Japan's Taiho

[Tanz]

Here we have this Beautiful lady :Smile_honoring:

 

Taiho was a modified Shokaku, incorporating the lessons of the earlier years of the war. The flight deck was extended to the bow, which was on the British pattern. There was a substantial island to starboard side which housed the funnel that was angled outwards & exhausted well clear of the flight deck.

Taiho was among the most beautiful aircraft carriers built by Japan during WW2. Her distinct design, most notably the first to incorporate a closed hurricane bow, contributed to her aesthetic greatly. Seven more were planned but never started.

 

She was engaged at the Battle of the Philippines Sea only three months after her commission as the flagship of Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa. While launching aircraft, American submarine Albacore fired a spread of six torpedoes at her. Pilot Sakio Komatsu who had just been launched by Taiho saw the spread the six torpedoes and dived for one of them, but it resulted in failure. One of the torpedoes hit, jamming the ship's forward aircraft elevator and filling the elevator pit with gasoline, water, and aviation fuel, but since the armored flight deck was undamaged, Ozawa ordered launching operations to continue. The damage control team then made a fatal mistake. Believing that the best way to disperse gasoline fumes was to open up the elevator to the ship's ventilation systems, the novice damage control team leader filled the ship with flammable vapor. At 1330 on 19 Jun 1944, the vapor was ignited, and the entire ship erupted in an explosion. The ship began sinking very quickly. Ozawa wanted to go down with the ship, but his staff was able to convince him to transfer his flag to cruiser Haguro. After Ozawa left, a second explosion took place, and she sank astern shortly after, taking the lives of 1,650 men.

 

Builder: Kawasaki Heavy Industries

 

Laid Down: 10 Jul 1941

 

Launched: 7 Apr 1943

 

Commissioned: 7 Mar 1944

 

Sunk: 19 Jun 1944

 

Displacement: 29770 tons standard; 37270 tons full

 

Length: 855 feet

 

Beam: 90 feet

 

Draft: 31 feet

 

Speed: 33 knots

 

Crew: 1751

 

Armament: 12x99mm 65-cal anti-aircraft, 51x25mm anti-aircraft

 

Aircraft: 84

[Ariecho]

Well done, my friend (+1)

[Rickstag]

Very nice, always happy to see a post about a CV.

[StoneGoldKiller]

Great

[Coldt]

Japanese damage control was notoriously bad in the late war period.  I don't care if this was an enemy ship, that's a hell of a way to go.

[Windhover118]

Novice damage control or not, using the ventalation system to disperse flamable fumes just seems to go against common sense. Anyway, nice read Tanz, +1 for you.

[Crag_r]

I was about to say that out of taking a spread of 6 torpedoes only been hit by 1 was lucky... never mind...

[Mermaid_Witch]

When she exploded, she exploded HARD.  The force of the explosion blew out the sides of the ship and armored flight deck heaved up and buckled.

[xthetenth]

The US was pretty lucky in a way to have lost the Lexington to a fuel vapor explosion early. By Midway they were voiding their tanks. The Japanese didn't get hard experience with them till late in the war when there wasn't much to be done. Add in that the Japanese weren't as well equipped or universally trained in damage control (and were somewhat likely to lose damage control officers early in the battle due to their ready stations) and things don't look pretty.