuma was assigned to cover the landings of Japanese troops in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

 during Japan's Siberian Intervention
Siberian Intervention
The ', or the Siberian Expedition, of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by the western powers and Japan to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War...

 against the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

 Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. It was subsequently based at Port Arthur, and patrolled the China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 coast between the Kwantung Leased Territory
Kwantung Leased Territory
The Kwantung Leased Territory was a territory in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula in Inner Manchuria that existed from 1898 to 1945. It was one of the numerous territorial concessions that the Empire of China was compelled to award to foreign countries at the end of the 19th century...

 and Tsingtao, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.

As the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

 began to escalate, Kuma patrolled the China coast, and covered the landings of Japanese forces in central China.

Invasion of the Philippines

On 10 April 1941, Kuma was assigned to Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...

 Ibo Takahashi
Ibo Takahashi
- Books :...

's CruDiv 16 in the Japanese 3rd Fleet. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

 on 8 December 1941, Kuma was participating in the invasion of the northern Philippines, having departed from its base in Mako
Makung
Makung is the county seat of Penghu, in Taiwan Province, Taiwan . Makung is on the western part of the main Penghu Island....

, Pescadores Islands with the Ashigara
Japanese cruiser Ashigara
Ashigara was a Myōkō class heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The other ships of her class were Myōkō , Nachi , and Haguro...

, Maya
Japanese cruiser Maya
was one of four Takao-class heavy cruisers, designed to be an improvement over the previous Myōkō-class design. These ships were fast, powerful and heavily armed, with enough firepower to hold their own against any cruiser in any other navy in the world...

 and destroyers Asakaze and Matsukaze
Japanese destroyer Matsukaze (1923)
was one of nine Kamikaze-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I. Advanced for their time, these ships served as first-line destroyers through the 1930s, but were considered obsolescent by the start of the Pacific War....

. From 10 December - 11 December, Kuma covered landings at Aparri and Vigan; off Vigan, Kuma was attacked unsuccessfully by five USAAF
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....

 Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the 14th Squadron. On 22 December, Kuma covered further landings at Lingayen Gulf
Lingayen Gulf
The Lingayen Gulf is an extension of the South China Sea on Luzon in the Philippines stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central...

, Philippines.

On 3 January 1942, Kuma was re-assigned to Vice Admiral Rokuzo Sugiyama's Third Southern Expeditionary Fleet. It was assigned to patrols around the Philippine islands from 10 January to 27 February 1942.

In March, Kuma was assigned to cover the invasion of the southern Philippines, shelling Cebu
Cebu
Cebu is a province in the Philippines, consisting of Cebu Island and 167 surrounding islands. It is located to the east of Negros, to the west of Leyte and Bohol islands...

 harbor on 1 March, and covering the landings at Zamboanga
Zamboanga City
The City of Zamboanga : is a highly urbanized, independent and a chartered city located in Mindanao, Philippines....

, Mindanao
Mindanao
Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...

 on 3 March. A Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF) from Kuma rescued about 80 Japanese nationals who had been interned.

On 9 April 1942, off Cebu, Kuma and the torpedo boat
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...

 Kiji
Hayabusa class torpedo boat
The Hayabusa-class torpedo boats were constructed for the Imperial Japanese Navy as part of the ten-year naval expansion program. They were completed between 1900 and 1904....

 were attacked by U.S. torpedo boats PT-34 and PT-41. Kuma was hit in the bow by one of eight Mark 18 Torpedo
Mark 18 torpedo
The Mark 18 torpedo was an electric torpedo used by the US Navy during World War II.The Mark 18 was built in competition to the Bureau of Ordnance electric torpedoes, which had been in development at the Newport Torpedo Station , Newport, Rhode Island, since the 1920s, in particular the Mark II,...

es fired, but it was a dud. The PT-34 was destroyed by Mitsubishi F1M
Mitsubishi F1M
-See also:-Bibliography:* Francillon, R.J. Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War. London:Putnam, 1970. ISBN 370 00033 1.* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Six: Floatplanes. London: Macdonald & Co., Ltd., 1962....

 "Petes" launched from the seaplane tender Sanuki Maru.

On 10 April, Kuma covered landings on Cebu by the Kawaguchi Detachment's 35th Infantry Brigade HQ and the 124th Infantry Regiment, and on 16 April landings on Panay
Panay
Panay may refer to*Panay Island*Panay *Panay, Capiz*Panay River*Panay Gulf* USS Panay *Panay incident...

 by the Kawamura Detachment's 9th Infantry Brigade HQ and the 41st Infantry Regiment. On 6 May, Kuma covered the final assault on the American bastion on Corregidor
Corregidor
Corregidor Island, locally called Isla ng Corregidor, is a lofty island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in southwestern part of Luzon Island in the Philippines. Due to this location, Corregidor was fortified with several coastal artillery and ammunition magazines to defend the entrance of...

 Island in Manila Bay
Manila Bay
Manila Bay is a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila , in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world...

. Afterwards, Kuma remained on patrol at Manila until 12 August 1942.

Dutch East Indies and New Guinea campaigns

After a refit at Kure Naval Arsenal
Kure Naval Arsenal
was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. -History:The Kure Naval District was established at Kure, Hiroshima in 1889, as the second of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the Japanese home islands along with the establishment of the...

 in September, the Kuma returned to Manila on 20 September 1942 and was reassigned to Vice Admiral Shiro Takasu
Shirō Takasu
Admiral was a career naval officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.-Biography:Takasu was a native of Sakuragawa Village, , and graduated from the 35th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, where his classmates included future admirals Nobutake Kondō and Naokuni Nomura...

