Why did Shokaku so consistently outperform other IJN CVs? I Presume this is because of better crew training and leadership, but maybe there is more to it like details or other explanations?
Sinlge torp hit sinkings... did the ships not have good torpedo defense, or was it the incompetent damage control that plagued the Japanese through WWII?
"If you could name two future Royal Navy capital ships with unique (still unused) names, what would those be?" Drach, I absolute adore your channel and really appreciate the amount of effort you put into these videos. Cheers from your fan with the blue HMS Hood sweater!
The flag was being lowered and so they were called to attention. I believe the Captain thought the ship was stable enough to allow for such an orderly evacuation. As you can imagine, though, the Imperial Japanese ships tend to roll over abruptly and suddenly during such times.
@@FLJBeliever1776 supposedly a number of Task Force 38’s aircraft especially those from Enterprise. Witnessed it and the pilots and gun crews stuck the finger up in response.
@@ph89787 Given just how much Enterprise and her crew hated Zuikaku, and justifiably so (the two carriers were arch-enemies for, what, basically the entire Pacific War?), I’d perfectly believe it.
Given Shokaku's damage at Coral Sea and Santa Cruz, her damage control teams were certainly excellent. They also valiantly fought for the ship prior to her sinking.
Ah yes, the Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku. Also known as Zuikaku's meatshield. Context: Zuikaku didn't received any battle damage until the Battle of Cape Engano wherein Shokaku was already sunk.
Aka. The Yorktown’s punching bag during 1942. Bombed by Yorktown and Lexington at Coral Sea. Splash damage from Enterprise at Eastern Solomons and bombed again by Hornet at Santa Cruz.
It is very tragic. In a few moments, the ship will explode, the deck elevator will be blown apart and the hangar will turn into a raging infernal. Many, too many of these men will slide down the flight deck and fall into the gaping jaws of that elevator and into the fire. That photp is erie and haunting.
Yes...impressive, and sad. I've always thought of the IJN as being less savage and brutal than the army, although they must have had their share of idiots in the command structure. But the rank and file were just doing their duty, and such a senseless loss of life still seems tragic. Can't help thinking that that devaluation of human life was a contributing factor in Japan's defeat.
It is always frustrating when you make a History video and even think about complementing or wishing the souls of the Axis nations rest. people get so up in arms about it forgetting that the average sailor, soldier, aircrew were just that average humans, people, and they should not be all seen with the hate that their superiors deserved. :( I once had a person call me a 1930's Fascist political party member for putting a message of: "I wish all the souls lost in this battle safe passage to where ever they go next" I mean it is the internet so that is normal but, it is just sad people forget that the average joe in the boiler room was likely just a persons son, who had no choice to be there.
@JZ's Best Friend We'll never know. It's easy to imagine that many of them were imbued with "the warrior spirit" until they met their end, but it's one thing to die locked in combat with an enemy, and quite another thing to see your death coming as your ship sinks, knowing there's nothing you can do about it, long after the enemy has left the field and there's no one to fight. The _bushido_ spirit may not be much comfort in that scenario
Easily the greatest (and my personal favorite) Japanese carriers. There's some real interesting stuff with them, Zuikaku in particular had a lot of curious relationships with several American aircraft carrier lineages: -She both sunk and was sunk by ships named USS Lexington; playing a role in the sinking of Lexington CV-2 during the Battle of Coral Sea in 1942 and being sunk by that ship's successor, Lexington CV-16, during the Battle of Cape Engaño in 1944, and previously had many of her planes destroyed by Lexington CV-16 during the Battle of the Philippine Sea earlier that year. -Similarly with the USS Yorktown lineage; she significantly damaged Yorktown CV-5 during the Battle of Coral Sea, and Yorktown CV-10 would be responsible for shooting down many of her aircraft and scoring several damaging hits on her during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. -Same with the USS Hornet name; playing a role in the sinking of Hornet CV-8 during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in 1942 and her airgroup being almost completely wiped out by aircraft from that ship's successor, Hornet CV-12 (and Lexington CV-16, Yorktown CV-10, Enterprise CV-6, and a couple other carriers), as well as severely damaging her, at the Battle of the Philippine Sea. -And she had something of a rivalry with/served as a foil to Enterprise CV-6; being responsible for severely damaging or sinking both of her sister ships (Yorktown CV-5 and Hornet CV-8) and facing off against Enterprise several times throughout the war (even managing to severely damage her twice, during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, both in 1942), before Enterprise too destroyed many of her aircraft at the Battle of the Philippine Sea and played a role in her sinking at the Battle of Cape Engaño. Both also had reputations of being lucky ships, Zuikaku's name even translates to "Auspicious Crane", and were the most successful carriers of their respective navies. -She even has an interesting relationship with her sister Shōkaku; the ships almost always sortied together and the results were almost always the same - Shōkaku being damaged with Zuikaku coming out unscathed, and Zuikaku suffering more severe airgroup losses than Shōkaku. Zuikaku only first took major battle damage after her sister was sunk during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and she was sunk the first time she went into a battle without her sister during the Battle of Cape Engaño.
@@S0RGEx The Shokakus actually got a fair amount done even when compared to Allied capital ships; they certainly accomplished a lot more than pretty much every WWII-era Allied battleship put together (even Washington and Duke of York didn’t play nearly as big a role, and those two actually managed to justify their existence) or older WWI-era Allied battleships, and they also did more than the two Lexingtons and arguably the British carriers. The only carriers that definitely played a bigger role overall would be the Yorktowns and Essexes, and in the case of the Yorktowns the Shokakus fought against them repeatedly.
