Destroyer Murakumo ...what are you not satisfied about ? Fifth ship of the Toku-gata, Murakumo, is built in 1927 as Destroyer #39. In August 1928 she's renamed as Murakumo and placed in 12th Destroyer Division of the 2nd Destroyer Squadron, part of the Second Fleet. 12th Destroyer Division is composed of four ships: Shinonome, Usugumo, Shirakumo and Murakumo, all of them are Fubuki-class. All the ships are named after clouds, which I think are elegant names showing an ephemeral beauty.

In history... Murakumo took an oxygen torpedo ? During Sino-Japan war, after 1940, other than coastal patrol duty she also participated in invasion to northern French Indochina. After that, during Pacific War, she saw action in the southern front, Midway and Solomon. She's really busy after 1940. Then in October 1942, she rescued survivors from the heavily damaged Furutaka, but... when she arrived Furutaka has already sunk. Even so she sailed in the area looking for any survivor. Because of that, she met with enemy fleet after daybreak, heavily damaged by bombers and finally lost all power. To avoid being targetted by the enemy, Murakumo is scuttled by her sister ship Hatsuyuki. By the way, despite her effort, she never found any survivor from Furutaka. Instead they are rescued by Hatsuyuki who participated in Battle of Savo Island from different position. It's kind of painful to see her effort goes in vain.