So I was bored, and a tad bitter about the treatment of the Abyssals in the anime. As a result, have my passive aggressive history lesson.
In case some of you aren't good with names, the characters are listed as they appear in the images; top to bottom, left to right.
Naka: On the 18th of February 1944, Naka was attacked 35 nautical miles (65 km) west of Truk by three waves of SB2C Helldivers and TBF Avengers from the USS Bunker Hill and TBFs of VT-25 of Cowpens. The first two strikes failed to score a hit, but Naka was hit by a torpedo and a bomb in the third strike and broke in two, sinking.
Sendai: On the 2nd of November 1943, four Allied cruisers took Sendai under radar directed 6-inch fire. They hit her with their first salvo and more thereafter, setting her afire. Sendai sank the following morning.
Jintsuu: On the 13th of July 1943, Admiral Isaki ordered a night torpedo attack, and his ships launched 31 Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes, as Jintsuu illuminated the Allied fleet with her searchlights. The illumination was fatal, as Jintsū was hit by at least ten radar-guided 6-inch (150 mm) shells from the three Allied cruisers, setting her on fire.
Mutsuki: On August 25, 1942, Mutsuki was sunk in an attack by USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress bombers while assisting the damaged transport Kinryu maru, 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Santa Isabel island.
Fubuki: On the 11th of October 1942, in the Battle of Cape Esperance, Fubuki's luck finally ran out. She was sunk by gunfire of a US cruiser/destroyer group, off Cape Esperance.
Yuudachi: On the night of 12–13 November 1942, in the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Yuudachi was disabled by gunfire of the U.S. cruiser-destroyer group. 207 survivors were removed by the Samidare, which then failed to scuttle her with a torpedo. The abandoned hulk was later sunk by gunfire of the USS Portland, southeast of Savo Island. According to James Hornfischer, Yuudachi showed a white flag before Portland fired, but this was deliberately ignored by the American captain, who directed his gunnery officer to "sink the S.O.B."
An unconfirmed report states that the American captain was earlier heard saying "So help me god, if she says
poi one more fucking time..."
Shimakaze: She was attacked and sunk by American aircraft from Task Force 38 on the 11th of November 1944 during the Battle of Ormoc Bay.
If Shimikaze was so fast, why couldn't she dodge those torpedos?
Oh snap!
Amatsukaze: On the 6th of April 1945, Amatsukaze was attacked by USAAF B-25s, six miles east of Amoy. Her crew managed to beach the ship; salvage attempts were abandoned on the 8th of April. On the 10th of April, the ship was scuttled by charges placed on the ship.
Yukikaze: Yukikaze and Hibiki were the only ships to survive among the 82 Japanese destroyers built before the war... grrr.
Haruna: On the 24th of July 1945, the U.S. Navy's Task Force 38 began a series of aerial attacks on Kure Naval Base to destroy the last remnants of Japan's navy. The same day, the battleship Hyuuga was sunk, and Haruna was hit by a single bomb which caused light damage. Four days later, she sustained eight bomb hits from Task Force 38's aircraft and sank at her moorings.
Hiei: On the 10th of November 1942, after shells from the USS San Francisco disabled Hiei'​s steering machinery, Kirishima attempted to tow Hiei to safety, but water flooded her steering compartments, jamming her rudder to starboard. Throughout the morning of 14 November, Hiei was subjected to attack from American Army B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. She continued circling starboard at 5 knots (5.8 mph). At 11:30, two torpedoes launched from Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo-bombers struck Hiei. After suffering several more torpedo and dive-bomber attacks throughout the day, the order was given for her crew to abandon ship before her escorting destroyers scuttled her.
Kongou: On the 16th of November 1944, the submarine USS Sealion made radar contact. Maneuvering into position, Sealion fired six bow torpedoes at Kongou. One minute later, two torpedoes from the first salvo were seen to hit Kongou on the port side. The torpedoes flooded two of Kongou'​s boiler rooms, but she was still able to make 16 knots (18 mph). By 05:00, she had slowed to 11 kn (13 mph) and was given permission to break off from the fleet and head to the port of Keelung in Formosa. Within fifteen minutes of detaching from the main force, Kongou was listing 45 degrees and flooding uncontrollably. At 5:18 the ship lost all power and the order was given to abandon ship. At 5:24, while the evacuation was underway, the forward 14-inch magazine exploded and the broken ship sank quickly with the loss of over 1,200 of her crew.
Kirishima: On the 14th of November, The USS Washington, undetected, managed to evade the Japanese fleet, and at midnight fired on Kirishima from 5,800 yards (5,300 m). Kirishima was hit by nine primary and forty secondary battery salvos, jamming her rear 14-inch turrets and steering, and causing the battleship to list 18 degrees to starboard. When it became clear she could not be salvaged, the surviving Japanese destroyers evacuated CO Captain Iwabuchi Sanji and 1,098 survivors. Kirishima capsized at 03:25 on the morning of 15 November 1942, with 212 crewmen lost.
