IJN Hidoiame

IJN Hidoiame
Taylor Anderson's Hidoiaime is a fictional Japanese Kagero Class Destroyer. She weighs 2,500 tons, is 388 feet long with a beam of 35 feet with a top speed of 35 knots, and are crewed with 240 officers and men. Her armaments are 6 x Type-3 127 mm guns (5.18 inch) guns, 28 x Type-96 25 mm (1 inch) AA Guns, and 4 x 24 inch torpedo tubes. More information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kager%C5%8D-class_destroyer

The IJN Hidoiame is a Kagero-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. As WWII progressed the armament of the Hidoiame was changed and augmented to the configuration seen in the box to the left, decreasing the number of 5" .50s and increasing the number of 25mm AAs. Her anti-submarine warfare suite was also updated with improved sonar and depth charges. This gave her the best protection against submarine and air attack.

While escorting the Mizuki Maru, a "Hell Ship" transporting allied prisoners of war, and a tanker to Yokohama, Japan she crossed into the alternate world of the Grik and Lemurians. The three ships arrived on what would be mainland Japan near the Lemurian village of Ani-aaki. At Ani-aaki the Japanese began looting the village of food and supplies. The captain of the Hidoiame, Captain Kurita, asked the cook of the Muzuki Maru if he would cook the POWs on the Mizuki Maru to feed the crew of the three ships and remaining POWs. When the cook refused, Kurita had all the POWs executed to eliminate "useless mouths." Approximately 500 prisoners were machine gunned along with villagers of Ani-aaki who had fought back against the Japanese, while the remainder fled into the jungle, along with the cook of Mizuki Maru. Kurita had the remaining crew of Mizuki Maru transferred to the Hidoiame and the tanker and sailed away. Before leaving Ani-aaki was put to the torch, and Mizuki Maru abandoned.

Search for the Hidoiame
NOTE: This section contains spoilers from Iron Gray Sea (Book 7)

Fearing the damage that the Hidoiame could wreck on coastal settlements and Lemurian vessels at sea, seeking to keep her stores replenished, as well as seeking revenge for what Kurita and his crew did to the POWs under thier guard, The Grand Alliance (American/Lemurian Alliance) sought to seek out and destroy the Hidoiame. "Lord" Commander Sato Okada, formerly of the HIMS Amagi, volunteered to man the Mizuki Maru and sink the Hidoiame. Okada served as the Seii Taishogun ("great general who subdues eastern barbarians") of the Shogunate of Yokohama, Jaapan. As Seii Taishogun, Okada served as protector of Ani-aaki; therefore, he felt it his duty to avenge the villagers killed under his protection, as well as avenge the POWs killed by his countrymen. Pretending to be the Junyo Maru, Okada contacted Kurita on the Hidoiame and arranged to meet near where Sapporo would be, on the island of Hokkaido.

On February 2, 1944 the Mizuki Maru (crewed by Japanese and Lemurian "Samurai" and American Navy Lemurians) engaged the Hidoiame. Following a short battle, where both sides exchanged naval gunfire, the Hidoiame fired two of her irreplaceable torpedos. The first missed the Mizuki Maru; however, the second impacted. Okada sent a prearranged signal letter, "G", signaling that the Mizuki Maru was sunk and the Hidoiame was still afloat.

Following the engagement with the Mizuki Maru the Hidoiame went on to sink two Lemurian feluccas and a frigate of the Grand Alliance. With the threat of the Hidoiame still afloat, Capt. Reddy left with the USS Walker to eliminate her. Using air reconnaissance Reddy hoped to ambush the Hidoiame in the Formosa Strait.

Battle of the Formosa Strait
NOTE: This section contains spoilers from Iron Gray Sea (Book 7)

March 25th, 1944 At approximately 12:40 hrs the lookout aboard the USS Walker spotted the Hidoiame and her tanker off of Formosa. Capt. Reddy on the Walker radioed the Hidoiame and her tanker asking for the crew to surrender their officers and ships. If they complied they would be given a fair trial for the murders committed at Ani-aaki. Those found innocent would be allowed to settle on mainland Japan, under the governance of those Japanese who defected from the Amagi. Immediately after this transmission, at 13:16hrs, the Hidoiame opened fire on the USS Walker, with no effect. The Walker opened fire at 13:21hrs, focusing on the tanker; with the hope they would strike their colors and surrender. At 13:49 the crew of the tanker began frantically calling the Walker, begging her to cease fire seconds before she exploded (her cargo of fuel igniting).