@@benjaminrees6665 I'd counter the doctrine of the IJN was a prime example of how a poor plan, well supplied and well-executed, is still going to meet poor results. They made the same mistake as GER in mistaking the USA's desire to stay out of international wars as weakness, and didn't understand the USA actually has a VERY martial culture and enjoys a fight, but has a cultural bias against getting into fights unless picked on first. Neither the Prussian culture or the Imperial Japanese culture really understood these concepts it seems and anyone who took the time to learn it would have known the USA would NOT sue for or accept any quick peace if they felt they had been bloodied. But, I suppose it worked out in the end, the USA beat two of the most militant cultures in the history of the human race and turned them into pacifist cultures for several generations now.
@Håkan Bergvall Extremist Government again? We now have a Centre Left Government as against Centre Right. If you think that is extremist, you went to the wrong school. And "Threat to the rest of Europe"? I guess you live in another timeline & accidentally posted in ours?
@@fortusvictus8297 Wasn't it Yamamoto that stated, (And I'm probably badly paraphrasing) "You do know, if we start this war, we cannot stop at Pearl Harbor, or even the West coast. We must fight our way to Washington DC and make them accept the surrender terms in the rose garden." Or am I just imagining things?
Out of all IJN carriers I always have a soft spot of the Shokaku class. IMO this pair are the most capable pre-war fleet carrier design across any navy.
@@paulsteaven The _Shokakus_ were *bigger* than the _Yorktowns._ *Better,* though... By what metric? Not air group capacity, because the _Yorktowns_ beat them on that. Not aircraft handling, either, because the enclosed hangars of the _Shokakus_ meant that they, like other IJN CVs, had to warm up their aircraft engines on the flight deck - significantly slowing down the process of spotting and launching aircraft compared to USN practice. Maybe toughness, but OTOH both _Yorktown_ and _Hornet_ took a whole lot of killing, far in excess of any abuse that either _Shokaku_ endured and survived; and _Enterprise_ for her part survived several serious beatings herself. The only areas where I see the _Shokakus_ having a definite advantage over the _Yorktowns_ are raw size and a 2 knot margin of top speed. And while those are both useful things, especially for a CV, it's not clear to me that they're enough to make the _Shokakus_ "better carriers" than the _Yorktowns._
Second greatest! Shokaku was the greatest, surviving battle damage and sending dedicated and deadly air strikes to almost certain death yet playing a role in sinking Lexington, Hornet, and damaging Yorktown so she was barely repaired for Midway. What other could be number 1 - Zuikaku, Shinano, Taiho? None of them suffered, yet succeeded, as did Shokaku.
@@jimmacsween5891 Zuikaku is definitely the No. 1 followed by her sister Shokaku. Then either Akagi or Hiryu. Taiho didn't live up to expectations so she'll be dead last if we're talking about effectiveness.
Interesting that Shokaku had a radar. I guess it was even better that neither one of them was at Midway. It was particularly horrifying reading about how the Shokaku went down.
I spotted a ~ 4 foot hand crafted model of the IJN Unryu at a yard sale in Huntington Beach, California last fall. No doubt based on the level of detail, it had significant meaning to the builder. The guy selling it had no ideas of the model's history and was asking $200.
In case you're wondering, as I did when I first started seriously reading about the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Third and Fourth Carrier Divisions were made up of just about every other air unit the IJN possessed at one point or another. Initially they were primarily seaplane tender units, then they involved both the IJN's modern light carriers like Ryujo and Zuiho as well as their really antiquated or rickety ones like Hosho and Junyo (this being their makeup during the six-month initial period where the IJN could actually be said to operating on full war footing as close as it ever got to as-designed), and eventually even included the battleship hybrid conversions Hyuga and Ise.
I would not call Junyo "antiquated or rickety" - she was a conversion of a '30s passenger liner, like Hiyo, but both suffered from lighter non-military construction and engines that were not designed for the heavy steaming demanded of carriers.
@@gregorywright4918 I felt fairly comfortable applying "rickety" to Junyo based on her engines, which thoroughly crippled her potential -- "antiquated" was definitely more aimed at Hosho, not that it was her fault or anything.
There is a bit of an English Language myth about Shokaku being damaged and Zuikako losing all of her air group, and “why didn’t they just combine them?”. What everybody mostly misses is that while Zuikaku’s hangers were full to overflowing with aircraft, those aircraft were almost entirely A6M Zero’s. Absent were any large numbers of attack aircraft, be they Dive Bomber or Torpedo planes. And most of the attack plane crews had been lost. Coral Sea was really the first direct meeting between the Japanese and American A list carrier air groups, pilots and planes. While the F4F Wildcat was not as agile a dog fighter against the Zero, it’s heavy firepower and high ammunition load made it devastating against the Kate’s and Val’s. They didn’t send Zuikaku out with Shokako’s planes because it would have been an entirely defensive Carrier. Fielding nothing but Fighters. And Japanese Carrier Doctrine had no concept of such a thing. A Carrier was to hit the enemy. A Carrier without bombers was useless. In the 20/20 hindsight of History we can see that a purely defensive Carrier flying nothing but Fighter escort probably would have saved the day at Midway. If the Japanese Admirals would have been able to think outside the box. But “Victory Disease” tends to blunt the need for innovation or creative thinking. The Japanese Naval Air arm did not have a particularly deep pool of ready trained pilots. Given the harshness and intensity of their pilot training program, and the high degree of fail outs they were unable to replace entire attack units on the fly in a few days.
