WarMachine 048 二战日本航母

The world's most of the military The Battle of the eoral$ea The Indian Oeean Raid *g";-- g* *"*#- -.' *Tp **SCIC* " #; dwift**strrF€ -::- . 14,,, - .ri.r;!i.r,i US ffii [,.:l.rtl:' ;iill;ri lllttlirlll:i:r,lililiirr;rlr,,:uril A fultry Volume4 Issue 48 CONTENTS Japanese Aircraft-Carriers of World War II Hosho Akagi Kaga Ryuio Soryu Htryu Siokaku Zuikaku PearlHubor Zuiho Siroiro Junyo' class aircraflcuriers The Indian0ceanRaid Taiho 'Unryu' class aircraft-caniers The Battle ofthe Coral Sea 'Shinano' class aircraftcanier 'Taiyo' class escort curier Armed forces of the World: US Air Force (Part 4) Consultant Editor: Major General Sir Jeremy Moore KCB OBE MC, Gomman. der of British Land Forces during the Falklands campaign. Distribution and marketing offices: Orbis Publishinq Ltd Orbis House 20-22 Bedfordbury London WC2N 4BT Telephone: 01-379 6711 Girculation Director: David Breed Marketing Director: Michael Joyce WAR MACHINE Price UK 80p. lR f 1 . Aus $1 .95 NZ $2.25. SA R1.95. 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The latter is a magazine devoted to computer simulation gaming and further information and subscription details can be obtained from Emjay, 17 Langbank Avenue, Rise Park, Nottingham NGs 58U, England. 942 942 943 943 944 945 946 946 947 953 953 954 955 958 958 959 960 960 iii Published by Orbis Publishing Ltd @ Aerospace Publishing Ltd 1984 Editorial Offices War Machine Aerospace Publishing Ltd 10 Barley Mow Passage London W4 4PH Managing Editor: Stan Morse Editorial: Trisha Palmer Chris Bishop Jon Lake Chris Chant Design: Bod Teasdale Colour Origination: lmago Publ.shrng Ltd, Thame Oxon Typesetting: SX Composing Ltd Film work: Precise Litho Ltd Artists: John Ridyard Tony Gibbons Keith Woodcock 2848 Printed in Great Britain byTheArtisan Press Lrd Picture acknowledgements Cover photograph; US Naly Imperial We M6eun4JS Air Force-World Photo Pres. 942t US Nayy. 9431 lmpedal War Museum-World Photo Press^mperial Wd Mweum g,l4t Impedal Wil Musew-World Photo Press. 945: ImpedalWar Musew. 946: US Narry,4mperial WarMsem. 94?: US Navy. 948. US NarT. 949: US Narry. 950: US Narry. 952: US NaWruS Na!ryruS NaW. 953: Imperial War Mueur/Imperial Wil MNew 954: US Navy 956: Imperial War MuseM. 95?r Robert Hmt Libnry 958: Imperial War Muem World Photo Press. 959: US NaW 960: US NaF/. (iii): US Alr Porce,{JS Air Force. (iv): US At Force. Forthcoming issues featwe: Airborne laily Warning Aircraft Allied Tanks of World lVu II (Put l) Modern Transport Aircraft Replenishment-atSea Vessels Field Artillery of World Wu II lapclnese Aiicrcfft Grriers of Wbrld \lilar ll The six months following 7 Decenbet 1941 saw the Imperial lapanese Navy wage one of the most astonishing campaigns in naval histoty. From the attack on PearI Earbor to the defeat at Midway, it was carrier power that proved decisive' and the traztsformation of war at sea was inevocable, Unlike her Axis partners, Japan was a true marltime power that weli understood the potential ol aviation at sea, Launching a war of her ovm choosing in the Pacific, she had not succeeded in signlficantly outbulld- ing the Americans in aircraft-carriers but had the advantage that the 11 that she had in service in I94l did not have to be split between two oceans. The grouping of the six best units into Nagmmo's ist Air Fleet showed bold innovation, a gamble that paid off in exploiting again the old principle of th eSchwerpunkf, or overwhelming force where it mattered. In the initial phase of the Pacific war, the A-llied fleets were caught ill-prepared and for a while the japanese seemed unstoppable, but inevitably as their boundaries expanded and their commitments grew, the Japanese had to break up the hard-worked cohesive carrler units, At the same time the Americans, stung to war, prepared their challenge. Coral Sea demonstrated that the enemy could be checked but Midway was a total triumph for American intelligence, organization