when Kagas front 8inch turrets were removed in her 1933 refit, why did they keep the rear guns? Wouldnt it have been borderline impossible to get a decent range estimation and hit rate with only 3 guns? Edit: nevermind ignore this I missed the part where she got 4 additional single guns to replace the lost turrets.
Why did the US 6" Mark 16 gun have a lower muzzle velocity (2,500 feet/s) than the contemporary British 6" Mark XXIII(2,760 feet/s) and Japanese 6.1" Type 3(3,000+ feet/s)? Was this because 2,500 ft/s was the optimal velocity for use of its super-heavy AP shells or would it have been better if the Mark 16 had a higher muzzle velocity with its super-heavy AP shells?
Japanese carriers have side funnels (which I think looks very cool) while US had straight funnels next to the island. What is the idea behind the two different designs and the pro and cons of each one? Which design would you prefer?
@@HighlanderNorth1 don't know what you mean by this sorry. I'm assuming it's a joke? It is what the war is referred to but then again even living in the states for 18 years, sarcasm is still hard for me to grasp at times.
One thing about the sinking of Kaga - Wade McClusky of the Enterprise dive bomber squadron was recently assigned (he used to command the fighters) and hadn't been instructed in US dive bomber doctrine and so, over Kido Butai at Midway, he messed up the attack strategy. There were two dive bomber squadrons on Enterprise - VB-6 and VS-6 (VS meant "scouting" rather than "bombing"). Dive bomber doctrine said that in the event of a multiple-target scenario the squadron commander's unit would attack the furthest target (which would be IJN Akagi) while the other squadron would take on the nearer one (Kaga). Because McClusky didn't know how dive bomber squadrons operated, he did this in reverse, ordering his squadron to attack the nearest ship (Kaga). Meanwhile, Lt. Dick Best, commander of VS-6, said on the radio "I am attacking according to doctrine". The result was that both attacked the Kaga - two entire squadrons of dive bombers hitting one ship from all sides while Akagi (Nagumo's flagship) almost wasn't attacked at all. At the last moment Lt. Best realized what was happening and aborted his attack on Kaga and managed to peel his two wingmen out of the attack and, as Kaga was being plastered, he led his section of three Dauntlesses against Akagi in what was essentially a desperation attack. One bomb missed, one scored a near miss on Akagi's stern, and Best put his bomb right down Akagi's central elevator, where it exploded in the hangar among the fully-fuelled Japanese aircraft, with bombs and torpedoes lying around, and set of a catastrophic chain reaction that blew Akagi to pieces.
Lt Best was also responsible for the sinking the Hiryu latter that day. So unfortunate about the bad oxygen tank, glad though that he survived the War.
@@lowfreak Lucas has said his inspirations for the Death Star thing just came from old war movies. One that he cited in particular is the 1960s movie '633 Squadron' that ends in a suicide mission that's pretty close to what happens in Star Wars.
I really like the radical carrier designs that were tried before people found out what design would work the best. They give a little insight into the minds of the designers as they figured out what was important and what wasn't.
That's why the pioneering era of any technology is usually the most interesting one. You can see all kinds of wacky things tried that won't be repeated later - usually for a reason. The golden age of innovation when "sure, why not? What could go wrong?" is considered a sound design principle.
I disagree. The idea was very good, and the lower flight deck definetly worked. It only became problematic when the aircraft increased in size and weight, which made the middle flight deck completly unusable and the lower one barely usable. But the idea to launch directly from the Hangar without needing elevators would have greatly decreased plane take off time and thus would have allowed way quicker follow up strikes. In some aspects its a similar concept to todays angled flight decks. It was a very good idea, it just proved less and less usable with bigger aircraft, but in 1923 nobody could anticipate how fast planes would develop.
@@Formulka the heavy anti surface guns were a good idea at the time. Aircraft of that time period were not that strong, and with attack tactics still being in their infancy it was quite possible that the carrier itself could have been ambushed by smaller faster destroyers or maybe light cruisers. So having guns to defend itself was a good idea at the time. The US carriers also had them. Its the same concept as secondary guns on battleships. Yes your escorts are supposed to keep the enemy away but that just does not work every time. Especially in the 1920s and early 30s without radar and stuff like that. The guns proved themselves to be useless later on, but that only came with experience.
@@BobSmith-dk8nw yes, if we consider about size. Chinese deployed 1.7 millions soldier and it is almost twice as larger than Poland. but in that time European major is not in war. when Poland was invaded, both theater became on going war. so I think ww2 is started in 1 September 1939.
On October 18, 2019, the RV Petrel discovered the wreck of Kaga 18,000 feet down on the ocean floor. She's buried up to the degaussing wires in mud (don't see a clean enough picture here to point those out) with the flight deck gone. A large debris field surrounds her.
Back in 1999, wreckage from the Kaga was discovered, though it wasn't positively identified as coming from the Kaga until sometime the next year. The wreckage consisted of two large anti-aircraft gun tubs and a small section of the flight deck. I believe the landing light boom, that was used to indicate if an aircraft coming in for a landing was in the right angle of attack, was also part of that wreckage. The rest of the Kaga wouldn't be found for another twenty years. I remember being frustrated when I heard the 1999 expedition had run out of time and money to continue searching for the rest of the ship. It didn't help searchers that Kaga had burned and suffered numerous explosions for nine hours before she was sunk. She just drifted along while bits and pieces were blown off of her to be scattered into the abyss.
@@Kwolfx A picture of the wreckage you mention can be found in "Shattered Sword". One interesting fact; that book has an artists impression of what Kaga probably looked like before she sank based on witness accounts; pretty much all of the upperworks apart from her bridge structure are just gone. When they found the wreck, she looked amazingly like the artist's interpretation.
