Belatedly, the Imperial General Staff, which set Japanese naval construction and design requirements, authorized new classes of first-class destroyers to augment their capital ships under their “Eight-Eight” program (modified to the “Eight -Four” program) during the latter years of WWI. The new destroyer designs emphasizing greater speed, firepower, range, and quality. Construction of the first units commenced just as the First World War approached its end.

Speed was the major driving consideration as most new capital ships, particularly the battlecruisers, were projected to feature speeds over 30 knots. Almost none of the existing Japanese destroyer designs was up to the task. By the time the Washington Naval Disarmament Conference of 1922 convened, three new, capable classes of destroyer had been completed for the IJN, each an incremental improvement over the proceeding class. The Mutsuki class of twelve ships was the last of these classes. 

In the new class, four, single 12cm/4.7inch gun mounts comprised the main armament, along with three sets of twin 53cm/21inch torpedo tubes. One torpedo mount was set behind the forecastle in a well deck in front of the bridge, the other two placed further aft of the funnels. More powerful, turbine driven engines for higher speed were installed, which also enabled more greater range. When completed, the new Minekazes were considered the equal of foreign contemporary destroyers. 

The second class of new destroyers, the Kamikazes, tweaked the original design with a strengthened bridge structure and a wider bean for greater stability. Some re-arrangement of the deckhouse and main armament occurred as well in the last few units. There were subtle tweaks to the main armament shielding as well.

The Mutsukis, the last class of new destroyers, were tweaked yet again. A new bow form, referred to as a double spooned bow, was incorporated, along with more flare to help with seakeeping. Beam and draft were again slightly enlarged, better to accommodate a new, heavier torpedo armament.

For the first time in a Japanese ship, 61cm/24” torpedoes were installed, in two new triple tube mounts. Reloads for six torpedoes were also provided for. More depth charges were added to the stern. Some ships were equipped with minelaying rails, while others were equipped with minesweeping paravanes. Engine machinery remained the same as the proceeding class with 38,500shp and a top speed of just over 37 knots. Range remained the same, that of 3,600nm at 14 knots.

All class members underwent reconstruction between 1935 and 1937 as a result of issues with structural weaknesses exhibited by some vessels during damaging encounters with typhoons. The hull and bridge were reinforced, and the bridge reduced in width, made more aerodynamic, and given a steel roof. An RDF loop and compartment were added aft. The funnel tops were raked back and the torpedo tube mounts were enclosed by a weather and splinter proof shield. A twin 13mm AA mount aft of number two funnel was added to most units as well. Overall displacement increased, and top speed was reduced to 32.5 knots. A degaussing cable was added to the outside of the hull just prior to the beginning of hostilities in 1941. 

Eventually, new destroyer designs beginning with the succeeding Fubuki type rendered the Minekaze and Kamikaze classes obsolete by the mid-1930s. Most of these ships were subsequently assigned secondary duties. The enlarged and improved torpedo batteries of the Mutsukis were seen as an asset, and these ships were retained as first line ships at the outset of the Pacific war. 

She was assigned to the 23rd Destroyer Division (DesDiv 23), based out of Sasebo. There, Yuzuki joined Kikuzuki (FL), Mikazuki and Mochizuki. These last four sisters differed from the earlier eight Mutsuki ships in that these vessels were equipped with minesweeping equipment composed of two paravanes and a large winch. The earlier vessels carried mine-laying equipment, typified by two sets of parallel tracks set at the stern to carry sixteen mines.

In the mid-1930s, Yuzuki and DesDiv 23 participated in numerous landings and provided fire support during various operations in Chinese coastal waters. In late 1937, she collided with the merchant ship Kinka Maru and returned to Sasebo, Japan. There, she was classified a reserve ship and underwent reconstruction and modernization in the same manner as had her sisterships. Yuzuki was in reserve for approximately two years. 

She returned to duty with DesDiv 23 in very late 1939 and spent the next year training and spending time back in Chinese waters. This included some months as escort to the Second Carrier Division (Hiryu and Soryu) as they conducted operations there. In the early fall of 1941, the division returned to Sasebo for upkeep and refit in preparation for war. 

Still assigned to DesDiv 23 at the outset of the Pacific war, she participated in the invasions of Guam, Kavieng on New Ireland, New Britain, Lae, Salamua, and the Shortland Islands; all by the end of April, 1942. Sprinkled among the invasions were several convoy escort missions performed in conjunction with her division. 

In early May, she and DesDiv 23 participated in the invasion of Tulagi. Sistership Kikuzuki was sunk, and Yuzuki was strafed by aircraft from USS Yorktown. She lost her captain and nine others, with 20 more men wounded and minor damage. With Kikuzuki sunk by Yorktown’s aircraft, she assumed division flagship duties.

Yuzuki returned to Sasebo, Japan via Truk, arriving in late May. While there, DesDiv 23 was disbanded, and Yuzuki assigned to DesDiv 29 as flagship. She joined Kamikaze class sisters Oite, Asanagi and Yunagi. Repairs and refit took two weeks. DesDiv 29 then returned to Truk by the end of June.

