was a of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Design and description The Yūgumo class was a repeat of the preceding with minor improvements that increased their anti-aircraft capabilities. Their crew numbered 228 officers and enlisted men. The ships measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of .Sturton, p. 195 They displaced at standard load and at deep load.Whitley, p. 203 The ships had two Kampon geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by three Kampon water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of for a designed speed of .Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 150

The main armament of the Yūgumo class consisted of six Type 3 guns in three twin-gun turrets, one superfiring pair aft and one turret forward of the superstructure. The guns were able to elevate up to 75° to increase their ability against aircraft, but their slow rate of fire, slow traversing speed, and the lack of any sort of high-angle fire-control system meant that they were virtually useless as anti-aircraft guns.Campbell, p. 192 They were built with four Type 96 anti-aircraft guns in two twin-gun mounts, but more of these guns were added over the course of the war. The ships were also armed with eight torpedo tubes in a two quadruple traversing mounts; one reload was carried for each tube. Their anti-submarine weapons comprised two depth charge throwers for which 36 depth charges were carried.

Construction and career Naganami was laid down on 5 April 1941, launched on 5 March 1942, and commissioned on 30 June 1942 at Osaka, where Commander Kumabe Tsutae was appointed control of the destroyer. Naganami spent the first three weeks of her career as a guardship in local waters, before departing Japan for the first time on 20 July as an escort to the transport ship Hakusan Maru from Yokosuka to Kiska where she delivered supplies to the crippled destroyer , returning on 4 August. At the end of the month, Naganami was assigned to destroyer division 31 along with her sister ship , and immediately embarked training duties alongside the battleships and , before patrolling off Truk naval base from 6–10 September, and spending the rest of the month anchored in Truk.

The start of October saw the destroyer appointed as flagship of destroyer division 31, and the 13th–14th saw Naganami escort Kongō and Haruna during the bombardment of Henderson Field; Naganami took no part in the bombardment but successfully chased off attacking torpedo boats with Makinami and Takanami. The three destroyers would however join the heavy cruisers and and the light cruiser in another attack on Henderson Field and contributed 253 5-inch (127 mm) shells to the bombardment. On the 26th, Naganami escorted the Japanese fleet at the battle of Santa Cruz, operating with the support ships, and watched the battle turn into a Japanese victory which sank the aircraft carrier and the destroyer . From 3–5 November, Naganami escorted the heavy cruisers Maya and from Truk to the Shortlands before departing for a supply run to Guadalcanal. This was interrupted by air attacks from Henderson Field which mildly damaged Naganami and Takanami with bomb near misses and killed 4 sailors of Naganami and 13 of Takanami, but they continued the mission and dropped off their load safely.

From 13–15 November, Naganami escorted an invasion convoy of 11 transport ship in support of the naval battle of Guadalcanal. On the 14th, the convoy was repeatedly attacked by waves of aircraft from Henderson Field and which sank 7 of the 11 transports and the heavy cruiser throughout the day, prompting Naganami to rescue 570 survivors from the sunken Shinanogawa Maru. On 16 November 1942, Naganami was appointed as flagship of Destroyer Squadron 2, with Rear Admiral Raizō Tanaka and his staff taking command of the destroyer.

Battle of Tassafaronga

On the night of the 29th, Naganami departed the Shortlands as flagship of a task force 8 destroyers strong. Rear Admiral Tanaka led Naganami and Takanami as a protection group for six destroyers – , , , Makinami, , and – each loaded with 200–240 supply drums carrying food and provisions for Japanese troops that were to be tied together and tossed overboard for motorboats to tow for the shores of Guadalcanal, a way for transport runs to quickly sail in and out given the increasing intensity of US forces in the Tokyo Express. The destroyers were spotted and harassed by Allied reconnaissance aircraft throughout the day which informed US Rear Admiral Kinkaid of a Japanese naval group expected to arrive at Guadalcanal later that night, in command of the heavy cruisers , , , and , the light cruiser , and six destroyers, and planned an interception by 23:00 of the 30th, beginning the battle of Tassafaronga. Tanaka ordered the group to increase speed to , then to three hours later upon speeding into a rain squall.

Naganamis group was right on schedule as the Americans made radar contact at 23:06 from and closed for an attack. In the meantime, Naganami slowed with Kawakaze and Suzukaze while the others continued further down the Guadalcanal coast. Ten minutes later, Takanami made contact with the US formation, resulting in Tanaka aboard Naganami halting the supply drum mission to prepare for combat, and at 23:21 Minneapolis fired the first shots at Takanami, followed by New Orleans and Honolulu. Together, they smothered Takanami with about 50 and shell hits and left her burning, mangled, and crippled. Meanwhile, the American destroyers , , and unloaded a spread of torpedoes at the Japanese ships, which scored no hits but forced Suzukaze to maneuver away from the action. However, Takanami unloaded a full spread of torpedoes, two of which hit Minneapolis at 23:27 before another hit New Orleans a minute later, blowing the bows clean off both heavy cruisers and taking them out of action.