@@Kwolfx Nine hours of slowly loosing speed and directional control, would make for a very large debris field indeed. She would have been going at near her top speed and making evasive manuvers when hit by the bomb. How long she remained at top speed and under control afterwards is somewhat questionable but she would have been moving at something like 27 knots possibly in some degree of a turn. Even if her boilers were vented straight away and no further power was delivered to her propellers, her speed and mass would have meant that she could sail on for quite some distance before she lost all way. This means that her debris field will easily be several square kilometres in area. That means an awful lot of side scan sonar and ROV time to locate anything on the bottom of the ocean.
Older "sister" Akagi to Kaga: "The scar left on your beautiful face would be a tragedy. I insist you are to take care of yourself. If something were to happen to you, I would be very sad."
@@glenchapman3899 The French floating hotel pre-dreadnoughts are steampunk. Kaga is much more dieselpunk aesthetically, despite technically still running on steam.
When I was a kid, the only place I saw a triple decked carrier was in a cartoon called "Star Blazers" A.K.A. "Space Battleship Yamato" in Japan. I had no idea there actually had been 3-deck carriers.
Wild enough that the engineer who came up with it was quietly reassign to the battleship design bureau where it was thought he could do no harm. Result - The Pagoda mast.
Akagi was also originally completed with three decks. A three deck arrangement was considered for the Lexingtons. The Couragouses were built with two flying off decks.
She had the biggest sidepipes ever! Likely also where Space Battleship Yamato got the groundwork idea for it's multi deck carriers, the Gamelon Gaiperon and Guipellon class ships.
Excellent as always but if I may express a tiny little bit of criticism, it would have been very nice if you had mentioned the discovery of the wreck a couple of years ago, hence you had done it with several other ships. Thanks as always for your good work.
As a non-english speaker, I wanted to say I really appreciate when subtitles are available on your videos. The content is interesting but sometimes I just can't understand all the names, technical terms or numbers you're throwing at us, so being able to read it at the same time is a blessing. A shame this isn't the case for every video on the channel.
@@spikespa5208 Thank you. I think a lot of errors can be attributed to the fact that many look those videos with their phones. We all know how... capricious the autocorrect can be. ^^
@@Drachinifel You give the YT auto generation the very best possible chance: slow, clear speech and pronunciation. Sometimes, as with certain German videos, this can make the difference between chaos and clear understanding. But it's a spotty thing, as you said. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. As always, THANKS for the video!
Seeing the representation of of the original small super-structure design of Kaga as a battleship, one is rather struck by clean graceful hull design. Her hull looks like the hull of a yet to be fully rigged clipper or schooner, or even an easily handled medium bellied canoe.
IIRC, Parschall and Tully state that the senior surviving (albeit badly wounded) officer was the gunnery officer who was on the far side of the bridge island directing AA gun fire when that particular bomb went off.
@@kemarisite From the combined fleet website. Hiyo was hit by a small bomb from a Dauntless of either Air Group 10 (Enterprise) or Air Group 16 (Lexington). This was followed by TBF Avengers from Air Group 24 (Bellau Wood) scoring a hit on the Starboard Engine room
I must be dreaming, it has only been how many years since he did the last IJN carrier, the Taiho?! Great work and hoping to see more of the famed Kido Butai!
Kaga was the worst hit of all the Kido Butai. Despite the strength of her construction, between USN bombs and her own ordnance below decks, it was all over in mere minutes of the dive bomber attack.
The multiple flight deck was a sign of its times. Enterprise and her sisters were designed with a lower deck transverse catapult, which would've served much the same purpose. Heavier planes (especially monoplanes) were the death knell for such ideas. Biplanes lifted high as they left the flight deck, where monoplanes drop low before rising again. That latter physic would obstruct lower deck aircraft launches.
I always wondered why Kaga never participated in the Indian Ocean raid. I also just figured she didn't participate in Coral Sea because she was preparing for Midway which was partially true.
@@mochiebellina8190 - Define "we" because this is history; military history. Don't get me wrong. I'm glade Kaga was sunk. Midway was a pivotal battle in the Pacific and had the USN lost it, the war would have been extended. The Japanese would have been in a position to endanger Hawaii and finish the airstrip on Guadalcanal, cutting off Australia.
Practicality aside, I love these multi flight deck ships. Given how often they show up in Space Battleship Yamato, I know I am not alone in thinking this,
Kaga is my favourite IJN carrier and I have been waiting for a video for her for a long time. She wasn’t perfect bus she certainly a beautiful looking ship.
Always interesting to see the designs of early era carriers and all the different things various Navies tried out while still figuring out how to best use naval airpower.
Ah yes! Saturday morning coffee and a visit by Drachinifel ... outstanding. An outstanding subject for this morning's presentation sir. Very well done! Thank you!
Didn't they find the Kaga in late 2019? They'll find even more wrecks in the future, it'll will be unreàl. Some very deep. Like when they found the Indianapolis, funded by Paul Allan was so cool! Anyway, Flight deck, looked awesome 👍😊. They kept trying, & found what they were hoping for.
The USS Johnston is the deepest wreck discovered. There are now metal scavengers hauling up sunken ships as scrap metal, so at least DD-557 is safe from grave-robbers...
When the first Midway movie came out, 1976 I think, a friend told me that his father had flown a plane at Midway. I had never heard of the battle. About 40 years later I was into flying RC airplanes and had learned about the significance of Midway. I came across a magazine article about a model of a plane that had participated in the battle. It was the plane flown by my friend's dad. At 1500 feet he hit the Kaga with a 1000 lb. bomb and was credited by some with sinking it.
The Cranes in reality were far superior, both in terms of design and their actual combat record (especially against other carriers). This is possibly my biggest gripe with KC.
