The Imperial Japanese Navy heavy cruiser HAGURO was completed by Mitsubishi's Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works on April 15, 1929. She was one of four ships of in her class, the other three ships being MYOKO, NACHI, and ASHIGARA. According to Jentschura, Jung, and Mickel (Warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945), she was torpedoed and sunk on May 16, 1945, 55 nm WSW of Penang Island at 05 degrees 00' N, 99 degree 30' E by British destroyers SAUMAREZ, VENUS, VERULAM, VIGILANT, and VIRAGO. The IJN destroyer Kamikaze later reported the battle having taking place at 4.49N / 99.42E.

The following copyright stills captured from video of HAGURO's wreck were taken by Kevin Denlay in March 2003, when the team spent all their dives on the forward section of Haguro in limited visibility conditions. In both 2004 and 2005, Kevin returned to the wreck site on several expeditions and gathered more video and still photos of the complete wreck site from bow to stern. Some of these will be displayed at a later date. All text legends are from Kevin.

Each red dot in the following drawing of HAGURO denotes the location where an image was taken. The dots are duplicated in both the side and top views to better show the location of where each image was captured. Images taken in a location either inside, or in a location covered by another structure are denoted by a pale red vs. the regular dark red dot.

Instructions: Putting the cursor over a dot will pull up a short legend. Clicking on the dot will drop you down to the location of the appropriate small image (image will be at the top of the page) with a detailed legend. Clicking on the small image will lead you to the final large image.

	Business 'end' of vertical barrels of #1 turret. For an 'idea' of the visibility/light levels we experienced on some dives, please note that you can barely see the other barrel in the background, which can't be more than 6 or 7ft away at most!
	Vertical barrels of #1 turret with trawler net strung between them. Taken on a different dive (than image #1) with better visibility and lighting conditions.
	Looking at the underside and port side/corner (center) of now vertical #1 turret. Darker area lower left is underside of turret. Note: #1 turret is completely uprooted from deck and now points vertically towards ocean surface.
	Looking from front starboard corner across face of #2 turret. Dark space upper center is where the closest barrel 'should' protrude. Both barrels/breaches are missing - previously removed in Singapore.
	Looking from starboard rear corner across top of #2 turret with most of roof missing. Upper left of picture is rear port 'corner' of turret and to the very left is top of rear 'wall' of turret.
	Rear door of #2 turret taken from atop #3 turret.
	Askew barrel angles of #3 turret, taken on roof of turret above where barrels exit the turret face. Note that you can barely see the ends of the barrels in the gloom.
	Rear door #3 turret.
	Looking from the door inside and to the left in #3 turret.
	Looking from the door inside and to the right in #3 turret.
	What appears to be a shell hole (lower center right) penetrating starboard deck adjacent #3 turret, whose edge is seen at left.
	Remains of triple barrel 25mm A/A gun on starboard deck between #3 turret and base of bridge superstructure.
	Forward starboard twin five inch barrels from above.
	Ready ammo scattered on deck near starboard five inch.
	Forward port twin five inch barrels.
	Looking from port to starboard across a mass of twisted piping, where fore funnel should be.
	Looking down into the now open 'top' of the remains of the lower bridge superstructure. The 'opening' is actually where the floor of the middle bridge deck level should be. 'Front' of superstructure is upper left. Please note, the 'flat space' on right is actually the floor of the open starboard wing.
	Fire extinguisher inside lower bridge deck level at almost center front.
	Porthole on port side, taken from inside of lower bridge deck level.
	Instruments on wall of cipher room, aft port 'corner' of lower bridge deck.
	Another wall of cipher room.
	Voice tubes in corner of cipher room.
	Diver on Haguro. The two cylinders on his back are used while on bottom and contain a light 'trimix' mixture (helium, nitrogen & oxygen). The two cylinders under divers arms are filled with various nitrox (oxygen/nitrogen) mixtures with a higher oxygen concentration and are only used to facilitate accelerated decompression during his decompression stops on his return to the surface. Although the depth of wreck - approx. 200ft on deck - is just within the accepted limits of air diving, because of the poor visibility and 'dark' lighting conditions some divers (myself included) choose to use trimix rather than air for dives such as this. However I actually use a military style closed circuit rebreather (a modernized Biomarine Mk15.5) rather than the cylinder configuration of the diver shown in picture. This diver is actually swimming by on the deck between #3 turret and superstructure and gives an idea of the lighting and visibility conditions (or lack thereof) at deck level. Almost like a night dive!

The following in Kevin Denlay's own words are “images from Remembrance Ceremony over the wreck of the Japanese heavy cruiser HIJMS Haguro, sunk by the British 26th Destroyer Flotilla - on 16th May 1945 - in the Malacca Strait south of Penang, Malaysia. This ceremony was not only the first time in 60 years that the two old foes had returned to the site of the action, but the first time they had ever met face to face!”