The air unit also "belonged" to the carrier, much like the crew did. The Zuikaku was holding the Shokaku's aircraft (what were left of them) that could not land on the damaged mother ship, but the expectation was that they would return to her once she was repaired. The flyer training was also done from "your" ship once you graduated from land-based flight school; they did not have training carriers at this point as intermediaries before final front-line assignment. Production of replacement attack planes was also an issue.
@@gregorywright4918 That whole “belonged to the Carrier” has a lot of nuance to it that often gets overlooked. In theory Shokako’s pilots could operate for a time from Zuikaku. And they might not even smack the bridge… which was on the opposite side from what they trained. But they were an adaptable group. Why a number of Zuikaku’s pilots demonstrated their cross deck capabilities and lined up for a perfect landing attempt on the Yorktown. Which goes a long way to explaining why there were vacancies in Zuikaku’s hanger. But the key thing is they had lost the better part of 4 attack squadrons. Above and beyond the loss of planes, which they likely could have found. They needed to reconstitute a large number of carrier qualified bomber pilots. Which they did not have enough of on short notice. Maybe if they had cancelled the Aleutian operation they could have scrounged up a full air wing.
@@andrewtaylor940 Again, cancelling the Aleutians would not "free up" squadrons for Zuikaku because those planes "belonged" to Junyo and Ryujo. The IJN did operate squadrons ashore, like on Taiwan and Rabaul, but considered those squadrons would need considerable retraining to operate from ship. Plus they were mostly fighter squadrons. The IJN was stretched thin by the middle of '42, and most ships had been hard at sea with little time for refits. Every spare air group was deployed somewhere, many in primitive conditions like DEI and Rabaul. Given standard IJN doctrine, I doubt they would have even considered doing the air group training for Shokaku's group on Zuikaku while they waited for Shokaku to complete repairs.
@@gregorywright4918 Oh I agree. It’s just the only place I see where they could have scrounged up some carrier qualified attack squadrons. But they were never going to do it. Japanese Carrier Doctrine was very much against thinking outside the box. Heck the Shokako and Zuikaku pilots that did make it back to Kure were shunned and ignored by the other Carrier groups. They were labeled as losers. Nobody wanted or was willing to talk to the only Japanese pilots to have gone head to head against an American Carrier air group. Whereas by the time Yorktown pulled into Pearl for her 48 hour duct tape and a prayer repair job every airman in the Navy had read and discussed every after action report and every piece of information that could be gleaned about the Japanese Planes, Carriers and Pilots. And were brainstorming ways to deal with them. Hence the legendary “Thatch Weave”.
Owing to their limited industrial capacity and lacking in raw materials, the overly ambitious Japanese have to bite more than they can chew and opted for a more offensive military doctrine and a short decissive war. This is the reason their defensive department is void of any provisions or reserve at all.
Great short on this ship Drach! I would love to see something on CV-2 and CV-3 (Lexington and Saratoga) the converted battle cruisers. My Dad served on CV-2 and was aboard when she was eventually scuttled. The stories... He always told me that they would not discover the Lex in his lifetime as it is in very deep water. 2 years after he passed, sure enough, they found it mostly intact.
"refused to move the air group of a damaged carrier to an operational carrier that didn't have an air group". Thank you for reminding me of my list of "for gawd's sake, don't do it this way" (and fire anyone proposing this, immediately). Imagine Midway's outcome if the IJN fleet had another premier carrier available........................
@@johnlee1297 but based on battle damages received by Shokaku throughout the war, she might/can survive the battle assuming that she will not suffer the catastrophic internal explosion damage suffered by 3 Japanese aircraft carriers.
@Yuri Setsuna deoends on hiw things play out. With more fighters on CAP and more for the inital strike Nagumo may mot be so hesitant about ammo load outs. More cap means better defense and if she was near Hiritu may surove the inital attack and help with the counter. It would have been 5 vs 3 in thwor favor
His playlists are sorted by ship types, not nationality. Good alternate suggestion, but it would take a bit of work (which we all prefer he put into quality...).
According to Wikipedia they translate as soaring crane and auspicious crane, not sure how accurate that is since my knowledge of Japanese is basically zero xD
翔鶴 Shou-"to fly, to soar", Kaku-"crane; stork; elderly, stately, fire-crowned bird". 瑞 Zui, Mizu-"youth, lustre, beauty, splendor, good omen, fortunate, auspicious". "Happy or blessed" would work. Kanji often don't translate word for word, you go with the general concept or quality they convey.
@@scottgiles7546 Yes, it's true. I hate coffee. I can't stand the taste or smell of it. 8 years in the USN and I hate coffee. Must be some kind of genetic disorder.
While this pair were the best ships of the big 6 fleet carriers, their air wings apparently were formed later and less experienced than the wings assigned to the 4 carriers at Midway. These 2 carriers were given less important roles than the 4 older, less capable carriers but assigned more experienced wings.
The older carriers had the older, more experienced air wings. The S & K were commissioned in '41, and mostly got air crews straight out of school (with a few experienced leaders). The usual arrangement would be a "working up" period to train and familiarize, but they had to forgo most of that due to being needed for Pearl. Since they were the newest ships, they were called on to "cover" the Port Moresby/Coral Sea action while the others retired for mini-refits in May. The IJN thought the USN carriers were in the Hawaiian waters, so Coral Sea would not be too hard.
The Shokakus actually demonstrated the greatest bombing accuracy out of the entire Kido Butai at PH in spite of their inexperience. They were by far the best capital ships Japan had, their own navy was far more focused on the Nagumo Four. Honestly it’s a shame the Cranes aren’t household names like some other (often far less accomplished) WWII ships. Aside from their historical importance, they also have the distinction of not murdering Chinese civilians, which you can’t say about the rest of the Kido Butai (which were involved in bombing operations in China).