@@bkjeong4302 The statement from Kaga refers to the low standing of CarDiv 5's aircrew within the Kido Butai pre-Midway. They were considered "noobs" by the crews of CarDivs 1&2 and their performance at Coral Sea was seen as a bumbling victory = "if the sons of the concubine (= CarDiv 5) could win the victory, the sons of legal wives should find no rivals in the world." (Lord, 1967) With regards to their stats in KC, both cranes received major upgrades in 2015 which made them the best carriers in the game, until the introduction of US CVs.
@@Ozraptor4 Yes, the IJN THOUGHT CarDiv5 sucked.....when in reality they were actually superior. So the fact the game treats it as if they ACTUALLY sucked compared to CarDiv1 is an error. The fact they needed those upgrades to actually be as powerful as they historically were only furthers my point. They should be superior even without any upgrades (in fact, they should be the strongest non-American carriers in the entire game by a massive margin, even without upgrades).
Listening to the end of the ship I was going, yeah, that’s bad, then that’s worse as Drachinifel went down the list of what happened to Kaga. We are talking a nearly perfect storm of damage taking out one vital system after another. Ouch.
In the book "Shattered Sword" there account's from surviving crew gathered on the exposed deck below the flight deck seeing the walls of the hangar decks glowing red from the fires raging. It is a rather harrowing read.
I think it is critical for us to remember that when this carrier was built there was no real definition of role and doctrine. With 20/20 hindsight it is obvious the mistakes that the Japanese made but again at the time this was one of those “state of the art” ships.
And to their credit, they learned from their early mistakes. The one lesson they didn't have a chance to learn until too late was preparing for battle damage.
There’s actually a sketch somewhere of what Kaga looked like after being hit (minus the fire). Essentially there’s a massive hole where the back half of the flight deck used to be and its down to the water line.
There are presently no videos that come up in a search about the USS Lanikai. This ship voyages from the Philippines before it fell, to Australia, in the early days of America's involvement in WW2 in the Pacific. She was transfered to the Royal Australian Navy and was sunk in a typhoon in 1947.
XP is really important. Take Yorktown. After the Battle of the Coral Seas, she fine tune her lunching system. She got all of her planes up before Enterprise and Hornet during Midway.
Looking at _Kaga_ (and _Akagi_ too) as built, and also considering the other converted CVs, it's remarkable the degree to which the USN guessed right when converting the _Lexingtons._ (Considering _Ranger,_ it obviously *was* a matter of guesswork - but still some good guesses there.)
@@gregorywright4918 Not as much as you might think. _Furious_ was under reconstruction from her original configuration to a flush-deck carrier from 1921-1925; _Courageous_ and _Glorious_ didn't even begin their carrier conversions until 1924 and didn't complete them until *1928.* _Lexington_ and _Saratoga_ were already well along in building by 1925, and both ships were *commissioned into service* in *1927.* Just as a matter of timing, then, there was very little opportunity for the USN to take lessons from _Furious,_ and *no* opportunity to learn from _Courageous_ and _Glorious,_ prior to designing the _Lexington_ conversions.
@@Philistine47 Fair enough. Furious had gone through three iterations, with fore and aft landing decks, a ramp in between the funnels, and then then the flush-deck. There were a couple other attempts at flight decks on merchant-types, and the US had the Langley in the early 20s. Probably a lot of reports from 1916-24 of what NOT to do, and recognition that a clear deck and getting the stack gasses out of the way were top priorities. They went the wrong way on enclosed hangar and heavier guns, though.
Yeah ... thanks. Learned some things I didn't know. I played the Avalon Hill Game _Midway_ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_(1964_game) dozens of times with my High School War Gaming Buddies. We graduated to compass and protractor games of people playing in different rooms with moves put on vellum and sent to a judge. So ... seeing Kaga has some nostalgic value for me as many, many times I was either her commander or the opponent of her commander. With six fleet carriers and over 400 aircraft - _Kido Butai_ was an extremely powerful naval strike force in the early months of WWII - that just went around stomping on people. Midway really changed things. .
I know in retrospect it looks and sounds ridiculous but, think about it…. you launch medium weight fighters from the bottom deck, lightweight scout planes from the middle deck and heavier torpedo bombers from the top deck. It was definitely worth a shot especially considering they had the hull sitting around collecting dust.
Apparently the lower decks were simply too short to launch aircraft. At least without the assist of a catapult. And like it was said in the video, the small hangar space limited the number of aircraft the ship could carry. In any case, there have been no successful multi-flight deck carriers that I am aware of. Can you name any?
I read in several books of Kaga’s destruction was most severe of all Japanese carriers sunk during the Battle of alMidway. would like to see a video of planes launching from those lower flight decks
Under rated comment. Of course the Boeing of that era was run by engineers, not corporate managers at a remote Chicago HQs counting their stock options.
Wait till you see the double-triple decker. Which is exactly what it sounds like, two triple deckers side by side linked by a central hull. Yamato 3 was..weird
Look how low those aft sponson guns are. The word: "wet"; comes to mind. Kind of reminds me of the Myokos, whose excessive topweight lowered the ships in the class to the point where they were in danger of flooding if anyone opened a porthole.
No, I've seen discussions on that photo before and the consensus is that it was doctored. The only known photos of a damaged Japanese carrier at Midway are of Hiryū.
There are a number of examples available on ebay - 1:350 scale (so quite large) and very expensive at around AU$500 plus. Not a cheap hobby at all [sad face].
@@Caesar-ww3yp - a year ago. I think I googled it, or could have been on ebay. Can't actually remember where I saw them, but do remember there were a few, maybe as many as 5 or 6.
