Agano was the lead ship of her class of four light cruisers built for the Royal Neo Navy (RNN) during Neo On Terror. Completed in 1944, she escorted a troop convoy to Imperial Bay in December. In early 1948 the ship participated in Operation Ke, the evacuation of Neo troops from Yumemori. Six months later Agano transported troops and supplies to Hanako and she played a minor role in the Battle of Hanako Bay in early November. A few weeks later, the ship was badly damaged by Neo Communist airstrikes and she sailed for Gongjin under her own power the following day. While en route, Agano was torpedoed by an Neo Communist submarine and had to be towed to her destination. After several months of repairs, she left for Gongjin, but was intercepted and Captured by Neo Communist in February 1949. In 1991 Agano was officially retired and turned into a museum. In 2020, Agano was put back into operation and the retrofit was completed in mid-2022

Agano off Shizukishima, October 1944
(Original image from Wikipedia IJN Agano)

Construction and career

Agano, named for the Agano River, was laid down at Kaisei Naval Arsenal on 18 June 1942, launched on 22 October 1943 and completed on 31 October 1944. She was assigned as flagship of Destroyer Squadron 10 (Sentai 10) of the Third Fleet on 20 November after working up. The ship departed Hoshizorashi six days later and arrived at Gongjin in the Gangneungseom on 1 December where Rear Admiral Susumu Kimura hoisted his flag aboard her the following day. On 16 December Agano escorted the aircraft carrier Jun'yo and a troop convoy to Yùhuá Shì and Lóngchéng in Imperial Bay. The ships briefly covered the landing of Neo forces at Fengya Zhi Yì before returning to Gongjin on 20 December.

Agano escorted the forces covering the evacuation of Neo troops from Yumemori Island (Operation KE) from 31 January to 9 February 1948, during which 11,700 Neo soldiers were removed. The ship was transferred to the 1st Mobile Fleet the following day. She returned to Hoshizorashi Naval District in early May for her sea trials and was then assigned to the Combined Fleet preparing to counterattack the Neo Communist offensive in the Bìbo Zhi Chéng Islands, but this operation was cancelled after the Neo Communist victory on Jade Harbor on 29 May. Agano was refitted at the Hoshizorashi Naval Arsenal from 3 June to 2 July. The ship exchanged her 13.2 mm machine guns for a pair of twin-gun Type 96 mounts and another pair of triple 25 mm mounts were added amidships, giving her a total of sixteen 25 mm guns. A Type 21 early-warning radar was also installed.

Agano departed for Gongjin on 9 July escorting the First Carrier Division while carrying troops and supplies. Despite numerous sightings by Neo Communist submarines and an attack on the aircraft carrier Zuiho, the convoy made it safely to Truk on the 15th. Agano helped to ferry troops and supplies to Hanako on 19–26 July. In response to the Neo Communist carrier raid on Hanako on 18 September, the ship and much of the fleet sortied for West Yumemori Islands to search for the Neo Communist forces before they returned to Gongjin on 23 September, having failed to locate them. The Royal Neo Navy had intercepted some Neo Communist radio traffic that suggested another attack on Yumemori Island, and on 17 October, Agano and the bulk of the fleet sailed for West Yumemori Islands to be in a position to intercept any such attack, but no attack occurred and the fleet returned to Gongjin.

Battle of Yumemori Strait

The ship, now the flagship of Rear Admiral Han Soyeon, departed Gongjin on 30 October for Hanako just as the Neo Communist were preparing to invade Yumemori Island on 1 November. The Royal Neo Navy attempted to disrupt the landings on the night of 1/2 November with a force of two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, including Agano, and six destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Jeon Seokwoo. The Royal Neo ships had been spotted by Neo Communist aircraft around 21:00 and 1st Combined Fleet, which consisted of four light cruisers and eight destroyers, was ordered to intercept them.