Naganami ignited her searchlights and illuminated Pensacola, Naganami opened fire at the heavy cruiser with her 127 mm guns as Tanaka ordered a wave of torpedoes to strike the enemy. Oyashio was the first to engage with a full spread of eight torpedoes followed by two from Kuroshio. Naganami then herself contributed eight torpedoes followed by eight more from Kawakaze for a full spread of 26 long lances by 23:33, all the while exchanging gunfire. Five minutes later, a torpedo from Kawakaze smashed into Pensacola amidships which flooded her engine and disabled three of her four 8-inch gun turrets. Honolulu was forced to turn away from the action and barely avoided being torpedoed. However, Northampton continued battle and continuously fired on Naganami for another ten minutes. Naganami was showered in splinters and near misses from Northamptons 8-inch guns but avoided being directly hit once due to Northamptons malfunctioning radar. Northamptons choice to charge the Japanese ships sent her sailing into the vicinity of Kagerō and Makinami which separated from the main formation during the action and dumped their torpedoes to port. Two torpedoes hit Northamptons stern and sank the heavy cruiser over three hours with the loss of 50 men.

Tanaka witnessed the sinking of Northampton from Naganamis bridge before noticing the crippled New Orleans and Minneapolis in the distance; mistaking them for a pair of destroyers set ablaze by Takanamis gunfire. Oyashio and Kuroshio were ordered by Naganami to search for the missing Takanami. Takanami was discovered by the pair but before a rescue could be conducted, they were chased off by the remaining Allied ships. Kuroshio fired another two torpedoes at the crippled Pensacola but failed to score a hit and Destroyer Division 31's flagship sank with the loss of 197 crew, including captain Shimizu Toshio and commander Masami Ogura. With the rest of the force scattered, Naganami ordered the other destroyers to gather around her before departing back to the Shortlands. In spite of Takanamis loss, Tanaka scored a crushing victory. It was concluded on Naganamis bridge Tanaka's force sank two cruisers and one destroyer and heavily damaged two destroyers; the actual losses were one heavy cruiser sunk and three heavy cruisers crippled.

Further operations Due to the action off Tassafaronga, the supply drums had to be abandoned, so Naganami led another supply drum transport mission on 3 December. Naganami, Makinami, and the destroyer served as a cover force for seven destroyers carrying over 1,500 supply drums. After being tossed overboard, most were lost or destroyed and only 310 found their way to the Japanese army. Upon arriving back at the Shortlands, Tanaka and the Destroyer Squadron 2 staff transferred to the destroyer . Another attempt was undertaken on the 7th, but underway the group was attacked by US aircraft and the destroyer was disabled by bomb near misses. Naganami pulled out of formation, hooked cable lines to the crippled Nowaki and began to tow the destroyer to safety while taking the destroyer with her for protection. A squadron of US patrol torpedo boats dissuaded the rest of the formation and cancelled the supply run as Naganami arrived back at the Shortlands with Nowaki the next day. On the 11th, Naganami departed alongside ten more destroyers for a fourth supply drum run led by Tanaka aboard Teruzuki. However, a squadron of five PT boats attacked the force to decisive results. Kawakaze and Suzukaze sank PT-44, but PT-37 and PT-40 fired their torpedoes and darted off, and two torpedoes hit Teruzuki in the aft engine room and fantail and disabled the destroyer. Naganami and the destroyer moored alongside Teruzuki for an evacuation. Tanaka and 56 others boarded his former flagship while Arashi rescued 140, leaving Teruzuki to tip by the stern over three hours before her depth charges detonated and sank the destroyer with the loss of nine men. Only 220 of the 1,200 supply drums made it to Japanese forces.

From 16–18 December, Naganami led a troop transport run to Munda and back before steaming from the Shortlands to Rabaul. Later that Christmas, she assisted the destroyer Uzuki and the cargo ship Nankai Maru which had collided with each other, helping to tow both vessels back along with the destroyers Ariake, , and . Naganami was reinstated to flagship of Destroyer Squadron 2 under rear admiral Tomiji Koyanagi. On 2 January 1943, she led a supply drum transport run to Guadalcanal, but on the 10th Naganami suffered engine trouble when she wore out a screw shaft which forced a last-minute exclusion from another supply drum mission. On the 12th, Naganami departed from the Shortlands and arrived at Truk on the 14th where she was moored alongside the repair ship for maintenance, during which flagship duties of destroyer division 31 was handed to the destroyer . Her engine shafts were patched up throughout the next two months before she escorted a convoy to Maizuru from 8–17 March where she was docked to finish repairs, leaving for Yokosuka on 20 April. Naganami sailed with the escort carriers and to Truk from 25–30 April where she remained until 8–13 May when she escorted the battleship and other heavy units back to Yokosuka before escorting the heavy cruisers and to Paramushiro then a convoy to Maizuru throughout May, and remained in Maizuru throughout most of June for further repairs to her engines and only left on the 28th for Paramushiro, arriving on 1 July. From 7–17 July, Naganami took part in an attempted evacuation of Kiska which was aborted due to bad weather, then a successful evacuation from 23 July to 1 August; being scraped by the destroyer due to heavy fog and suffering minor flooding. Naganami escorted the tanker Nippon Maru from 3–7 August where the destroyer was again docked in Maizuru for repairs.

Bougainville campaign