The Kaga (DDH-184) is today also a converted aircraft carrier. Officially denoted as a Helicopter Destroyer, the flattop got a deck reinforcement and thermal protection to carry the F-35B. Just last month, she successfully completed the landing and launch of three F-35B aircrafts operated by the USMC. She is now officially re-designated a "Multi-Purpose Destroyer". I shall be looking forward to Japan's next generation 100,000 ton class "Catapult Destroyer"... LOL!
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Pinned post for Q&A :)
when Kagas front 8inch turrets were removed in her 1933 refit, why did they keep the rear guns? Wouldnt it have been borderline impossible to get a decent range estimation and hit rate with only 3 guns?
Edit: nevermind ignore this I missed the part where she got 4 additional single guns to replace the lost turrets.
Why did the US 6" Mark 16 gun have a lower muzzle velocity (2,500 feet/s) than the contemporary British 6" Mark XXIII(2,760 feet/s) and Japanese 6.1" Type 3(3,000+ feet/s)? Was this because 2,500 ft/s was the optimal velocity for use of its super-heavy AP shells or would it have been better if the Mark 16 had a higher muzzle velocity with its super-heavy AP shells?
Japanese carriers have side funnels (which I think looks very cool) while US had straight funnels next to the island. What is the idea behind the two different designs and the pro and cons of each one? Which design would you prefer?
How would Bismarck have fared had she been armed with 12 15 inch Guns in 4 triple turrets?
what is the most confusing turn of events during naval conflict.
My grandfather served on the Kaga as a lieutenant commander 1932-1939. We still have his cruise log from the second sino japanese war.
Ohh. Your grandfather was a facist.
Let us all be proud of family service.
@@ronammologist16 Agreed! I respect all those that served (spent my last birthday visiting BB-59 Massachusetts).
They apparently defeated the "Sinos" so thoroughly that they ceased to exist! No one talks about the country of "Sinovia" anymore either....
@@HighlanderNorth1 don't know what you mean by this sorry. I'm assuming it's a joke? It is what the war is referred to but then again even living in the states for 18 years, sarcasm is still hard for me to grasp at times.
One thing about the sinking of Kaga - Wade McClusky of the Enterprise dive bomber squadron was recently assigned (he used to command the fighters) and hadn't been instructed in US dive bomber doctrine and so, over Kido Butai at Midway, he messed up the attack strategy. There were two dive bomber squadrons on Enterprise - VB-6 and VS-6 (VS meant "scouting" rather than "bombing"). Dive bomber doctrine said that in the event of a multiple-target scenario the squadron commander's unit would attack the furthest target (which would be IJN Akagi) while the other squadron would take on the nearer one (Kaga). Because McClusky didn't know how dive bomber squadrons operated, he did this in reverse, ordering his squadron to attack the nearest ship (Kaga). Meanwhile, Lt. Dick Best, commander of VS-6, said on the radio "I am attacking according to doctrine". The result was that both attacked the Kaga - two entire squadrons of dive bombers hitting one ship from all sides while Akagi (Nagumo's flagship) almost wasn't attacked at all. At the last moment Lt. Best realized what was happening and aborted his attack on Kaga and managed to peel his two wingmen out of the attack and, as Kaga was being plastered, he led his section of three Dauntlesses against Akagi in what was essentially a desperation attack. One bomb missed, one scored a near miss on Akagi's stern, and Best put his bomb right down Akagi's central elevator, where it exploded in the hangar among the fully-fuelled Japanese aircraft, with bombs and torpedoes lying around, and set of a catastrophic chain reaction that blew Akagi to pieces.
comment moved.
Lt Best was also responsible for the sinking the Hiryu latter that day. So unfortunate about the bad oxygen tank, glad though that he survived the War.
After fast forwarding the talking parts of Midway I can confirm how badass these dudes were
Is Best's bomb maybe what inspired George Lucas to create Luke Skywalker's bomb run on the Death Star?
@@lowfreak Lucas has said his inspirations for the Death Star thing just came from old war movies. One that he cited in particular is the 1960s movie '633 Squadron' that ends in a suicide mission that's pretty close to what happens in Star Wars.
I really like the radical carrier designs that were tried before people found out what design would work the best. They give a little insight into the minds of the designers as they figured out what was important and what wasn't.
Ya prototypes are usually pretty whack like that.
They worked better with wood-and-canvas biplanes, at least for takeoff. As mentioned, hangar deck space was sacrificed.
That's why the pioneering era of any technology is usually the most interesting one. You can see all kinds of wacky things tried that won't be repeated later - usually for a reason.
The golden age of innovation when "sure, why not? What could go wrong?" is considered a sound design principle.
@@AlpostponeA lot of the early ironclads and turreted ships are interesting because of this too imo.
A salute to those lost with Kaga. No matter what side you are on, nobody deserves to die like that.
Deserve has nothing to do with it.
No soldier and sailor ever deserved to go to war.
The multi-stacked flight deck looks cool, not very good overall, but still looks cool
exactly, and the two turrets flanking the middle flight deck are just icing on the cake
I disagree. The idea was very good, and the lower flight deck definetly worked. It only became problematic when the aircraft increased in size and weight, which made the middle flight deck completly unusable and the lower one barely usable. But the idea to launch directly from the Hangar without needing elevators would have greatly decreased plane take off time and thus would have allowed way quicker follow up strikes. In some aspects its a similar concept to todays angled flight decks. It was a very good idea, it just proved less and less usable with bigger aircraft, but in 1923 nobody could anticipate how fast planes would develop.
@@Formulka the heavy anti surface guns were a good idea at the time. Aircraft of that time period were not that strong, and with attack tactics still being in their infancy it was quite possible that the carrier itself could have been ambushed by smaller faster destroyers or maybe light cruisers. So having guns to defend itself was a good idea at the time. The US carriers also had them. Its the same concept as secondary guns on battleships. Yes your escorts are supposed to keep the enemy away but that just does not work every time. Especially in the 1920s and early 30s without radar and stuff like that. The guns proved themselves to be useless later on, but that only came with experience.
