Yukikaze saw her last major action escorting and witnessing the sinking of the battleship Yamato during the Battle of Okinawa, before surviving the war, being the only ship of her class to do so.

Throughout the rest of December and into January of 1942, Yukikaze would escort invasion convoys heading to Legaspi, Lamon Bay, Menado, Kendari, and Ambon.

Then, on the 27th, Yukikaze would see her first active combat role taking part in the battle of the Java Sea, the destruction of the allied surface ships attempting to defend the Dutch East Indies against Japanese invasion.

[17] Yukikaze and Teruzuki quickly rushed into action (they were not joined by Amatsukaze, which was blocked by the battleships and instead broke off from formation to engage and sink the destroyer USS Barton).

[18] With the US formation left a scattered mess due to poor command decisions by Admiral Callaghan, Yukikaze, along with Teruzuki (possibly joined by Nagara) engaged the lead American destroyer, USS Cushing.

[19] However, Yukikaze helped to inflict far more damage than she received, a barrage of Japanese shell hits disabled Cushing's electrical power and guns, leaving her dead in the water and set aflame.

[Note 1] The abandon ship order was issued as the massive fire caused by Yukikaze's torpedo hit suddenly blew up Laffey's turret 4 magazines and sank her instantly with the loss of 59 men.

[10][26] However, during a point-blank range gunfight Hiei was crippled by a pair of 8-inch (203 mm) shell hits fired from the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco that disabled her steering gear.

[27] Yukikaze attempted to assist the crippled Hiei, but aircraft from both Henderson Field and USS Enterprise attacked the vulnerable battleship, scoring several bomb hits which served as the final blow.

[23] Yukikaze then withdrew from the battle to both transfer Hiei survivors and escort damaged and crippled Japanese ships to Truk, arriving to their destination on the 18th.

Lae was in desperate need of resupplyment in order to turn back General MacArthur's forces from New Guinea, and the 51st army division had just the heavy artillery to do that.

At the dawn of March 2, a squadron of B-17s attacked, sinking the troop ship Kyokusei Maru and damaging two more, prompting Yukikaze to assist in rescuing survivors.

While Mikazuki stayed behind to assist Jintsū, Captain Kanma led his destroyers to partake in a torpedo attack on the allied ships, closing to 5,250 yards (4,800 meters) away from the enemy.

Leander was damaged so badly she could not be repaired in time to take further part in WW2, and on top of that never served as a New Zealand warship again, being decommissioned in May of 1944 and transferred to the British Navy in September of 1945.

After being shelled into a floating wreck by gunfire mostly from Honolulu and Saint Louis, American destroyers closed to point blank range to deliver the final blow.

Alongside the numerous allied ships sunk or critically damaged, the destroyer transports made it to Kolombangara and unloaded all 1,200 soldiers to reinforce the area.

On July 19, Yukikaze would take part in another troop transport run to Kolombangara, where en route both Kiyonami and Yūgure were sunk by land-based bombers the next day.

On May 22nd, Yukikaze scraped her hull on a reef while patrolling off Tawitawi, cutting her speed to 25 knots, which was more damage than any enemy forces had managed to inflict throughout her career.

This still enraged captain Masamichi, since his ship was relegated to mere escorting duties, reportedly stating he would rather have Yukikaze sunk in battle than not see combat.

Yukikaze got off undamaged, but a number of ships were damaged, notably the heavy cruiser Myōkō was forced to withdraw from the battle due to an aerial torpedo hit, taking the destroyers Hamakaze and Kiyoshimo with her for protection.

[Note 3][55] Yahagi scored hits that disabled Johnston's turret 2 and started a fire that forced the evacuation of the bridge before being turned away by attacking aircraft.

[57][58] As Johnston sank, Yukikaze closed to point blank range, not for an attack, but to salute the valiant destroyer for her bravery, with Captain Masamichi personally paying his respects to the US sailors and a large number of the crew doing the same.

[7][61] While stuck in Brunei, the Japanese fleet would come under air attacks, during which strafing from fighters killed one of Yukikaze's machine gunners, prompting her crew to hold a funeral on the deck.

In November, Japanese warships would begin to flee the area, culminating on the 16th when the main fleet left Brunai permanently and set sail to Kure, with Yukikaze being assigned to protect the capital ships.

On the 22nd, both the battleship Kongō and the destroyer Urakaze were torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion, but Yukikaze and the rest of the force successfully arrived at Kure on the 24th.

The navy would send out battleship Yamato on a mission to beach herself on the Island and act as a stationary unsinkable gun fortress to destroy allied landing convoys.

Over a three hour long battle, Yamato took at least 7 bombs and 11-13 torpedoes before she sank in a massive magazine explosion, sinking faster to less hits than Musashi due to being attacked at the port side only as opposed to any angle.

On May 30, carrier aircraft attacked Maizuru harbor, and while no direct hits were scored on Yukikaze, shrapnel damaged killed one sailor and injured 20 others to varying degrees.

Dan Yang's service included patrolling the South China Sea and intercepting incoming ships carrying wartime materials into Shanghai.

[77] On 23 June 1954, she captured the civilian oil tanker Tuapse of the Soviet Union carrying kerosene eastbound at 19°35′00″N 120°39′00″E / 19.58333°N 120.65000°E / 19.58333; 120.65000 in the high sea of Balintang Channel near Philippines[78] All ships were confiscated into the ROC Navy list, and the crews were either released, executed or detained for various time frames up to 35 years in captivity till 1988.