Kaga: During the battle of Midway on the 4th of June 1942, soon after a series of torpedo plane attacks, American carrier dive bombers arrived over the Japanese carriers almost undetected and began their dives. At 10:22, 25 SBD Dauntless dive-bombers from the USS Enterprise hit Kaga with one 1,000-pound (450 kg) bomb and at least three 500-pound (230 kg) bombs. The 1000-pound bomb hit amidships and penetrated the flight deck to explode on the upper hangar. The explosions ruptured the ship's avgas lines, damaged both her port and starboard fire mains and the emergency generator powering her fire pumps, as well as knocking out the carbon dioxide fire suppression system. Fueled by the avgas pouring onto the hangar deck, the fires detonated the 80,000 pounds (36,000 kg) of bombs and torpedoes strewn across the hangar deck in a series of catastrophic multiple fuel-air explosions that blew out the hangar sides. Unable to contain her fires, Kaga '​s survivors were taken off by the destroyers Hagikaze and Maikaze between 14:00 and 17:00. Around 19:25 she was scuttled by two torpedoes from Hagikaze and sank stern-first.
Akagi: On 4 June 1942, at approximately 10:26, three bombers hit her with one 1,000-pound (450 kg) bomb and just missed with two others. The first near-miss landed 5–10 m (16–33 ft) to port, near her island. The third bomb just missed the flight deck and plunged into the water next to the stern. The second bomb landed at the aft edge of the middle elevator and detonated in the upper hangar. This hit set off explosions among the fully armed and fueled B5N torpedo bombers that were being prepared for an air strike against the American carriers, starting large fires. the burning aviation fuel proved impossible to control, and serious fires began to advance deeper into the interior of the ship. At 04:50 on 5 June, Yamamoto ordered Akagi scuttled, saying to his staff, "I was once the captain of Akagi, and it is with heartfelt regret that I must now order that she be sunk." Destroyers Arashi, Hagikaze, Maikaze, and Nowaki each fired one torpedo into the carrier and she sank, bow first, at 05:20.
Akatsuki: On the night of the 13th of November 1942, operating on the right flank of the Japanese battleships Hiei and Kirishima, Akatsuki is credited with illuminating and then torpedoing the USS Atlanta. Soon after illuminating Atlanta, she was heavily hit by American gunfire and sank early in the action near Savo Island.
Hibiki: On January 25th, 1945, Hibiki was reassigned to Destroyer Division 7 of the IJN 2nd Fleet, but was retained in Japanese home waters. She was then reassigned to the First Escort Fleet in May, and transferred to Kure Naval District, where she remained as a guard ship to the surrender of Japan. After the end of the war, she was demilitarized and used as a repatriation vessel.
Inazuma: While escorting a tanker convoy from Manila towards Balikpapan on the 14th of May 1944, Inazuma exploded after being struck by torpedoes launched by USS Bonefish in the Celebes Sea near Tawitawi.
Ikazuchi: Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Ikunaga Kunio, on April 13, 1944, while escorting the transport Sanyou Maru to Woleai, Ikazuchi was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Harder, approximately 200 miles (170 nmi) south-southeast of Guam.
Mutsu: On the 8th of June 1943, Mutsu was moored in the Hashirajima fleet anchorage, with 113 flying cadets and 40 instructors from the Tsuchiura Naval Air Group aboard for familiarization. At 12:13 the magazine of her No. 3 turret exploded, destroying the adjacent structure of the ship and cutting her in half. A massive influx of water into the machinery spaces caused the 150-meter (490 ft) forward section of the ship to capsize to starboard and sink almost immediately.
lol rekt.
Nagato: She managed to survive WWII, however she was selected to participate as a target ship in Operation Crossroads, a series of nuclear weapon tests held at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. Operation Crossroads began with the first blast (Test Able), an air burst on 1 July 1946; she was 1,500 meters (1,640 yd) from ground zero and was only lightly damaged. For Test Baker, an underwater explosion, the ship was positioned 870 meters (950 yd) from ground zero. Nagato rode out the tsunami of water from the explosion with little apparent damage; she had a slight starboard list of two degrees after the tsunami dissipated. A more thorough assessment could not be made because she was dangerously radioactive. Her list gradually increased over the next five days and she capsized and sank during the night of 29/30 July.
Now imagine that characterized in the anime... pretty fucked up.
Musashi: She took so much of a beating it's comical, are you ready for this shit?
On 24 October, while transiting the Sibuyan Sea, Kurita's ships were spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft from the fleet carrier USS Intrepid. Just over two hours later, the battleship was attacked by eight Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bombers from Intrepid at 10:27. One 500-pound (230 kg) bomb struck the roof of Turret No. 1, failing to penetrate. Two minutes later, Musashi was struck starboard amidships by a torpedo from a Grumman TBF Avenger, also from Intrepid. The ship took on 3,000 long tons (3,000 t) of water.