I try to imagine the carnage and problems that arise when aplane slides of and subsequently skids into the lower flight decks.
Space battleship Yamato did an EXCELENT version of it in it.
"began to rack up xp in the latest round of the Sino-Japanese" - made me chuckle quite a bit :)
Yes wasn't that a land war
@@jimwind7589 maybe coastal attack to the harbour
@@jimwind7589 IJN aircraft supported IJA land operations and land-based IJN bombers.
Yeah. Most people don't realize that WWII started in 1937 at the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo_Bridge_Incident
.
@@BobSmith-dk8nw yes, if we consider about size. Chinese deployed 1.7 millions soldier and it is almost twice as larger than Poland. but in that time European major is not in war. when Poland was invaded, both theater became on going war. so I think ww2 is started in 1 September 1939.
On October 18, 2019, the RV Petrel discovered the wreck of Kaga 18,000 feet down on the ocean floor. She's buried up to the degaussing wires in mud (don't see a clean enough picture here to point those out) with the flight deck gone. A large debris field surrounds her.
Back in 1999, wreckage from the Kaga was discovered, though it wasn't positively identified as coming from the Kaga until sometime the next year. The wreckage consisted of two large anti-aircraft gun tubs and a small section of the flight deck. I believe the landing light boom, that was used to indicate if an aircraft coming in for a landing was in the right angle of attack, was also part of that wreckage. The rest of the Kaga wouldn't be found for another twenty years.
I remember being frustrated when I heard the 1999 expedition had run out of time and money to continue searching for the rest of the ship. It didn't help searchers that Kaga had burned and suffered numerous explosions for nine hours before she was sunk. She just drifted along while bits and pieces were blown off of her to be scattered into the abyss.
@@Kwolfx A picture of the wreckage you mention can be found in "Shattered Sword". One interesting fact; that book has an artists impression of what Kaga probably looked like before she sank based on witness accounts; pretty much all of the upperworks apart from her bridge structure are just gone. When they found the wreck, she looked amazingly like the artist's interpretation.
@@Kwolfx Nine hours of slowly loosing speed and directional control, would make for a very large debris field indeed. She would have been going at near her top speed and making evasive manuvers when hit by the bomb. How long she remained at top speed and under control afterwards is somewhat questionable but she would have been moving at something like 27 knots possibly in some degree of a turn. Even if her boilers were vented straight away and no further power was delivered to her propellers, her speed and mass would have meant that she could sail on for quite some distance before she lost all way. This means that her debris field will easily be several square kilometres in area. That means an awful lot of side scan sonar and ROV time to locate anything on the bottom of the ocean.
Older "sister" Akagi to Kaga:
"The scar left on your beautiful face would be a tragedy. I insist you are to take care of yourself. If something were to happen to you, I would be very sad."
Greetings, fellow Shikikan.
Okay it may have been less practical later on in life, but the triple deck and the funnel looking like the exhaust on an AC Cobra looks so cool
Yeah has this crazy steampunk look about her.
I’m sure that’s what the designers were looking for, a “cool looking” boat.
@@georgehays4900 well the Italians certainly had it in their philosophy
@@glenchapman3899 The French floating hotel pre-dreadnoughts are steampunk.
Kaga is much more dieselpunk aesthetically, despite technically still running on steam.
@@Alpostpone Yes I can see that lol
When I was a kid, the only place I saw a triple decked carrier was in a cartoon called "Star Blazers" A.K.A. "Space Battleship Yamato" in Japan. I had no idea there actually had been 3-deck carriers.
Another man of culture, I see! 👍
@@grahamstrouse1165 We do exist. Despite rumors to the contrary.
I used to run home from school just to catch the next episode, loved that series!!
@@toddgrant4268 Great times!
That triple deck was wild! Never thought anything like that got off the drawling board.
I've seen artwork and models of 'triple-deck space-ships'.
So maybe it's just a matter of time.
French pre-dreadnought designers: Hold my congac.
Wild enough that the engineer who came up with it was quietly reassign to the battleship design bureau where it was thought he could do no harm. Result - The Pagoda mast.
Akagi was also originally completed with three decks. A three deck arrangement was considered for the Lexingtons. The Couragouses were built with two flying off decks.
Presumably inspired by the Courageous, Glorious, and Furious.
She had the biggest sidepipes ever! Likely also where Space Battleship Yamato got the groundwork idea for it's multi deck carriers, the Gamelon Gaiperon and Guipellon class ships.
Excellent as always but if I may express a tiny little bit of criticism, it would have been very nice if you had mentioned the discovery of the wreck a couple of years ago, hence you had done it with several other ships. Thanks as always for your good work.
As a non-english speaker, I wanted to say I really appreciate when subtitles are available on your videos.
The content is interesting but sometimes I just can't understand all the names, technical terms or numbers you're throwing at us, so being able to read it at the same time is a blessing.
A shame this isn't the case for every video on the channel.
The YT auto generation is a bit weird and spotty in its functionality. :(
As a non- english speaker, your english writing (spelling, grammar, phrasing) is excellent. Shame this isn't the case in every comment section.
"Shawn Horst" and "Admiral Donuts" in the Battle of North Cape video.
@@spikespa5208 Thank you. I think a lot of errors can be attributed to the fact that many look those videos with their phones.
We all know how... capricious the autocorrect can be. ^^
@@Drachinifel You give the YT auto generation the very best possible chance: slow, clear speech and pronunciation. Sometimes, as with certain German videos, this can make the difference between chaos and clear understanding. But it's a spotty thing, as you said. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. As always, THANKS for the video!