Of the old 6 CVs of the Kido Butai that attacked Pearl Harbor, it's the Shokaku-class that were the only ones that did any real hurt to their American counterparts. Shokaku & Zuikaku did the following number to American Carriers, all in 1942: Coral Sea - Sank Lexington, heavily damaged Yorktown. Eastern Solomons - Damaged Enterprise. Santa Cruz Islands - Badly damaged Enterprise, sank Hornet. Post-Midway, the Shokaku-class were the only big fleet carriers of the IJN until 1944. But by the time of 1944, when armored carrier Taiho entered service giving the IJN a grand total of 3 fleet CVs with air groups, the US Navy's carriers had grown several times over because the Essex-class started arriving in 1943. The USN carrier force was an unstoppable juggernaut come 1944.
@@metaknight115 Hiryu was an aircraft carrier part of the Kidō Butai. She heavily damaged the Yorktown CV-5 at the battle of midway with two airstrikes making it possible for Yorktown to be later sunk by a submarine. So the head comment is wrong.
They did cause the loss of two full sized fleet carriers, when every other carrier of the Kido Butai never even sunk one(Hiryu got close, but no cigar)
Hi there mate, I've been watching your channel for years. Never commented before. Excellent. Great content always enjoy, especially RAN vessels. Thankyou, mate.
Drach noticed something rarely mentioned by other Pacific air war observers, the Japanese could easily have had a fifth carrier at the Battle of Midway but the foolishly refused to combine the Shokaku and Zuikaku aircrews on to the undamaged Zuikaku... so they left her in port for the coming battle. Meanwhile practical, Midwestern American Admiral Nimitz had the Pearl Harbor shipyards work night and day to get the Yorktown back to operational status in time for the coming battle. As the battle played out, with the Yorktown and Enterprise air crews completely missing the Hiryu in the morning attack, and the hornet Hornet dive bombers infamously flying off to nowhere, had the Zuikaku been in the fleet the Americans would have had a very hard time sinking her and the Hiryu before more American carriers were attacked by the deadly dive bombers and Long Lance torpedoes Yamamoto really screwed up, he left the Zuikaku in port, and his three light carriers off on a wild goose chase to the Aleutians 6:37
A great presentation! Thank you for spotlighting Japan’s 2 greatest warships Sho & Zui - not Yamato & Musashi. It is interesting to look back to see how the 3rd largest navy in the world, and probably the most modern and forward-thinking, was reduced to rusting wreckage on the floor of the Pacific in just 4 catastrophic years. Salutes to the American submarines and aircraft carriers that caused that carnage!
To be fair to the Yamatos, while they WERE useless and a waste of resources, being a strategic failure is a WWII battleship thing in general. Even the American fast battleships, with the exception of Washington (and even she only had one real success to her name) failed to justify their existence despite active careers, as they ended up in roles that were a) already effectively covered by other warships (cruisers and destroyers as carrier escorts, and cruisers, destroyers, Standards, and even modified landing vessels for shore bombardment), and b) failed to justify the strategic expenditure of building a capital ship.
@@bkjeong4302 You've beaten this dead horse many times before, but just to reiterate that the decisions and designs for all WWII fleet organization and building were made in the mid and late '30s, well before the game-changing lessons of '40-'41. Everyone in the late '30s was building both battleships and carriers, and expected the latter to support the former. Kido Butai was only formed in '41, and that "genius" returned to a Kentai Kessen strategy of the Main Body being the battleships at Midway. The carrier was a sitting duck at night and in bad weather when she could not fly her planes (HMS Glorious?), so fast battleship escorts were still needed to escort them and assist with AA defense during the day. That it did not happen to the USN like the RN does not mean that the "strategic expenditure" was not justified - it was just changed as the new reality emerged. Don't get me started on the Alaska's, though.
@@gregorywright4918 Glorious was sunk in good visibility, when air ops were completely possible. Her commanding officer was just a complete idiot who refused to make use of his aircraft. Not a good case study for carriers actually needing anti-surface escorts. And yes, everyone (wrongly, as it turned out) expected that battleships would be the heavy hitters. But if you’re giving the Americans slack for making that mistake on that basis, the Japanese also should get a similar treatment.
So, it seems that the IJN was literally fighting three enemies at once - the US Navy, the Imperial Japanese Army, and their own internal gross mismanagement.
Sho and Zui were legendary ships, fighting it out with Enterprise, Lexington, Yorktown, Hornet and (occasionally) Saratoga. I understood Zuikaku had beveled edges on her flight deck which distinguished her. She relied on Shokaku for radar initially, as she did not have that in many early battles. Zuikaku was a lucky ship, only taking severe damage at the time she was sunk, by which time she was just a sacrifice. In previous battles Shokaku took the brunt of strike damage in attacks on them both. I don’t think Zuikaku being at Midway would have led to a Japanese victory - just a loss of 5 (out of 6 total) instead of 4 fleet carriers due to superior American intelligence. What amazes me is the callous attitude IJN commanders took toward their highly-trained flight crews. Poorly protected, flying vulnerable planes, and with little thought for parachutes (Sakai said many pilots didn’t use them) Japanese aircrew losses were horrific compared to U.S. losses. Japanese military saw it as an honour to die for their emperor and the allies were happy to oblige them! The video said 1/2 of the Zuikaku crew died when she sank but it appeared from the photo of her crowded, slanted deck that she sank slowly enough for a full abandonment - could it be many of her crew chose to die with the ship that had served them so long and well?