and strategry. After Midway, the good days were clearly over for the Japanese. Despite a long period of balance, the advantage slowly changed sides, The 2nd Battle of the Solomon Sea, riposted at Santa Cruz, saw the Last suwivor offourJapanese fleet caftierc at Midway,Hiryawas struck by Douglas SBD Dauntless dive- bombers late on 4 J une 1 942. Burning fiercely and with her flight deck and hangar s shattere d, she w as abandoned and scuttled, sinking some 12 hours later on 9June. pendulum at mid-swing. The Saipan amphiblous operation forced the Japanese to act in strength against a powerful American defence; the Philippine Sea battle, as it was knoum, cost the Japanese carriers ther main strenqth, namely the last of their trained aircrews, Shortly after this, at Leyte Gull came Armageddon, with virfirally the whole of the surviving fleet engaged in a final, one-way, do-or-die mission to destroy the spearhead of the American advance, Short of fue- aircrew, aircraft and ammunition, the remnants of the Japanese carrier force had no use other than to act as a lure at a crucial point in the actioi: They succeeded brilliantly, but in vain, for the Americans were too many. In the short term, the bold uses to which the Japanese put naval arr power proved decisive but, once the war was allowed to drag on, the o1d tag was once again proved right: 'a good big'un will always beat a gocd little'un,' Akagiatspeed suffered nodamagefrom the bombs dropped hyBoeingB-l7s of the 43 I st Bomb Squadron. Not until the dive bombers from U.SSYorllown and Enterprise entered the battle were the ]apanese to be all but annihilated. JAPANinl Hosho The first carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy, like so many others, was a conversion. The naval oiler Hr7u, laid down Iate in 1919, was taken over in 192i and emerged as the car- rier llosib at the end of the followrng year. The desigm owed much to a Brit- ish technical mrssion, which had broad details of the new British carrier Hermes and the details of the Sopwith Cuckoo torpedo-bomber. The original triple-exparsion steam engflnes were replaced by destroyer-type trubines to give a speed of25 knots and, as in the USS Langley, smoke was vented Hoshq conrerf ed trom an oiler, was commissioned as a carrier in I 922 following the vis it of a B ritish te chnic a I m i s sion. O r igi n a lly equipped with an island navigating bridge, within a year she was flush decked, and provided the Imperial J apanese N avy with valuable early experience in carrier operations. through triple folding funneis, which hinged downwards when flying was in progress. The ship was the first to have an 'island' navigating bridge, but this proved so unpopular with the prlots that it was removed rr 1923. TheHosrlo proved very small and lacked suf- ficient margnn of stability to be able to carry her firll armament and comple- ment of aircralt. By the outbreak of World War II her air gnoup had shrunk from 2l to 12 arrcraft, and a1l the orrgrin- al gnrns had been replaced by light anti-aircraft weapons. However, the Hos/ro provided invaluable experi- ence for the conversion oflkagi and Kaga, as well as design of Ryujo, lhe first Japanese carrrer built as such from the keel up, She also saw considerable action of the China coast in the late 1930s and ferried aucraft during the Sino-Japanese War, Desprte her drawbacks the elderly training carrler served with Carriei Division 3 from December 1941, along- side the Zuiho, but after four months in the Palau Islands she was rehnned to training duties in Japan. Then she be- came operational again for the Mrd- way campaign, carrying I I Nakajima BSN 'Kate' bombers to provrde recon- nalssance for Admiral Yamamoto's battleships. Finally v'nthdrawn in June 1942, theHosio thereafter led a charmed hfe, Although damaged by grrounding in 1944 and hit twrce by American bombs at Kure she was still afloat when the war ended. She had been finally laid up in Aprrl 1945 for lack of aircrbw to man her aucraft, and was thus one of the few Japanese carriers still in exisl ence on VJ-Day, She was to have a second lease of life, however, for she was recommrssioned as a transport to repatriate Japanese servicemen from all over the Far East. She continued in thr,s job until Augnrst 1946, but was final-ly scrapped in 1947 after nearly 25 years of serrnce, Specification Hosho Displacement: 7,470 tons standard, 10,000 tonsfr.rllload Dimensions: length 168. 