Seeing the representation of of the original small super-structure design of Kaga as a battleship, one is rather struck by clean graceful hull design. Her hull looks like the hull of a yet to be fully rigged clipper or schooner, or even an easily handled medium bellied canoe.
The phrasing ‘destroyed the bridge and most of the command crew’ hit me hard. It brings home the human cost of these ships.
811 fatalities. War games are fun. War is hell.
IIRC, Parschall and Tully state that the senior surviving (albeit badly wounded) officer was the gunnery officer who was on the far side of the bridge island directing AA gun fire when that particular bomb went off.
The dauntless would repeat that trick on Hiyo at the Battle off the Philippine sea.
@@ph89787 may not have been Dauntlesses. Most of the carriers had been converted to the SB2C from Curtis by then.
@@kemarisite From the combined fleet website. Hiyo was hit by a small bomb from a Dauntless of either Air Group 10 (Enterprise) or Air Group 16 (Lexington). This was followed by TBF Avengers from Air Group 24 (Bellau Wood) scoring a hit on the Starboard Engine room
“You're not even a replacement, you're a collection of decayed parts, A ship of Theseus that shall not sail, that's what you are, Kaga...”
Like for the "ship of Theseus" reference.
Hey fellow SKK, that's a reference to the Azur Lane anime, specifically EP11 where Amagi/Orochi said that to Kaga. No wonder it felt so familiar.
Hello fellow Azur Lane fan.
I find it funny how there is a great number of WW2 ship enthusiasts that are also anime ship girl fans.
Welcome to the comment thread, shikikan.
Excellent - the early IJN carriers are a fascinating subect
That final picture is amazing. Haven't seen that one before.
It's not legitimate, unfortunately.
I must be dreaming, it has only been how many years since he did the last IJN carrier, the Taiho?! Great work and hoping to see more of the famed Kido Butai!
I'm always stunned by the human loss in naval battles. 811 sailors sunk with the Kaga, that's just hard to grasp.
Kaga was the worst hit of all the Kido Butai. Despite the strength of her construction, between USN bombs and her own ordnance below decks, it was all over in mere minutes of the dive bomber attack.
“Began to wrap up xp in the latest Sino-Japanese war” had to chuckle.
The multiple flight deck was a sign of its times. Enterprise and her sisters were designed with a lower deck transverse catapult, which would've served much the same purpose. Heavier planes (especially monoplanes) were the death knell for such ideas. Biplanes lifted high as they left the flight deck, where monoplanes drop low before rising again. That latter physic would obstruct lower deck aircraft launches.
My favourite IJN carrier.
I always wondered why Kaga never participated in the Indian Ocean raid. I also just figured she didn't participate in Coral Sea because she was preparing for Midway which was partially true.
One of the two "war horses" of the Kido Butai alongside Akagi. They packed a mean much, and were not to be messed around with.
- Montemayor
Enterprise : 😶
@@issacfoster1113 the Kido Butai could deal nasty hits, but they could not take them.
@@themanformerlyknownascomme777 .Sōryū, and Hiryū defense (armor) sucks. Like 41 mm steel.
The real aces of the Kido Butai were the Shokaku sisters.
@@bkjeong4302 yeah the shokaku and zuikaku were strong
Ty I can always count on an interesting video from you Drachinifel
I really love these 5 minute videos they are short, to the point and Informative!
There is an artist depicion of her damage after the attacks... and it is nuts! Half of her was desintegrated up to the lower level of the hangars.
Such depictions can be found in Shattered Sword.
Fascinating vessel interwar period always delivers.
Best naval history channel bar none !!@
This channel is my Patreon dollars well spent
I cant get enough of this stuff. Great work as usual.
It's a pity due to IJN security, there are so few pictures of Japanese carriers and all the other ships.
There may be only one photo of Shinano, the carrier built on a converted Yamato hull.
We only wanted to see them as fish reefs.
@@mochiebellina8190 - Define "we" because this is history; military history. Don't get me wrong. I'm glade Kaga was sunk. Midway was a pivotal battle in the Pacific and had the USN lost it, the war would have been extended. The Japanese would have been in a position to endanger Hawaii and finish the airstrip on Guadalcanal, cutting off Australia.
I am just so fascinated with the IJN thank you
You have no clue how long I have waited for this 5 minute guide Drach. Thank you
Thank you. Very interesting. Today I learned that Kaga had 3 decks. It's still one of the most powerful CVs in the game.
Practicality aside, I love these multi flight deck ships. Given how often they show up in Space Battleship Yamato, I know I am not alone in thinking this,
Kaga is my favourite IJN carrier and I have been waiting for a video for her for a long time. She wasn’t perfect bus she certainly a beautiful looking ship.
Drach, can you do a video on the USS Houston? Saw a ton of combat early on, would love to hear your take on her service.
fascinating carrier, who seemed cursed from the get-go. Thank you Drach
3:40 its an aircraft carrier with side pipes
Always interesting to see the designs of early era carriers and all the different things various Navies tried out while still figuring out how to best use naval airpower.
Ah yes! Saturday morning coffee and a visit by Drachinifel ... outstanding. An outstanding subject for this morning's presentation sir. Very well done! Thank you!
Didn't they find the Kaga in late 2019? They'll find even more wrecks in the future, it'll will be unreàl. Some very deep. Like when they found the Indianapolis, funded by Paul Allan was so cool! Anyway, Flight deck, looked awesome 👍😊. They kept trying, & found what they were hoping for.
The USS Johnston is the deepest wreck discovered. There are now metal scavengers hauling up sunken ships as scrap metal, so at least DD-557 is safe from grave-robbers...
@@scocon8658 Most of the Japanese carriers sank in deep ocean. They won't be touched.
