Hayate, built at the
Ishikawajima Shipyards in Tokyo, was
laid down on 11 November 1922,
launched on 24 March 1925 and completed on 21 December 1925. Originally commissioned simply as
Destroyer No. 13, the ship was assigned the name
Hayate on 1 August 1928.
Pacific War At the time of the
attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941,
Hayate was assigned to Destroyer
Division 29 under Destroyer
Squadron 6 of the
4th Fleet. She
sortied from
Kwajalein on 8 December as part of the
Wake Island invasion force. This consisted of the
light cruisers , , and , the destroyers , , , ,
Hayate, and , After a large explosion aft, she broke in half and sank within two minutes at coordinates , two miles (3 km) southwest of Wake. The location of the explosion makes it probable that the shells struck one of the aft torpedo mounts, or, less likely, the depth charges on the stern. Only one man from the 169 men aboard was rescued. She was the first warship lost by the Japanese during the war. The quick loss of
Hayate and the near misses around his
flagship,
Yūbari, caused Kajioka to order his forces to disengage. ==Notes==