1 m (551 ft 6 in); overall; beam 18,0 m (59 ft 0 in); draught6.2m(20ft4in) Machinery: 2-shaft geared steam hubines delivering 30,000 shp (22370 kW) Speed: 25 knots Armour:uncertain Armament: ( 1941) eight twin 25-mm AAgmns Aircraft: (1942) 1l 'Kate'torpedo- bombers Complement: 550 officers and men ,,jeI i Ij ll ii il E ei"gi The outcome of the Washingrton Naval Drsarmament Treaty left the Imperial Japanese Navy with several tncom-plete capital ships destrned for the scrapyard. As the Americans and Brit- ish had declared their intention of con- vefiing similar hulls into carriers, and in the light of successfirl experience wrth theHosiro, the naval staff decided to press ahead with hyo similar carrier conversions T\rvo battle-cruisers, to be known as Akagi and Amagi, were chosen; these were projected as 40,000-ton ships capable of 30 knots, Work started in 1923 but the hull of the Amagi was badly damaged during the great Tokyo eadhquake rn Septem- ber, and she was scrapped. The Lkagi was completed in March 1927, a flush-decked ship with two fun- nels at the starboard edge of the flight deck, a tiple flight deck forward, and I0 200-mm (7.9-in) guns, six of them in old-fashroned casemates low down aft, Ten years later she was completely rebrult, with a small island superstruc- ture on the port side, and a irll-lenqth flight deck, It was hoped that the port- side island would srnplify operations when operating in complany with other carriers (allowrng her aircra-ff to be marshalled separately) but it carjsed far more landing accidents than a star- board island. With her half-sisterKaga she formed Carrier Division I and as Vrce Admiral Nagiumo's flagship led the attack on Pearl Harbor. She then led the other carriers on a brilliant series of raids through the East Indres and Indian Ocean, the force sinking the Bntish carrier Hermes, drlvinS the Allies out of Java and Sumatra and even gettiag as far as Danrrln ln northem Austra]ia, At the Battle of Mdway on 4 June 1942 Akagi's air group attacked Mrd- way itself, and she sufered slight dam- age when a shore-based torpedo- bomber bounced off the deck early in the morning. At 10.22 she was attacked by aircraft from the USS Enterpnse, which hit her twice with bombs, A 1,000-lb (454-kg) bomb burst in the hangar and started a f,re among torpe- do-warheads which spread to aviation fuel spiliing from fractured hnes; a second bomb (of 5001b/227k9) also started a fire among aircraft parked on the flight deck. Within 30 minutes the fire was out of control and Nagnrmo had shifted hrs flag to a light crutser. The fkagi was abandoned but burned for another I hours or more. After vain efforts to board her the order was gdven to a destroyer to torpedo her, Specification Akagi Displacement: (I941) 36,500 tons standard, 42,000 tons fl:ll load Dimensions: lenqth 260.6 m (855 ft 0 in) overall; beam 31,3 m (I02 ft 8 in); draught8,6 m(28 ft3 in) Machinery: 4-shaft geared steam twbines deliverrng 133,000 shp (99180 kw) Speed: 3 I knots Armour: uncertain Armament: slx200-mm (7, 9-in), six tvyin 120-mm (4,7-in) AA, and 14 twin 25-mm AAquns Aircraft: (June 1942) 21 Mitsubrshi A6M Zero fighters, 21 Archi D3A 'Val' dive- bombers and 2I Nakajima BSN 'Kate' torpedo-bombers Complement: 1,340 officers and men Akagi af sea, a few months prior to Pearl Harbor. The lett-hand tsland is noteworthy, as shewas desigmed to operate in tandem withKaga- With an operational aircraft complement of 70 or more, Ak