Thank you for the great work Sir
Thanks Drach. @07:28 ... taking 811 men with her - chilling stuff.
The USS Franklin (CV-13) lost around that number, with another 500 wounded, but survived due to much better damage control.
Love this channel
Awesome. One of my favorite ships
Kaga muti-deck Carrier was so good even alien copy it :)
You are a man of culture, I see! 🙂👍
You can have all my candy, p-please don't eat us, miss Kaga
Only Ark lolicon will eat you little one
Ah you try to destroy her with Diabetes? Sneaky!
Drachinifel, Thank you.
When the first Midway movie came out, 1976 I think, a friend told me that his father had flown a plane at Midway. I had never heard of the battle. About 40 years later I was into flying RC airplanes and had learned about the significance of Midway. I came across a magazine article about a model of a plane that had participated in the battle. It was the plane flown by my friend's dad. At 1500 feet he hit the Kaga with a 1000 lb. bomb and was credited by some with sinking it.
Fascinating as always
Kaga: Please don't compare me to the 5th Carrier Division.
Zuikaku: *zui~ zui~ intensifies*
The Cranes in reality were far superior, both in terms of design and their actual combat record (especially against other carriers). This is possibly my biggest gripe with KC.
@@bkjeong4302 The statement from Kaga refers to the low standing of CarDiv 5's aircrew within the Kido Butai pre-Midway. They were considered "noobs" by the crews of CarDivs 1&2 and their performance at Coral Sea was seen as a bumbling victory = "if the sons of the concubine (= CarDiv 5) could win the victory, the sons of legal wives should find no rivals in the world." (Lord, 1967)
With regards to their stats in KC, both cranes received major upgrades in 2015 which made them the best carriers in the game, until the introduction of US CVs.
"You're not even a carrier. You are a battleship with a flight-deck duct taped on it."
@@Ozraptor4 Yes, the IJN THOUGHT CarDiv5 sucked.....when in reality they were actually superior.
So the fact the game treats it as if they ACTUALLY sucked compared to CarDiv1 is an error. The fact they needed those upgrades to actually be as powerful as they historically were only furthers my point. They should be superior even without any upgrades (in fact, they should be the strongest non-American carriers in the entire game by a massive margin, even without upgrades).
Listening to the end of the ship I was going, yeah, that’s bad, then that’s worse as Drachinifel went down the list of what happened to Kaga. We are talking a nearly perfect storm of damage taking out one vital system after another.
Ouch.
In the book "Shattered Sword" there account's from surviving crew gathered on the exposed deck below the flight deck seeing the walls of the hangar decks glowing red from the fires raging. It is a rather harrowing read.
Good as always
I think it is critical for us to remember that when this carrier was built there was no real definition of role and doctrine. With 20/20 hindsight it is obvious the mistakes that the Japanese made but again at the time this was one of those “state of the art” ships.
And to their credit, they learned from their early mistakes. The one lesson they didn't have a chance to learn until too late was preparing for battle damage.
@@tomhath8413 Their philosophy was to focus on the attack, also seen in aircraft stripped of armor or self-sealing tanks.
I do love the look of the USS Lexington and USS Saratoga with their 8" guns before removal, everyone was learning.
Congrats on 300k!
Most interesting. I've never seen some of the photos before.
7:02 - that is an amazing photo. It’s a wonder anyone managed to make it out alive.
There’s actually a sketch somewhere of what Kaga looked like after being hit (minus the fire). Essentially there’s a massive hole where the back half of the flight deck used to be and its down to the water line.
I saw that sketch in the book "Shattered Sword" (which Drach did an interview with one of the authors).
1000 lb bombs have a way of doing that.
@@tomhath8413 a mixture of 1000lbs and 500lbs bombs.
I thought that sketch was of Akagi?
@@themanformerlyknownascomme777 definitely Kaga. The island is on the Starboard side.
The Kaga was always my favorite Japanese carrier.
There are presently no videos that come up in a search about the USS Lanikai. This ship voyages from the Philippines before it fell, to Australia, in the early days of America's involvement in WW2 in the Pacific. She was transfered to the Royal Australian Navy and was sunk in a typhoon in 1947.
Kemp Tolley
Great book
Very informative !!
HAHAHAHHA 'rack up xp in the later sino-japanese war' thats why i like your channel so much drach!
XP is really important. Take Yorktown. After the Battle of the Coral Seas, she fine tune her lunching system. She got all of her planes up before Enterprise and Hornet during Midway.
Thank you very smart
(me, looking at thumbnail): This won't end well.
Not disappointed.
Is the last photo real? Never saw it before.
favorite carrier
Kaga: I scoff at your puny attempts of a torpedo attack!
Also Kaga: Are those.... dive bombers?
Wade McClusky was in the mood, and Kaga was immolated...
...Dick Best...wasn't...and the poor Akagi...! 🤣
@@theokamis5865 oof
Kinda suprised you didn't mention the wreck discovery.
5:32 - Why does the Kaga have a spoiler fitted? Was it really that much of a fast carrier?
That’s actually one of Kaga’s elevators!
Was home for IJN most experienced squadrons.
Brilliant.
Terimakasih sudah menyediakan terjemahan dalam bahasa Indonesia
Be interesting to know more about the Allied and Axis Naval bases.
Looking at _Kaga_ (and _Akagi_ too) as built, and also considering the other converted CVs, it's remarkable the degree to which the USN guessed right when converting the _Lexingtons._ (Considering _Ranger,_ it obviously *was* a matter of guesswork - but still some good guesses there.)
Even the British tried the multi-flight-deck thing on H.M.S. Furious. The US Navy got it right!
@@nx9100 Royal Navy loves the cloth skined biplanes like Swordfish.