's Second Southern Expeditionary Fleet (Netherlands East Indies Force). It was sent to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 to embark troops of the 38th Infantry Division, which it disembarked at Rabaul
Rabaul
Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the...

, New Britain
New Britain
New Britain, or Niu Briten, is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from the island of New Guinea by the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits and from New Ireland by St. George's Channel...

 on 10 October. Kuma then proceeded to Makassar
Makassar
Makassar, is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the largest city on Sulawesi Island. From 1971 to 1999, the city was named Ujung Pandang, after a precolonial fort in the city, and the two names are often used interchangeably...

, Celebes
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...

 where it began patrols until 13 April 1943, with occasional embarkation of reinforcements for Rabaul, Kaimana
Kaimana
Kaimana is a small port town in West Papua, Indonesia and capital of the Kaimana Regency.It is served by Kaimana Airport. Kaimana is part of a Sea Conservation Area in West Papua.Butterflies in the surrounding forest of Karora are reported to be on the brink of extinction due to logging in the...

, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

 and Kabui, New Guinea.

From late April though the end of May 1943, the Kuma was refitted at the Seletar Naval Base
Seletar
Seletar is an area of Singapore within its North-East Region. Seletar commonly refers to the areas south of Yishun and west of Sungei Punggol, covering Yio Chu Kang near Jalan Kayu , the Lower Seletar Reservoir and part of Upper Thomson .The Seletar Planning Area, an urban planning zone under the...

 Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, and afterwards resumed patrols around the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

 to 23 June.

On 23 June 1943, while at Makassar with CruDiv 16's Kinu
Japanese cruiser Kinu
was a Nagara-class light cruiser in the Imperial Japanese Navy, named after the Kinu River in Tochigi prefecture Japan.-Background:Kinu was the fifth vessel completed in the Nagara-class of light cruisers, and like other vessels of her class, she was intended for use as the flagship of a destroyer...

, Oi
Japanese cruiser Oi
was the fourth of five Kuma-class light cruisers, which served in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She was named after the Oi River in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan.-Background:...

, and Kitakami
Japanese cruiser Kitakami
was a Kuma class cruiser in the Imperial Japanese Navy, named after the Kitakami River in Iwate Prefecture, Japan.-Background:Kitakami was the third of five vessels completed in the Kuma-class of light cruisers...

, Kuma was attacked by 17 Consolidated Aircraft
Consolidated Aircraft
The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Reuben H. Fleet, the result of the Gallaudet Aircraft Company's liquidation and Fleet's purchase of designs from the Dayton-Wright Company as the subsidiary was being closed by its parent corporation, General Motors. Consolidated became...

 B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...

 bombers of the 319th Squadron/90th Bomb Group (H) of the 5th Air Force. All four light cruisers were straddled by near-misses, but suffered only slight damage.

On 24 June 1943, CruDiv 16's flag was transferred from Kinu to Kuma. Both cruisers then departed Makassar for patrols around the Dutch East Indies until 23 October. From 1 November, Kuma was refit in Singapore. Its No. 5 140-mm gun was removed as were her catapult and derrick. Two triple mount Type 96 25-mm AA guns were fitted. This brought the total number of Kuma's 25-mm AA guns to ten barrels (2x3, 2x2). Refit was completed by 12 November, and patrols/transport runs around the Dutch East Indies resumed, extending occasionally to Port Blair
Port Blair
Port Blair is the largest town and a municipal council in Andaman district in the Andaman Islands and the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India...

, Andaman Islands
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...

, Penang
Penang
Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...

, Mergui
Mergui
Myeik is a city in Tanintharyi Division in Myanmar , located in the extreme south of the country on the coast of an island on the Andaman Sea. the estimated population was over 209,000. The area inland from the city is a major smuggling corridor into Thailand.-History:Myeik was the southernmost...

, Burma through 9 January 1944.

On 11 January 1944, after departing from Penang with the Uranami
Japanese destroyer Uranami
was the tenth of twenty-four destroyers, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I. When introduced into service, these ships were the most powerful destroyers in the world...

 on anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....

 exercises, Kuma was sighted by Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 submarine HMS Tally-Ho
HMS Tally-Ho (P317)
HMS Tally-Ho was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P317 by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow, and John Brown & Company, Clydebank, and launched on 23 December 1942. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Tally-Ho, probably after Tally-ho,...

 based at Trincomalee
Trincomalee
Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...

, Ceylon. At 10 miles (16.1 km) northwest of Penang, the HMS Tally-Ho fired a seven-torpedo salvo from 1,900 yards. Kuma's lookouts spotted the torpedoes' wakes, and although the rudder was sent hard over, Kuma was hit starboard aft by two torpedoes, setting the ship on fire. Kuma sank by the stern in the vicinity of 05°26′N 99°52′E detonating her own depth-charges. Uranami took on Kuma's survivors including Captain Sugino, but 138 crewmen perished with the ship.

Kuma was removed from the navy list
Navy List
A Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a country....

on 10 March 1944.

The Wreck

Kumas wreck was discovered in March 2004 by Australian diver & photojournalist Kevin Denlay and a group of divers operating off the research vessel Empress, based out of Singapore. The ship lies on her starboard side in 155 feet (47.2 m) of water, covered in fishing nets and snagged fishing line. The bridge structure is fairly intact, although half-buried in bottom silt, and her funnels have fallen off. The port side waist 5.5-inch gun is intact, save for the top of the mount enclosure, which has disintegrated. The circular rotating base of the forward port torpedo rack is intact, but there are no torpedo tubes mounted on it. The aft mount of the same structure has fallen off. The glass in many of the portholes have been melted and fused due to the fire that raged amidship while the vessel was sinking. The ship's stern is missing completely; all that remains is a jagged edge, but the outboard port propeller is still in place.

External links

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