The Japanese thought showing a willingness to die would frighten the American public enough to force peace talks; the idea that the Americans would respond by shrugging and getting on with the war was somehow entirely outside Japan's predictions.
Nothing demonstrates better that "No Bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his" than the Japanese in WWI.
The Eagle and the Crane. The greatest warships of their respective fleets, one a secret superweapon built for arguably the most evil regime the world has ever seen, the other a bloodthirsty ghost out to destroy all enemies in her sights. Seriously why isn’t there an Enterprise vs. Zuikaku TV series following both vessels from Pearl Harbor to Leyte Gulf or at least to Santa Cruz? (And yes the Japanese built the Shokakus as superweapons in the vein of the Yamatos-the two classes were even part of the same building program and all four vessels were built at the same time. This was a big part of why the Unryus became a thing as it turned out the Shokakus were too big and expensive to build in larger numbers).
it would be great to hear about japanese radar development ,did they develop it independently ,borrow it from germany or capture any tech at singapore /hongkong ?
A bit of everything actually. Japan was knowledgeable in radar prior to the war, but the military failed to grasp its value and it went underappreciated, ironically the published research helped the allies develop theirs. The rivalry between Army, Navy and civilian groups didn't help either. The Germans tried to ship a complete radar set to Japan, but they were sunk. Twice. However paperwork and documentation did make it. They reverse engineered British and US radars left behind at the start of the war in the PTO. With all that, they then got around to developing their own radar sets. However overall they were still a few years behind everyone else, albeit catching up quickly. They had lots of issues with production though, lack of resources and poor quality control meant only a few sets were produced and only a few warships were fitted.
Bilge Pumps podcast 38 had some guests to talk about Japanese radar in WW2 which I highly recommend. Short version: much more and better by the end of the war than we usually think.
You would be surprised. Japanese radar research was actually quite advanced prior to the war. For example there is a reason why the Yagi antenna used in various radars is named as such
Shokaku Soryuu Shinano Shohou Shimakaze Shigure All used to get mixed up by me... It’s either Shi or Sho (Technically differences exist, but I’m not providing a guide to a language I have yet to learn) Shikaku Shiyuu/Shoyuu Shonano Shihou Shomakaze Shogure I never got Sor mixed with anything else...
I always thought that Japanese Carriers were to goofiest patch up job possible, but watching Drach, I now understand that, well, they were just "repurposed" other ships. Thank God they were Fire Traps in Battle.
I would argue that they WERE a worthy adversary as late as Santa Cruz. They did more damage to the Yorktowns than every other Japanese military asset of WWII combined, and even managed to sink Hornet and nearly sank Enterprise twice, in exchange for Shokaku nearly being sunk at Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz and the catastrophic loss of Japanese air groups during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
@@bimmerbomber2002 Yorktowns had superior radar, avgas protection, and slightly more planes all on a much lower displacement. The IJN in general had better air crew training, experience and doctrine in '42 so battle results tended their way. The real kicker was the poor US torpedoes compared to IJN, which tended to be the ship killers.
@vvvci every new generation of carriers has moved the island further aft, from Lexington (CV-2), to Essex, to Kittyhawk, the islands have been moved further aft Gerald Ford is just the evolution..... Plus which when the ship Wei g hs 106,000 THOUSAND tons, it don't matter if you can see ahead, you are probably going to win any collision/right of way argument you get into LOL
Another excellent video. Thanks. I must admit that I find the notion that aircraft from different wings cannot serve on the same carrier is frankly ridiculous. It's like the Japanese were trying to sabotage themselves.
I’ve always wondered the same thing. The Imperial Japanese Navy had their faults, but they weren’t stupid. They obviously could see the same undermanned carrier(s) and availability of air crews then, that we see now. There must have been some compelling reason, in their doctrinal thinking, important enough to deprive themselves of these naval air assets at these critical periods of time in the war. Does anyone know of any post war allied surveys and/or interviews of senior Japanese naval officers, where this particular question ever discussed?
Shattered Sword (Parshall and Tully) has a discussion of this. Basically it just wasn't the way it was done. Be grateful. 5 against 3 would have been worse odds for Fletcher and Spruance.
Shattered Sword is indeed an excellent resource on this subject. It was just an entirely different training philosophy than comparable Western services. That's why they never recovered from Midway in any appreciable way. The loss was beyond catastrophic, not in material terms, but in personnel. The cream of the Imperial Japanese Naval Aviation's crop went down in flames at Midway. Pilots. Flight deck crews, mechanics, ordinance men, those four were most prestigious, so the best of the best were assigned to them accordingly. A lot of the training occured within a ship's cadre, without a real process to send men ashore to train others in serious numbers like USN and USMC policy that ensured American pilots only got more lethal through out the war, and preserved combat pilot experience, both by turning experience into instruction, and ensuring pilots get to rest and be out the fur ball for a bit.
@@kalashnikovdevil Pilot losses at Midway were surprisingly light (and Shattered Sword points this out). It was the Guadalcanal campaign that really took a toll on Japanese pilot numbers. And the Japanese really couldn’t have implemented a more effective pilot training program even if they wanted, for lack of fuel.
The supposed poor protection of the Yamatos is massively overblown (as covered on this channel and elsewhere and by Nathan Okun), and the real problem with the Yamatos was there was no need for them.
As Admiral Yamamoto once mused "The two yearlings of Carrier Div 5 would probably not get into too much trouble at Coral Sea" and so allowed them to go off by themselves to support the Port Moresby invasion force. That, in retrospect, was a grave tactical error as they should have been kept firmly in check and accompanied the 4 large fleet carriers at Midway. What a difference they may have made to the outcome of that battle...They certainly were fine ships and would have made the Kido Butai damn near invincible had they been used in each operation after Pearl Harbor.