At this point the Walker began firing on the Hidoiame, who had been engaging the Walker the entire time. the battle closed to a distance of 6,000 yards. During this engagement both the Walker and the Hidoiame were severely damaged. The Hidoiame broke off the engagement and steamed away trailing black smoke. Capt. Reddy was injured during the engagement, leaving the command of the Walker to his executive officer, Commander Brad "Spanky" McFarlane. Under McFarlane's command the Walker broke off the engagement, leaving the Hidoiame trailing smoke, almost out of ammunition, and thought sinking.

Originally It was presumed the Hidoiame succumbed to her injuries and sank following the Battle of the Formosa Strait.

Battle of the "Hoo-dooy-yammy"
NOTE: This section contains spoilers from Storm Surge (Book 8)

May 6, 1944

Later, an expedition known as "The Corps of Discovery," led by Dennis Silva, scouted for Grik tribes in Norther Borneo. Once contact was made with the tribe, they revealed that the Hidoiame, or "Hoo-dooy-yammy" as Silva called it, was alive but damaged and in refuge at a naturally made inlet. On further investigation it was discovered that the crew of the Hidoiame had captured the Home Fristar and was using the Lemurian crew as slave labor to repair the damages done to it by the Walker. Denis, his expedition, and newly befriended Grik and Human allies, the Khonashi assaulted the inlet under the cover of darkness and released the Fristar and captured the Hidoiame. Unfortunately during the confusion the now freely floating and unmanned Fristar collided with the Hidoiame, and due to the Fristar size, mostly crushed it. However, several guns, artillery and handheld, and valuable materials were recovered from the wreckage. What remained of the Hidoiame was scrapped and used by the Grand Alliance. Captain Kurita and his officers and men who survive the battle are captured. In Straits of Hell we learn Capt. Kurita and his guilty officers were hung, and the other Japanese held as POWs in Baalkpan.

First Appearance

 * Firestorm (Book 6)

Other Appearances

 * Iron Gray Sea (Book 7)

HIMS Hidoiame's Original Timeline
It is difficult to write a history of the HIMS Hidoiame's original timeline, as there isn't one. The Kagero-class destroyers (Destroyer Type A) consisted of 19 ships, although none were named Hidoiame. In fact there was no ship name Hidoiame in the Imperial Japanese navy. On the roster of Kagero-class destroyers, however, there were three ships never built, ship numbers 32-34. The places these ships filled served as the dummy budget for the building of the Yamato-class battleships. Of the 19 ships built, all had names refering to weather and/or sea conditions (e.g. Kagero means Heat Waves, Shiranui means Phosphorescent Foam, Kuroshio means Black Tide, three ships ended in Shio meaning Tide, ten ships ended in Kaze meaning Wind, etc.). Given the Hidoiame's name translates to Hidoi Ame or Harsh Rain it fits the naming convention, and the author describes her as the "twentieth, and last, of the Kagero class" he most likely intended the Hidioame to be one of the three dummy ships; in the same manner he used decommissioned or unfinished ships previously, such as the USS Walker, USS Mahan, and IJN Amagi.

Author Taylor Anderson gives his reason for made up ships thus on his Discussion Blog http://www.taylorandersonauthor.com/blog/discussions/ On January 06, 2015 he wrote :

"... I would personally prefer to “add” a destroyer to the list of those involved for the same reason that I have always used ships with no wartime record: Any ship actually there would have had an actual CREW of real people, and I would–personally–feel uncomfortable with shanghaiing their lives, so to speak.  I’ve come close a time or two, in a manner of speaking, with Santa Catalina (Blackhawk) and Amerika, both of which DID have “post divergence” records, but the way I used them, they are NOT the same ship.  I may even IMPLY that some . . . mysterious ship could be a well-known one, leaving it to the imagination of the reader to decide, but that’s as far as I’ll go.  Even Surcouf is an analog.  They CALL it Surcouf, because that’s what she looked like, but . . . wherever she came from, either that was not her name, or she was one of the other planned vessels of the same design.  This is a rule I’ve always tried to keep, and I mean to continue doing so in this series. Maybe it’s because I grew up with so many veterans of WW2 and the inter-war years. I have known too many of them to change their service records.