Japanese aircraft carrier Taiho

[Robert9670]

Taiho was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.  With a heavily armored hull and flight deck (a first for any Japanese carrier), Taiho represented a major departure in Japanese carrier design and was expected to not only survive multiple bomb, torpedo, or shell hits but also continue fighting effectively.  Taiho served as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa during the Battle of the Philippine Sea.  Taiho was sunk on June 19, 1944 after being struck by 1 torpedo from the submarine USS Albacore (SS-218).  The torpedo hit damaged the forward elevator and ruptured aviation fuel tanks, allowing a dangerous amount of fuel vapors to collect in the forward elevator.  Soon, the vapors started to spread throughout the hangar decks.  In desperation, damage control teams smashed out the ship's portholes to try and rid the ship of the fumes.  Eventually, Taiho's chief damage control officer decided to switch the ship's ventilation system on to help get rid of the fumes.  But all the ventilation system did was spread the vapors throughout the ship, increasing the chances of them being set off.  At 14:30, a tremendous explosion of gas vapors occurred forward, causing the armored flight deck to heave up, and the sides of the hangar deck blew out.  Admiral Ozawa initially wanted to go down with Taiho as she sank, but his staff wanted him to survive, so he transferred to the heavy cruiser Haguro by destroyer, taking the Emperor's portrait.  As Ozawa left, another explosion occurred.  Taiho sank stern first, taking with her 1,650 officers and men out of a complement of 2,150.  The total number of survivors was 500, including the commander of Taiho, Captain Kikuchi Tomozo.

 

Taiho

http://www.combinedf...com/taiho01.jpg

 

Career

 

Name:  Taiho

 

Namesake:  Taiho (Great Phoenix)

 

Laid Down:  July 10, 1941

 

Launched:  April 7, 1943

 

Commissioned:  March 7, 1944

 

Struck:  August 1945

 

Fate:  Sunk in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, June 19, 1944

 

General characteristics

 

Type:  Aircraft Carrier

 

Displacement:  29,770 long tons (30,250 t) standard

37,270 long tons (37,870 t) full load

 

Length:  260.6 m  (855 ft. 0 in.)

 

Beam:  27.4 m (89 ft. 11 in.)

 

Draft:  9.6 m (31 ft. 6 in.)

 

Propulsion:  8 x Kampon boilers

4 x Kampon steam turbines

160,000 shp (120,000 kW)

 

Speed:  33 knots (61 km/h, 38 mph)

 

Range:  10,000 nmi (19,000 km, 12,000 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h, 21 mph)

  5,700 short tons (5,200 t) fuel oil (maximum stowage)

 

Complement:  1,751

 

Armament:  12 x 100mm (3.9 in.) 65 cal AA guns

51 x 25mm (1 in.) AA guns

 

Aircraft carried:  65

 

Aviation facilities:  2 x elevators

[Robert9670]

Taiho underway, date unknown

[Robert9670]

Taiho underway, date unknown

[Wunderwaffen1945]

Interesting, i have never herd for this carrier until now....tnx for infos man +1

[Haguro]

(+1) Robert.

 

IJN Taiho was sunk by only one torpedo, but unfortunately the ships damage control team was probably part of the problem.  The torpedo hit caused the forward elevator to drop far enough to interrupt launching of aircraft so this was planked over so Taiho could continue flying aircraft.  The torpedo hit also causes a crack in the avgas tank that allows fumes to collect in the enclosed hanger to a dangerous level.  Eventually some kind of spark sets off the vapors that causes a massive explosion that dooms the ship.  So normally one torpedo would not sink such a warship, but the armored carrier design with no ability to open the hanger sides to allow the dangerous fumes to escape worked against the Taiho in this case.

 

http://www.aeronauti...arineArt217.jpg

It is also interesting to note that Taiho could have been hit by two torpedoes, but reportedly one of her pilots after launching from the flight deck saw the incoming torpedo and dived his plane into it.

 

 

 

 

 

As a side note the IJN Heavy Cruiser Haguro moved alongside the doomed Taiho and removed Admiral Ozawa.

http://www.thaiwreck...aguro-bw72x.jpg

[Tanz]

had to give u both +1's  :Smile_veryhappy:  :Smile_honoring:

[Jager_Panther1]

this is why the "Damage control" skill will be sooooo important.

[Robert9670]

http://www.globalsec...s/taiho_cut.gif

[AceF]

Jager_Panther1, on 12 January 2013 - 11:19 PM, said:

this is why the "Damage control" skill will be sooooo important.

Focusing on your damage control means you expecting to get hit, which is bad, you always have the mentalty, I will win, and everyone else but me will get hit :Smile_trollface:

[Daltron]

I lol'd when I read that when I was 11. Even back then it seemed stupid for there to be no way to vent gasses. What if a pipe randomly broke? Or even if a main burst? It wouldn't go out, it would go down.

 

Not forward thinking on the Japanese part.

[Crag_r]

AceF, on 17 January 2013 - 04:06 PM, said:

Focusing on your damage control means you expecting to get hit, which is bad, you always have the mentalty, I will win, and everyone else but me will get hit :Smile_trollface:

Sure its all well and good to have that on paper, but it was a tactic that simply didn't work for the Japanese.  :Smile_trollface:

[Daltron]

That's like running into a gunfight having armor but not wearing it because I'll win. lol

[Robert9670]

http://www.tarrif.ne.../taiho_main.jpg

[sharlin648]

Rober these are good but you should post a bit more information about the ship rather than just its size stats and armament etc which just seems like you culled it from Wikipedia.

[Crag_r]

sharlin648, on 20 January 2013 - 09:18 AM, said:

Rober these are good but you should post a bit more information about the ship rather than just its size stats and armament etc which just seems like you culled it from Wikipedia.

In fact it is almost like the exact wikipedia format...

[Robert9670]

Well, the reason I used the information found on Wikipedia is because Wikipedia has all the information in one place, making it easier to find what I need to know about a certain ship, such as the Taiho for example.

[sharlin648]

Yeah but all your doing is copy and pasting.  If you're going to do an article about a ship you should at least try and spice it up or make it your own rather than just copypasting.

[Robert9670]

sharlin648, on 20 January 2013 - 03:13 PM, said:

Yeah but all your doing is copy and pasting.  If you're going to do an article about a ship you should at least try and spice it up or make it your own rather than just copypasting.

Well I didn't see a thread about the Taiho already, so I thought I would make one.  By the way, I added a bit more to my original post, about how the Taiho sank.

[Coldt]

I think she's going to be balanced at tier 9 with the Taiho-Kai as the 10, which means the devs are going to have to balance its relatively low aircraft compliment against the Essex class.

[Robert9670]

Taiho as she appears in Navyfield

http://www.tarrif.ne...icons/taiho.jpg

[mgmythteller9]

Another weird angled smoke stack aircraft carrier to join the Japanese sisterhood. :teethhappy:

[Haguro]

mgmythteller9, on 13 May 2013 - 06:47 PM, said:

Another weird angled smoke stack aircraft carrier to join the Japanese sisterhood. :teethhappy:

The IJN was the only navy to apply this particular design feature to their carriers as a method to keep exhaust gases away from the flight deck during WWII.  However, it seems the USN used the design feature on the USS John F Kennedy  (CVN-67), the last conventionally powered carrier built for the United States Navy.  So there must have been some merit to it.