Akagi picture with most of the Kido Butai

[HazeGrayUnderway]

Found this from an Azur Lane Reddit post, thought it would be interesting to share since I've never seen this one before.

"Akagi leaves Celebes Island to attack Colombo on 26 March 1942. Soryu, Hiryu, the Crane sisters, and all four Kongo-class battlecruisers can be seen following her in the background."

 

For those not familiar, the "Crane sisters" are the two Shokaku-class Carriers.  Shokaku "Soaring Crane" and Zuikaku "Auspicious Crane."  The only Fleet Carrier of the Kido Butai not in this picture is Kaga.  There is a lot of naval power in this picture alone, especially this stage in WWII.

[Hukom]

I forgot what they call that white .... they put on the island.

[AVR_Project]

Hiei is the lead Kongo, showing the special pagoda mast.

In our game, all the ARP Kongo ships have that mast.  The real Kongo class mast is quite different.

[HazeGrayUnderway]

3 hours ago, ArmoredFrostX said:

I forgot what they call that white .... they put on the island.

Futons.  No, really.

[black_hull4]

8 hours ago, HazeGrayUnderway said:

The only Fleet Carrier of the Kido Butai not in this picture is Kaga.

Also IJN Hosho, still in service at the time, and operating with CVL IJN Zuiho & DD IJN Miyazuki in the Iwakuni Sea. 

♦

[tcbaker777]

and to think that 3 of the 5 CVs seen in that picture would slip between the waves only a few months later

[Murotsu]

12 hours ago, ArmoredFrostX said:

I forgot what they call that white .... they put on the island.

Kapok.  Those are 'splinter mattresses' designed to absorb splinters from shell or bomb hits.

[Sventex]

On 10/30/2020 at 10:08 AM, tcbaker777 said:

and to think that 3 of the 5 CVs seen in that picture would slip between the waves only a few months later

 

[JuiceEFruit]

On 10/30/2020 at 1:08 PM, tcbaker777 said:

and to think that 3 of the 5 CVs seen in that picture would slip between the waves only a few months later

And 2 of the Kongos. 

[HazeGrayUnderway]

On 11/6/2020 at 6:59 AM, JuiceEFruit said:

And 2 of the Kongos. 

I respect the Kongo-class the most above all the other IJN Battleships.  They were very active, the IJN loved using them, and they were the only Japanese Battleships to trade shells with the Allied Navies when the war was still on the line in 1942.  By the time the other newer, bigger bois of the IJN went out to actually fight, 1944 was closing and the war was already decided long before.  The sortie for Leyte Gulf was 100% useless.

 

"The Kongō-class battleships were the most active capital ships of the Japanese Navy during World War II, participating in most major engagements of the war. Hiei and Kirishima acted as escorts during the attack on Pearl Harbor, while Kongō and Haruna supported the invasion of Singapore. All four participated in the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal. Hiei and Kirishima were both lost during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942, while Haruna and Kongō jointly bombarded the American Henderson Field airbase on Guadalcanal. The two remaining Kongō-class battleships spent most of 1943 shuttling between Japanese naval bases before participating in the major naval campaigns of 1944. Haruna and Kongō engaged American surface vessels during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in late October 1944. Kongō was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion in November 1944, while Haruna was sunk at her moorings by an air attack in Kure Naval Base in late July 1945, but later raised and scrapped in 1946."

 

When one reads the service history of the other Japanese Battleships, they were all useless.  The only thing they did was Leyte Gulf in late 1944.  The Kongos OTOH, the IJN used them regularly.  The Japanese got a lot of wartime use from these very old ships of 1913-1915.