@@damianzaninovich4900 There is no dispute as to the long term implications of America's ability to outproduce Japan in Naval strength. The point of the comments were on the near term implications of having an intact Kido Butai at Midway. @Jason Lee, good observation however Yorktown's Coral Sea damage did not interfere significantly with its performance at Midway regardless.
It should be noted that CarDiv5 was badly underestimated by the Japanese themselves, despite being superior to CarDiv1 and CarDiv2, on the basis that it had less combat experience.
@@bkjeong4302 I’ve heard one of the numerous reasons for the IJN’s overconfidence at Midway was that the pilots and staff on CarDivs 1 and 2 thought that. “If the shinies can sink 2 American Carriers. We can do the same with less casualties.”
A very concise history of a very storied ship. I had read somewhere that it turned out to be better to put the bridge on the right-hand side, as right-handed pilots who were injured tended to pull the stick to the left while landing (contraction beats extension), thus aiming the plane toward anything lined up on that side. Might this be the reason for a right-sided bridge, or were there other reasons?
Radial engines tended to pull aircraft to the left, which fits in with the injured pilots/damaged aircraft bit you suggested. I read somewhere the first purpose-built aircraft carrier had towers on both sides, but that idea was quickly abandoned. Everyone has used strictly starboard towers since.
@@stefanlaskowski6660 ah, your explanation helps, as all carrier aircraft had radial engines. Even an intact returning pilot (were there ever such, having just returned from being shot at by an entire enemy fleet in nothing more than a gasoline-filled aluminum can?) would have to be conscious of the need to monitor engine torque upon landing, just another thing to think about in addition to hitting the wire.
Yorktowns. The Essex-class came later; their contemporary would be the Taihou-class, or perhaps the Hiryu-derived carrier class that Japan had attempted to mass produce.
@@Raptor747 I disagree, since the Japanese dumped the carriers, the Shokakus were 32k tonnes while the Yorktowns were ~23k tonnes. They are closer to the Essexes than the Yorktowns in terms of size. Yes they were a bit earlier, it was only about 2-3 years.
Time-wise they're close to the Yorktowns but capability-wise they're actually closer to the Essex class (which, like the Shokaku's, are the first non-treaty bound design of their respective nations), overall they're something of an in-between step, although on a subtly different development course and offset by several years of technological development.
Hey Drac, I had a thought recently: It feels like Seaplane tenders are at least to my knowlage are completely uncovered or loved in naval history. By chance is there a class or ship of them you feel is worth covering or could at least recommend for research if you haven't already? Long term goal I might like to make a 3d model of one (if I ever get that good in blender) but in the meantime it would just be nice to see them given some love and learn some things myself.
Doctrine of use would be an interesting topic of research. The IJN had seaplane fighters as well as recon/patrol units, and they were heavily used in the Solomons. One of the task forces from Rabaul was ignored because they thought the big ship in it was a seaplane tender going to establish a new base in northern Solomons (don't remember which - don't have my books around me).
Another example how the country with relatively small economy and which a few decades earlier fought with bows and swords suddenly became the leader in modern warship building, being a good few years ahead of everyone. I miss a bit of technicalities in this (too short...) guide.
they hadn't been fighting with bows and swords for like 60 years before ww2 and even before that they had plenty of guns, just some people didn't get the hint, and they got into building warships about the same time as everybody else got into building dreadnoughts, so nobody really had an all out engineering advantage. Their main problem was that the economy that could sustain a pre-ww1 ship building spree utterly collapsed in the post ww1 years due to natural disasters, massive political instability, and that double edged sword of a military industrial complex that drains all the funds for everything else and leaves your normal economy withered especially when half your industrial base got wiped out by a tsunami
@@AsbestosMuffins The root cause seems to come down to lunatic conservatives, with close ties to the military, sidelining the civilian leadership. When the Japanese PM is informed that the army started a war in Manchuria, while in the middle of negotiations - you know things have gone off the rails. Once people who attempted to assassinated politicians could be kept out of jail by military pressure, it was just the inevitable hell ride to disaster.
That’s just not accurate, the Japanese weren’t fighting with bows a few decades before, the Meiji restoration was almost 80 years before ww2. And even before it, the shogunate era japan had fought with muskets, which they had been domestically producing in vast numbers ever since being introduced to European style ones by the Portuguese in the 1540s. Yes it’s still extremely impressive how fast they modernised, but don’t downplay their technology.
Well, Satsuma rebellion still featured battles with swords and bows, so it was mere ~65 years before designing things like oxygen torpedo, superbattleship or Shokaku mentioned here. So a few decades. Distance to cover between a sword and the best carrier in the world was certainly much greater in Japan than in Europe or even in the US... Regarding "good moment" (new dreadnoughts, new carriers) explaining everything - I disagree. You can say this about any period in modern history. You need a developed industry, and you need a few decades of educating specialists to produce things like the best torpedo in the world, the strongest battleship or aircraft carrier. They didn't just copy foreign designs, they created (and built) better themselves. Many nations didn't get to this stage at all. The best example for comparison might be Russia.. And "military complex draining the funds"? I assume you do know that Japan didn't have a choice, because lacked natural resources on their islands to remain independent state? The alternative was to fight & conquer for a regional superiority or to become a remote exploited colony. Military expansion was the only way for the Japanese - but unfortunately for them the "world centre of power" was at this time transferred across the Atlantic, much closer to Japan...