An hour and a half later, another eight Helldivers from Intrepid attacked Musashi again. One bomb hit the upper deck and failed to detonate; another hit the port side of the deck and penetrated two decks before exploding above one of the engine rooms. Fragments broke a steam pipe in the engine room and forced its abandonment as well as that of the adjacent boiler room. Power was lost to the port inboard propeller shaft and the ship's speed dropped to 22 knots.
Three minutes later, nine Avengers attacked from both sides of the ship, scoring three torpedo hits on the port side. During this attack, Musashi fired sanshikidan shells from her main armament; one shell detonated in the middle gun of Turret No. 1, possibly because of a bomb fragment in the barrel, and wrecked the turret's elevating machinery.
At 13:31, the ship was attacked by 29 aircraft from the fleet carriers Essex and Lexington. Two Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters strafed the ship's deck and Helldivers scored four more bomb hits near her forward turrets. Musashi was hit by four more torpedoes, three of which were forward of Turret No. 1, causing extensive flooding. The ship was now listing one degree to starboard, and had taken on so much water that her bow was now down 13 feet (4.0 m) and her speed had been reduced to 20 knots.
Two hours later nine Helldivers from Enterprise attacked with 1,000-pound (450 kg) armour-piercing bombs, scoring four hits. The ship was hit by three more torpedoes, opening up her starboard bow and reducing her speed to 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). At 15:25, Musashi was attacked by 37 aircraft from Intrepid, the fleet carrier Franklin and the light carrier Cabot. The ship was hit by 13 bombs and 11 more torpedoes during this attack. Her speed was reduced to 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph), her main steering engine was temporarily knocked out and her rudder was briefly jammed 15 degrees to port. Counterflooding reduced her list to six degrees to port from its previous maximum of ten degrees.
Musashi had been struck by a total of 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs.
Frantic efforts were made to correct her list, including flooding another engine room and some boiler rooms. Her engines stopped before she could be beached. At 19:15 her list reached 12 degrees and her crew was ordered to prepare to abandon ship, which they did fifteen minutes later when the list reached 30 degrees. Musashi capsized at 19:36 and sank in 4,430 feet (1,350.3 m) of water.
Yamato: During 1944, the balance of naval power in the Pacific decisively turned against Japan, and by early 1945 its fleet was much depleted and badly hobbled by critical fuel shortages in the home islands. In a desperate attempt to slow the Allied advance, Yamato was dispatched on a one-way mission to Okinawa in April 1945, with orders to beach herself and fight until destroyed protecting the island. The task force was spotted south of Kyushu by US submarines and aircraft, and on 7 April 1945 she was sunk by American carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers with the loss of most of her crew.
That was a pretty hardcore final mission. If she was beached, she couldn't be sunk, which would have allowed her to keep firing through much heavier damage.
Fun fact, despite her armament, Yamato only fired her colossal main guns at allied forces
once during WWII. She's already fired her one time in the anime...
dun dun duunn!
Haha, just kidding. She'll live. Stupid moe plot armor...
Takao: Survived the war, but she was towed to the Straits of Malacca on 21 September 1945 and was sunk as a target ship for HMS Newfoundland.
Atago: On October the 22nd 1944, Atago served as flagship for what the Allies termed the “Center Force”, and was a part of Sentai-4, along with Choukai, Takao and Maya. The next day two submarines that had been shadowing the force attacked in the Palawan Passage. Atago was one of the ships hit. Four torpedoes fired from the submarine USS Darter struck the Atago, setting her ablaze. She capsized at 05:53 in about 1,800 m (5,900 ft) of water.
Kitakami After the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, Kitakami was moved to Kagoshima and assigned to the Repatriation Service. She was used as a repair tender for ships on repatriation duties.
Kitakami was removed from the navy list on 30 November 1945,[5] and scrapped from 10 August 1946 – 31 March 1947.
Ooi On the 6th July, Ooi departed Surabaya for Manila. On 19 July, she was sighted in the South China Sea, 570 nmi (1,060 km; 660 mi) south of Hong Kong by the United States Navy submarine USS Flasher. When the cruiser was 1,400 yd (1,300 m) astern, Flasher fired her four stern tubes, hitting Ooi with two torpedoes portside aft. One was a dud, but the other torpedo exploded and flooded Ooi's aft engine room. Flasher then fired four bow torpedoes from 3,500 yd (3,200 m), but all missed. At 17:25, Ooi sank by the stern.
Poor Ooi never got to marry Kitakami. At least, I think she wants to marry her. I'm still not sure if they're "strait girls can be really close and affectionate and it's not weird" or if they're just lesbians.