The division participated in various duties, such as accompanying airfield construction battalions to Bougainville and Guadalcanal, the invasion of Buna, and the escort of various troop convoys around the Solomon Islands. In mid-August, Yuzuki participated in both reconnaissance and bombardment missions to Guadalcanal. Further escort and patrol missions in the Central Pacific occupied the rest of 1942. 

Yunagi returned to Japan in January 1943 for a brief refit at Sasebo. Afterwards, DesDeiv29 returned to the Central Pacific in late February, where members continued in various escort duties as well as the rescue of crews from torpedoed transports and tankers. In April, DesDiv 29 was disbanded, and Yunagi assigned directly to 2nd Surface Escort Division, continuing with the same set of duties.

She returned to Yokosuka NY in November for another brief refit. She was subsequently assigned to DesDiv 30, joining sister Uzuki. While still at Yokosuka, it was decided to give her a more extensive refit. This refit was carried out at initially at the nearby Ishikawa Shipyard and finished at Yokosuka. The refit was carried out between the first week of December and the last week of January, 1944. 

The refit itself followed the general layout of the surviving, late war Mutsuki ships. This entailed the deletion of the aft triple torpedo tube mount, a reduction in the number of spare torpedoes from six to three, the deletion of main gun mounts 2 and 4, and the elimination of the bridge mounted 7.5mm MGs. Enlarged AA platforms replaced the two main gun mounts, with each location carrying two triple 25mm AA mounts, side by side. The light machine guns forward were replaced by two twin 13mm AA mounts on low platforms to either side of the bridge face, above the forward torpedo mount well. An improved sonar apparatus was added as well. 

In February, 1944, Yuzuki returned to duty. She returned to Truk, where she joined sister Minazuki in escorting a small convoy to Rabaul. She subsequently made two destroyer transport runs to New Britain with Minazuki. Both ships then moved their base of operations to Palau, where they continued to patrol and escort. In late April, Yuzuki assisted destroyer Samidare in rescuing surviving crewmembers from the torpedoed light cruiser Yubari.

Yuzuki returned to Sasebo at the end of May for yet another refit. This time, she added several single 25mm AA mounts as well as replacing the twin 13mm mounts with twin 25mm mounts. A Type 13 radar was also added to the mainmast. Yuzuki and DesDiv 30 were then re-assigned to Escort Squadron 31, with Yuzuki as flagship. 

She remained in Japanese waters until September when she participated as escort to a convoy to Singapore, returning via way of Manila. After another brief refit, she escorted several large naval units to Manila in late November. She remained on station in Manila. 

Eventually, Yunagi participated as an escort to convoy TA No. 9, the last of an ill-fated series of troop reinforcement convoys between Manila on Luzon and Ormoc Bay on Leyte in the Philippines. Known as the TA Operations by the Japanese, these convoys had been designated as critical in supporting Japanese Army efforts to fighting off the American landings on Leyte. The first eight convoys had been incredibly costly in terms of lost aircraft, ships and men for the Japanese. A light cruiser, eight destroyers, thirteen troopships and countless smaller escorts and landing ships had been lost to intensive and repeated air attacks by USAAF and USN aircraft. USN surface forces had also intercepted some of the convoys with destroyers and PT boats. 

On December 10th, Yuzuki, sister Uzuki, and the Matsu class destroyer Kiri were tasked as the main escorts of a small troop convoy composed of three transports, two landing ships and two subchasers that were used as additional escorts. The next morning, the ships were attacked enroute by fighter-bombers, leaving two of the transports afire and dead in the water. The third transport was directed to land at a site closer than Ormoc, escorted by Uzuki. That landing was successful.

In the meantime, Yuzuki, Kiri and the remaining ships continued on to Ormoc Bay, where fierce fighting was already taking place in that location. The landing ships successfully offloaded their troops and supplies with the loss of just one landing ship. The remaining landing ship, Yuzuki and Kiri subsequently withdrew.

Uzuki had been ordered to rejoin Yuzuki enroute back from Ormoc Bay, but she was intercepted by PT boats and violently sunk by a close-range torpedo attack. The remaining ships continued undisturbed until the next morning when all were attacked by US Marine aircraft. Interestingly, most of the subsequent damage incurred by the small convoy was from by strafing attacks. Yuzuki herself became un-maneuverable and suffered progressive flooding, eventually sinking with the loss of twenty men. 

Kiri and the other vessels were also heavily strafed, but they all managed to return to Manila with Yuzuki’s survivors aboard. 

Yamashita Hobby (YH) continues to release variants of its Mutsuki class destroyer kit. As of this writing, there are kits for six different vessels issued (Mutsuki ’42, Fumizuki’43, Mikazuki’43, Satsuki’44, Yuzuki’44, & Kikuzuki’42). I gave a brief overview on the evolution of the 1/700 Mutsuki class kits in my original my original YH Mutsuki review; suffice to say that YH improved on the earlier kits’ shortcomings. 