@@Tom-2142 A big part of the IJN's initial modernisation during and after the Meiji Restoration was down to a Frenchman, Léonce Verny. He's not that well known outside Japan but there's a commemorative park dockside at Yokosuka Naval base dedicated to his memory. The US Navy still uses a dry dock he had built there over 150 years ago.
Would the history of the Shokaku have been more brutish and short if the U. S. Had sent 4 carriers into the Coral Sea, rather than dedicating the Enterprise and Hornet to the Doolittle Raid in the same week?
Great question! Should also include the secondary effect of the Japanese not having to respond to the Doolittle raid. One step forward, one back. Would the net result be a positive, or a negative, for either Japan or the US and it’s allies?
The Battle of the Coral Sea was so chaotic, there's no telling what would have happened. _Probably_ doubling US carrier strength would have helped, and the same for putting in a more experienced carrier commander; but honestly, the whole thing went about as well as it could have for the USN given the technical and doctrinal limitations of the time (except for USS _Lexington_ blowing up; but even that taught USN damage control crews a lot that probably couldn't have been learned any other way). But it was close to happening. The Doolittle Raid was executed on 18 April, and Halsey's carriers returned to Pearl Harbor on the 25th; they departed again on 30 April, reaching the Coral Sea area just a couple of days after the conclusion of the battle.
Have you made any videos on Great Britain's armed merchant cruisers? Specifically HMS Rawalpindi and Jervis Bay? You make great and informative videos...thanks!
Pinned post for Q&A :)
What would be the best weapon to use to sink the enemy if you were attacking 13th century warships with tribal class destroyers?
Why did Shokaku so consistently outperform other IJN CVs?
I Presume this is because of better crew training and leadership, but maybe there is more to it like details or other explanations?
@@thomashills2470 he rounds most likely!!
Sinlge torp hit sinkings... did the ships not have good torpedo defense, or was it the incompetent damage control that plagued the Japanese through WWII?
"If you could name two future Royal Navy capital ships with unique (still unused) names, what would those be?" Drach, I absolute adore your channel and really appreciate the amount of effort you put into these videos. Cheers from your fan with the blue HMS Hood sweater!
I'm actually surprised this ship hadn't had a guide before. Great work as always!
Gotta say, seeing some of the Sailors on that last photo still saluting while the ship is already about to capsize is....a striking image
The flag was being lowered and so they were called to attention. I believe the Captain thought the ship was stable enough to allow for such an orderly evacuation. As you can imagine, though, the Imperial Japanese ships tend to roll over abruptly and suddenly during such times.
@@FLJBeliever1776 supposedly a number of Task Force 38’s aircraft especially those from Enterprise. Witnessed it and the pilots and gun crews stuck the finger up in response.
@@ph89787
Given just how much Enterprise and her crew hated Zuikaku, and justifiably so (the two carriers were arch-enemies for, what, basically the entire Pacific War?), I’d perfectly believe it.
Given Shokaku's damage at Coral Sea and Santa Cruz, her damage control teams were certainly excellent. They also valiantly fought for the ship prior to her sinking.
They were kinda the exceptions rather than the rule.
Do not forget Zuikaku, at Marianas, there was ordered to abandon the ship, but eventually she was saved that time.
Unsung heros of naval warfare; a ship's damage control teams.
Also keep in mind that *very* few large warships - from any navy - were sunk solely by aerial bombing during WW2.
@@Philistine47 Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu, Arizona, Tirpitz off the top of my head
Ah yes, the Japanese aircraft carrier Shokaku. Also known as Zuikaku's meatshield.
Context: Zuikaku didn't received any battle damage until the Battle of Cape Engano wherein Shokaku was already sunk.
Aka. The Yorktown’s punching bag during 1942. Bombed by Yorktown and Lexington at Coral Sea. Splash damage from Enterprise at Eastern Solomons and bombed again by Hornet at Santa Cruz.
Lol that really made me laugh 😂😂😂
@@ph89787
Given that Shokaku actually killed Hornet, she paid it back….
@@bkjeong4302 and of course Lexington going up like a Roman candle and Yorktown later being sunk at Midway.
Nah, clearly it was a case of Zuikaku activating a card that transferred any damage it would receive to Shokaku.
The last photo of the crew on the sinking ship is impressive to watch.
It is very tragic. In a few moments, the ship will explode, the deck elevator will be blown apart and the hangar will turn into a raging infernal. Many, too many of these men will slide down the flight deck and fall into the gaping jaws of that elevator and into the fire. That photp is erie and haunting.
Holy crap!
Yes...impressive, and sad. I've always thought of the IJN as being less savage and brutal than the army, although they must have had their share of idiots in the command structure. But the rank and file were just doing their duty, and such a senseless loss of life still seems tragic. Can't help thinking that that devaluation of human life was a contributing factor in Japan's defeat.
It is always frustrating when you make a History video and even think about complementing or wishing the souls of the Axis nations rest. people get so up in arms about it forgetting that the average sailor, soldier, aircrew were just that average humans, people, and they should not be all seen with the hate that their superiors deserved. :( I once had a person call me a 1930's Fascist political party member for putting a message of: "I wish all the souls lost in this battle safe passage to where ever they go next" I mean it is the internet so that is normal but, it is just sad people forget that the average joe in the boiler room was likely just a persons son, who had no choice to be there.
