On completion,
Ayanami, along with her
sister ships, , , and , were assigned to Destroyer Division 19 under the
IJN 2nd Fleet. During the
Second Sino-Japanese War, from 1937,
Ayanami covered landing of Japanese forces in
Shanghai and
Hangzhou. From 1940, she was assigned to patrol and covered landings of Japanese forces in south China. At the time of the
attack on Pearl Harbor,
Ayanami was assigned to Destroyer Division 19 of Desron 3 of the
IJN 1st Fleet, and had deployed from
Kure Naval District to the port of Samah on
Hainan Island, escorting Japanese troopships for
landing operations in the
Battle of Malaya. On 19 December,
Ayanami sank the
Dutch submarine with assistance from her sister ships
Uranami and and rescued 32 survivors.
Ayanami subsequently was part of the escort for the
heavy cruisers , , and in support of
"Operation L" (the invasion of
Banka,
Palembang and the
Anambas Islands in the
Netherlands East Indies), taking minor damage after striking a reef in the Anambas, necessitating a return to
Camranh Bay,
French Indochina for emergency repairs. At the end of February,
Ayanami went to the assistance of , which had run aground off
Saigon as well. In March,
Ayanami was assigned to
"Operation T" (the invasion of northern
Sumatra) and
"Operation D", (the invasion of the
Andaman Islands). She served patrol and escort duties out of
Port Blair during the
Japanese raids into the
Indian Ocean. On 13–22 April she returned via
Singapore and Camranh Bay to
Kure Naval Arsenal, for maintenance. On 4–5 June,
Ayanami participated in the
Battle of Midway as part of Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto's main fleet.
Ayanami sailed from
Amami-Ōshima to
Mako Guard District, Singapore,
Sabang and
Mergui for a projected second Indian Ocean raid. The operation was cancelled due to the
Guadalcanal campaign, and
Ayanami was ordered to
Truk instead, arriving in late August. During the
Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August
Ayanami escorted the fleet supply group to
Guadalcanal. She was assigned to numerous "
Tokyo Express" transport missions to various locations in the
Solomon Islands in October and November.
Ayanami's final mission, on November 14–15, 1942, was that of the
Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, where she was conducting transport runs. On 15 December 1942,
Ayanami was removed from the
navy list. ==The wreck==