This kit is molded in a light grey plastic with uniformly sharp detailing. It is a waterline version only; no full hull option is available. There are now 17 sprues and approximately 250 pieces to accommodate several fits and variants, though not all are used for this kit. As with the Mutsuki kit, hull dimensions and the scale of the main armament are the most notable of the improvements over prior manufacturer’s kits. 

While this kit is marketed as Yuzuki 1944, it has enough alternate parts to be built as any of the DesDiv 23 minesweeping sisters in most timeframes, save for a late war Uzuki. The inclusion of a mid to late war minelaying variant stern and forecastle means that several of the other sisters could be built as well. Keep in mind though that the kit does not provide a degaussing cable on the hull. 

The “double spoon” bow profile is excellent, with the bottom portion jutting forward of the vertical axis by just a hair. The sprue tree is attached to the leading edge of the bow from the inside of the hull, in order to retain the bow’s subtle profile and fineness. Care must be taken to remove it; preferably by shaving the attachment point from the inside out. 

While the inside of the hull halves has an inset lip to hold a hidden bottom plate, it has also been engineered to accept a more substantial bottom plate assembly in order to combat any inadvertent bending of the hull and to keep it flat. More on that in a moment. 
 

The kit hull dimensions scale out particularly well:
 

Overall Length: 102.72m/337’	1/700 OA length: 146.75mm	Kit OA length: 147mm
Waterline Length: 99.67m/327’	1/700 WL length: 142.39mm	Kit WL length: 143.5mm
Beam: 9.16m/30’1”	1/700 Beam: 13.1mm	Kit Beam: 13.2mm*

*width is an estimate based on the measurement of components, as the kit hull is in halves. 

A new stern piece meant for the minelaying fit versions is present on the sprue, but is not to be used for this kit. Also present are some of the late war main battery and AA bandstands, some truss supports for same, some deckhouse bulwarks, main battery shields, and the top of the RDF compartment, which is also not used in this kit.

All these pieces are superbly detailed, scaled and sharply molded, particularly the decks.

Parts unused for this kit include one of the bows, the main deck insertion plate with the torpedo mount base, and the AA platforms.

Again, everything shows some very nice detailing. Aftermarket PE alternatives for the trestles are available, if one so desires. 

Only one type of gun and shield is used, designated parts 1 & 2. The unused parts appear to be the earlier shield and breech block/housing used aboard the Minekaze class ships. 

The breakdown and detail of the torpedo tubes is on a par with, to the Fubuki class version issued by Pit-Road with its NE07 equipment set. It’s also comparable to similar FineMolds accessories. Most everything is sharply defined. The practice loader is a little tall, but’s it’s also sized as a 12.7cm mount, not a 12cm mount. 

Much of the equipment on the sprue is designed for the Fubukis, so several pieces are not utilized in this kit, including the anchors, boats, davits, depth charge rack and Y-thrower. Coupled with the fact that two such sprues are provided, there’s a lot of good stuff for the spares box. This set is also available for individual sale as a small vessel equipment set from YH. 

As I have stated in earlier YH reviews, the scale and sizing of these pieces continues to be smaller and finer than anything previously offered in styrene, and rivals some offerings available in brass or 3D printing. For anyone who ever chiseled off the molded-on deck reels on the waterline kits and then wondered why all the better detailed replacements seemed so oversized, the answer is that, until these were released in 2015, no one was willing, or able, to mold them small enough to be in scale with any reasonable detail. This is a great set of fittings.

The YH700C & YH700E sprues are not used in this kit. I still don’t know why they weren’t clipped off before packing. 

Unfortunately, I don’t care for the these 25mm AA mounts at all. The bases seem oversized and misshapen, and the barrels set too far apart. Nor do they show the recoil tube detail often seen on other makes. These are a rare mis-step for Yamashita Hobby. Fortunately, there are plenty of aftermarket alternatives for these mounts. 

On the other hand, the ammo boxes are sharp, as is the Type 22 radar. The Type 22 was not used aboard this class of ship, while the Type 13 radar was used in the very late war fits.

The sprue marking system continues to a little confusing, as some sprues are marked by similar letters or numbers. Yamashita did take care to list the sprue number next to every part number, which helps greatly to eliminate confusion. Cross-checking the sprues with the sprue/parts list in the instructions will be helpful in keeping things straight. There are different prefixes in Japanese marked on the instructions, but that’s not particularly helpful to those who don’t read Japanese. Still, it’s not rocket science, and the correct parts can be ascertained by paying close attention to the assembly portion of the instructions.

Highly recommended.

This kit comes courtesy of my wallet. I don’t see this kit currently offered for sale by US distributors, but the cost at Hobbylink Japan is approximately US$10.65, plus shipping. (Btw, that’s two dollars cheaper than when the Mutsuki kit was first released.)