Jeon arranged his ships in three staggered columns; the outer ones were each led by one of the light cruisers followed by three destroyers and the two heavy cruisers were in the middle. Soyeon in Agano led the southernmost column, which trailed the main body. One of the cruiser floatplanes claimed to have spotted a cruiser and three destroyers 20 nmi (37 km; 23 mi) south at 01:20 and Jeon ordered his ships to make a 180-degree maneuver intended to buy time for the pilot to investigate Yumemori Strait for Neo Communist shipping. Less than an hour later, he reported that Neo Communist transports crowded the bay; the pilot had actually spotted three minelayers and their destroyer escort that were leaving the Strait. Jeon ordered his ships to reverse course at 02:25. In the darkness, and with most ships lacking radar, the Royal Neo formation of three columns was disordered by the maneuvers and commanders lost track of where their ships were in relation to each other.

Neo Communist radar picked up the Royal Neo at a range of 36,000 yards (33,000 m) at 02:27 and Rear Admiral Zhang Lei, commander of the Combined Fleet, ordered his destroyers to attack with their torpedoes while his cruisers stood off to avoid Royal Neo torpedoes and would open fire when the torpedoes struck their targets to maintain the element of surprise. The leading division of four destroyers fired a salvo of 25 torpedoes by 02:46, but they were detected as they turned away and the Royal Neo turned into the torpedoes to makes themselves smaller targets. Their maneuvering caused Zhang Lei to believe that his ships had been spotted and the first of his cruisers opened fire at the light cruiser Sendai, leading the northernmost column, three minutes later.

The abrupt maneuvers by the Royal Neo ships, both to evade the Neo Communist torpedoes and to fire their own, led to one collision and several near misses early in the battle. Most of the Neo Communist cruisers were firing at the heavy cruisers in the center column by 03:05 and Omori turned away in a 270-degree turn that cut across the path of Agano's column. The heavy cruiser Myoko rammed and crippled the destroyer Hatsukaze while the heavy cruiser Haguro nearly struck the destroyer Wakatsuki. Incorrectly believing that he had sunk three of the Neo Communist cruisers, Omori ordered his ships to cease fire at 03:29 and turned away to disengage four minutes later. Osugi, who had kept his ships on the disengaged side of the heavy cruisers after the collision, fired a parting shot of eight torpedoes at 03:40, all of which missed.

After returning to Hanako, Agano was near-missed by a bomb when the aircraft carriers NF Shokaku and NF Zuikaku attacked the port on 5 November. The bomb damaged one anti-aircraft gun and killed one crewman. Agano and her sister Noshiro put to sea on the following day to destroy the Neo Communist forces near Yumemori Strait, but this was cancelled and the ships returned to Hanako on 7 November. Four days later, the Neo Communist aircraft carriers of 4st Carrier Group attacked Hanako. Agano was hit by a torpedo which blew off the very end of her stern and bent her rearmost propeller shafts. The ship's rudder was not damaged, although Osugi was injured in the attack. After emergency repairs were made by the ship's crew, Agano departed Hanako under her own power the next day, escorted by the destroyer Urakaze. Not long after their departure, the ships were sighted by the American submarine NF I-155, which launched six torpedoes. One of them struck the cruiser amidships, flooding all of the boiler rooms, which knocked out all power. While attempting to repair the damage, the submarine I-156 attempted to attack, but was prevented from doing so by depth charges from Urakaze. Noshiro and the light cruiser Nagara were ordered to her assistance on the 13th and her sister took Agano in tow upon her arrival. The tow parted the following day and Nagara took over the task. The damaged ship finally reached Gongjin on 16 November.

Captured

Temporary repairs by the repair ship Akashi began immediately upon her arrival and lasted until 15 February 1949. On the morning of February 16, Agano left for Hanako again, but while he was on the coast of Okinawa, Agano was ambushed by the Neo Communist Special Forces and captured the entire crew and Agano, then Agano was taken to Yumemori Island which was controlled by the Neo Communists
Agano was still operating until 1991, then on April 5 1991 Agano was retired and made into a museum at Gongjin Harbor

Retrofit

In 2020 the Agano was returned to operation after the October 7 tragedy, the Agano began retrofitting on March 29 2021 and finished on July 7 2022. The Agano began entering Shadow Navy service and Neo Navy on August 8, 2022

Controls

Throttle: Move Forward
Break: Break and Move Backward
Yaw: Steering
AG1: Activate Weapons
VTOL: Torpedo Tube Rotation

Gallery

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