Qualla: Battle of the Malacca Strait

Battle of the Malacca Strait: Introduction

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map, CC BY-SA 3.0. The torpedo control officer aboard HMS Venus had the shot. It was 01:05 on 16 May 1945, and the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro was racing past at close range through the rain-lashed darkness of the Malacca Strait. Eight torpedo tubes were trained on the target. But the angle settings were wrong -- every one of them. Venus heeled hard to port, the opportunity gone. What happened next, though, turned a botched attack into a masterpiece of naval tactics. Haguro, believing torpedoes were in the water, turned south to evade them -- and drove herself deeper into the trap that five British destroyers had spent all night preparing.

Image: Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of the Malacca Strait: A Cruiser Running Errands

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the spring of 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was a shadow of its former strength, and its remaining warships had been reduced to unglamorous roles. Haguro, a Myoko-class heavy cruiser armed with 200mm guns and capable of 36 knots, had been operating as a supply ship since Ap...

Image: Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of the Malacca Strait: Two Attempts Through the Strait

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Royal Navy official photographer, Public domain. On 9 May, Haguro left Singapore escorted by the destroyer Kamikaze. The Royal Navy dispatched Force 61 from Trincomalee to intercept. But the Japanese received an air reconnaissance warning and turned back before the trap could close. Five days later, on 14 May, Haguro and Kamika...

Image: Royal Navy official photographer | Public domain

Battle of the Malacca Strait: Lightning and Radar

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map, CC BY-SA 3.0. The night of 15-16 May brought heavy rain squalls and lightning -- conditions that favored radar-equipped ships over those relying on visual lookouts. Venus picked up Haguro on radar at 34 nautical miles and the five destroyers arranged themselves in a crescent cordon, a net draw...

Image: Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of the Malacca Strait: The Kill

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map, CC BY-SA 3.0. What followed was violent and fast. Kamikaze appeared off Saumarez's starboard bow at just 3,000 yards, nearly on a collision course. Saumarez's forward guns struck the Japanese destroyer with their second salvo, and 40mm Bofors shells raked her 320-foot length as the British shi...

Image: Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of the Malacca Strait: The Wreck and Its Fate

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map, CC BY-SA 3.0. Haguro settled on the seabed of the Malacca Strait at a depth accessible to salvage divers. For decades she lay undisturbed, a war grave holding the remains of the sailors who went down with her. In 2010, a British-led expedition surveyed the wreck and documented its condition. B...

Image: Derives from png uploaded by User:Wolrd blank map | CC BY-SA 3.0