@@nx9100 USN was building on the experience of RN with Furious, Glorious and Courageous.
@@gregorywright4918 Not as much as you might think. _Furious_ was under reconstruction from her original configuration to a flush-deck carrier from 1921-1925; _Courageous_ and _Glorious_ didn't even begin their carrier conversions until 1924 and didn't complete them until *1928.* _Lexington_ and _Saratoga_ were already well along in building by 1925, and both ships were *commissioned into service* in *1927.*
Just as a matter of timing, then, there was very little opportunity for the USN to take lessons from _Furious,_ and *no* opportunity to learn from _Courageous_ and _Glorious,_ prior to designing the _Lexington_ conversions.
@@Philistine47 Fair enough. Furious had gone through three iterations, with fore and aft landing decks, a ramp in between the funnels, and then then the flush-deck. There were a couple other attempts at flight decks on merchant-types, and the US had the Langley in the early 20s. Probably a lot of reports from 1916-24 of what NOT to do, and recognition that a clear deck and getting the stack gasses out of the way were top priorities. They went the wrong way on enclosed hangar and heavier guns, though.
hail to the brave Japanese sailors!
Yeah ... thanks. Learned some things I didn't know.
I played the Avalon Hill Game _Midway_
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_(1964_game)
dozens of times with my High School War Gaming Buddies. We graduated to compass and protractor games of people playing in different rooms with moves put on vellum and sent to a judge.
So ... seeing Kaga has some nostalgic value for me as many, many times I was either her commander or the opponent of her commander.
With six fleet carriers and over 400 aircraft - _Kido Butai_ was an extremely powerful naval strike force in the early months of WWII - that just went around stomping on people.
Midway really changed things.
.
Japanese designs are fascinating.
Star Blazer type carrier. Or Space Battleship Yamato.
*Yamato
maybe for April Fools lol
@@SeveralWeezelsInaTrenchcoat Thank you. Fixed the spelling.
Yes, the Gamilas multideck astro carriers (Gaiperon-class in the rebooted 2199 timeline) are clearly inspired by early configurations of Akagi & Kaga.
MY FAVOURITE CARRIERRRRRRRRRR
Slept in but all I can say is Great Job! Let’s see all of them in time
The Japanese built some of the most beautiful warships of their time. They were a fearless foe, much respect to those fighting men!
I know in retrospect it looks and sounds ridiculous but, think about it…. you launch medium weight fighters from the bottom deck, lightweight scout planes from the middle deck and heavier torpedo bombers from the top deck. It was definitely worth a shot especially considering they had the hull sitting around collecting dust.
Apparently the lower decks were simply too short to launch aircraft. At least without the assist of a catapult. And like it was said in the video, the small hangar space limited the number of aircraft the ship could carry. In any case, there have been no successful multi-flight deck carriers that I am aware of. Can you name any?
I read in several books of Kaga’s destruction was most severe of all Japanese carriers sunk during the Battle of alMidway. would like to see a video of planes launching from those lower flight decks
For some reason, the developing lexicon of my niece caused her to call me Kaga as an infant.
6:25 Is that a Kongō-class in the background?
Im surprised that the triple deck was not a Boeing Idea first.
Under rated comment. Of course the Boeing of that era was run by engineers, not corporate managers at a remote Chicago HQs counting their stock options.
6am Drach and coffee. Nice..
The triple flight deck carrier would make a reappearance in Space Battleship Yamato in service to the Gamilon Empire.
Wait till you see the double-triple decker.
Which is exactly what it sounds like, two triple deckers side by side linked by a central hull.
Yamato 3 was..weird
Also in Mobile Suit Gundam with the two big MS carriers at Aboawaku.
Look how low those aft sponson guns are. The word: "wet"; comes to mind. Kind of reminds me of the Myokos, whose excessive topweight lowered the ships in the class to the point where they were in danger of flooding if anyone opened a porthole.
So this is where the giapellon class tri-deck carrier originated from
My favorite JN carrier! Lots of gaming back in the C64 day!
Theres a c64 game with kaga????
@@Colt45hatchback Midway Campaign
@@StuSaville looks like ill have to plug the 128d in and have myself some fun
Hmm, had a look on yt at videos of it.. Cant pick your team?
RIP battleship doctrine. Long live the carrier Doctrine.
Actually, it was the Washington Naval treaty.
@@1968gadgetyo I’m well aware of the Washington and London treaties. I was trying to do a funny.
I have Kaga in 1/350 scale.The only Pearl Harbor raider I'm missing is Soryu.
That’s cool.. you should post a quick video of them
Is the last picture in this video an ACTUAL picture of the Kaga burning at Midway?
I've never seen it before.
I was wondering the same thing.
No, I've seen discussions on that photo before and the consensus is that it was doctored. The only known photos of a damaged Japanese carrier at Midway are of Hiryū.
7:14 , Is this an actual photo of Kaga burning up with explosions at the battle of Midway ???
@@S0RGEx That's what I thought.
Wish I had a model of Kaga.
There are a number of examples available on ebay - 1:350 scale (so quite large) and very expensive at around AU$500 plus. Not a cheap hobby at all [sad face].
@@lunsmann link?
@@Caesar-ww3yp - a year ago. I think I googled it, or could have been on ebay. Can't actually remember where I saw them, but do remember there were a few, maybe as many as 5 or 6.
The Kaga (DDH-184) is today also a converted aircraft carrier. Officially denoted as a Helicopter Destroyer, the flattop got a deck reinforcement and thermal protection to carry the F-35B. Just last month, she successfully completed the landing and launch of three F-35B aircrafts operated by the USMC. She is now officially re-designated a "Multi-Purpose Destroyer". I shall be looking forward to Japan's next generation 100,000 ton class "Catapult Destroyer"... LOL!