On Dec. 29, 1942, the Suzutsuki was completed at the Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard as the third Akizuki-class air defense destroyer equipped with a long 10cm gun. After completion, the 61st Destroyer Squadron was formed with four ships: Akizuki, Suzutsuki, Hatsuzuki, and Wakatsuki. Suzutsuki's first mission was on March 22, 1943, on a mission to transport property for an air base. Upon completing her mission and returning to the mainland on May 22, she escorted the battleship Musashi back to Yokosuka. After that, she was engaged in convoy escort and transport operations. In 1944, she was severely damaged twice by torpedo strikes from American submarines, having her bow severed, but each time she recovered and returned to the front, demonstrating her strength of military fortune.
On April 6, 1945, Suzutsuki participated in Operation Tenichi-Go, the Yamato surface special attack operation, and worked with Fuyutsuki to defend the battleship Yamato. Suzutsuki fired anti-aircraft fire to defend Yamato, but ended up coming under fierce attack from U.S. military aircraft herself. As a result of this attack, the bridge was completely destroyed, the engine section and the front of the hull were severed, and the ship was unable to take action. After the battle, Suzutsuki was thought to have been sunk, but she managed to return to Sasebo, where she was hurriedly placed in dock. However, once she was taken into the dock, she sank to the bottom as if exhausted while being drained of water. When she was repaired at the Sasebo Arsenal, her bridge was changed to a simplified square strudture, and she was converted into an air defense battery without power. During the Sasebo air raid after this air defense battery was renovated, she shot down an incoming P51 Mustang fighter. Suzutsuki ended the war as an air defense battery, but after the war the structure above her hull was removed, and she, along with her sister ship Fuyutsuki, became a breakwater in Wakamatsu Port, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Aoshima brings us a 1/700-scale waterline model kit of the third Akizuki-class destroyer, Suzutsuki, which participated in Operation Tenichi-Go along with the battleship Yamato. Her appearance in the latter half of the war, when her anti-aircraft weapons were greatly strengthened, can be accurately reproduced in a simple and easy-to-assemble parts configuration. New equipment has been added, including the 10cm high-angle cannon, which is a characteristic of Akizuki-class destroyers, and an enhanced anti-aircraft gun. Many parts are slide-molded for density and precision; in addition to armaments such as destroyer main guns and machine guns, carrier-based aircraft and other equipment have been updated. The following parts are updated with new molds:
- Type 96 25mm triple machine gun
- 70cm signal searchlight
- Direction finder antenna
- Type 98 10cm twin high-angle gun
- No. 13 electric probe
- No. 22 electric probe
- Type 92 quadruple torpedo tube
- Type 94 depth charge thrower
- Quartrant davit
- Radial davit
- 7m fire boat
- 7m cutter
- Anchor