@JZ's Best Friend We'll never know. It's easy to imagine that many of them were imbued with "the warrior spirit" until they met their end, but it's one thing to die locked in combat with an enemy, and quite another thing to see your death coming as your ship sinks, knowing there's nothing you can do about it, long after the enemy has left the field and there's no one to fight. The _bushido_ spirit may not be much comfort in that scenario
Easily the greatest (and my personal favorite) Japanese carriers. There's some real interesting stuff with them, Zuikaku in particular had a lot of curious relationships with several American aircraft carrier lineages:
-She both sunk and was sunk by ships named USS Lexington; playing a role in the sinking of Lexington CV-2 during the Battle of Coral Sea in 1942 and being sunk by that ship's successor, Lexington CV-16, during the Battle of Cape Engaño in 1944, and previously had many of her planes destroyed by Lexington CV-16 during the Battle of the Philippine Sea earlier that year.
-Similarly with the USS Yorktown lineage; she significantly damaged Yorktown CV-5 during the Battle of Coral Sea, and Yorktown CV-10 would be responsible for shooting down many of her aircraft and scoring several damaging hits on her during the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
-Same with the USS Hornet name; playing a role in the sinking of Hornet CV-8 during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in 1942 and her airgroup being almost completely wiped out by aircraft from that ship's successor, Hornet CV-12 (and Lexington CV-16, Yorktown CV-10, Enterprise CV-6, and a couple other carriers), as well as severely damaging her, at the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
-And she had something of a rivalry with/served as a foil to Enterprise CV-6; being responsible for severely damaging or sinking both of her sister ships (Yorktown CV-5 and Hornet CV-8) and facing off against Enterprise several times throughout the war (even managing to severely damage her twice, during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, both in 1942), before Enterprise too destroyed many of her aircraft at the Battle of the Philippine Sea and played a role in her sinking at the Battle of Cape Engaño. Both also had reputations of being lucky ships, Zuikaku's name even translates to "Auspicious Crane", and were the most successful carriers of their respective navies.
-She even has an interesting relationship with her sister Shōkaku; the ships almost always sortied together and the results were almost always the same - Shōkaku being damaged with Zuikaku coming out unscathed, and Zuikaku suffering more severe airgroup losses than Shōkaku. Zuikaku only first took major battle damage after her sister was sunk during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and she was sunk the first time she went into a battle without her sister during the Battle of Cape Engaño.
Not just the greatest Japanese carriers, greatest Axis capital ships period, and arguably the greatest Axis warships of all.
@@bkjeong4302 I mean... "greatest Axis capital ship" isn't a particularly high bar, but yeah I'd agree with that lol
@@S0RGEx The Shokakus actually got a fair amount done even when compared to Allied capital ships; they certainly accomplished a lot more than pretty much every WWII-era Allied battleship put together (even Washington and Duke of York didn’t play nearly as big a role, and those two actually managed to justify their existence) or older WWI-era Allied battleships, and they also did more than the two Lexingtons and arguably the British carriers. The only carriers that definitely played a bigger role overall would be the Yorktowns and Essexes, and in the case of the Yorktowns the Shokakus fought against them repeatedly.
Like Scharnhorst and Gniesenaeu
I think I would give the nod to Warspite with just her WWII service.
In case anyone was curious, Cavalla can be visited just outside Galveston, TX.
Been there many times. Can be seen from the Galveston ferry also
Right next to the USS STEWART on Pelican Island.
Man the Japanese carrier fleet is a wild ride of "what ifs" and "woulda, shoulda, coulda"
The more I've learned about the Pacific war, the more it seems the Japanese were very close to their goals if a few things went differently
@@benjaminrees6665 I'd counter the doctrine of the IJN was a prime example of how a poor plan, well supplied and well-executed, is still going to meet poor results. They made the same mistake as GER in mistaking the USA's desire to stay out of international wars as weakness, and didn't understand the USA actually has a VERY martial culture and enjoys a fight, but has a cultural bias against getting into fights unless picked on first. Neither the Prussian culture or the Imperial Japanese culture really understood these concepts it seems and anyone who took the time to learn it would have known the USA would NOT sue for or accept any quick peace if they felt they had been bloodied.
But, I suppose it worked out in the end, the USA beat two of the most militant cultures in the history of the human race and turned them into pacifist cultures for several generations now.
@Håkan Bergvall lol - you are hilarious. Hope you find the meds, meanwhile, thanks for the laugh.
@Håkan Bergvall Extremist Government again? We now have a Centre Left Government as against Centre Right. If you think that is extremist, you went to the wrong school.
And "Threat to the rest of Europe"? I guess you live in another timeline & accidentally posted in ours?
@@fortusvictus8297 Wasn't it Yamamoto that stated, (And I'm probably badly paraphrasing) "You do know, if we start this war, we cannot stop at Pearl Harbor, or even the West coast. We must fight our way to Washington DC and make them accept the surrender terms in the rose garden." Or am I just imagining things?
One of the most impressive and effective ship classes of the IJN.
A perfect way to start my day.
And no new snow to shovel.
A perfect lunchtime video
"This melody is a requiem. Its purpose is to bring peace to the dead."
Still got that line!
AAAYYYYYYY !!!
6:25 pause, look at the far left on the picture when the ship was listing, the officers are saluting when the ship is going down.
Out of all IJN carriers I always have a soft spot of the Shokaku class. IMO this pair are the most capable pre-war fleet carrier design across any navy.
The Yorktowns are also up there. Fitting that the two classes fought each other repeatedly and with major consequences.
The Shokakus were 'better' than the Yorktowns since the former were not constricted by naval treaty.
@@paulsteaven The _Shokakus_ were *bigger* than the _Yorktowns._ *Better,* though... By what metric? Not air group capacity, because the _Yorktowns_ beat them on that. Not aircraft handling, either, because the enclosed hangars of the _Shokakus_ meant that they, like other IJN CVs, had to warm up their aircraft engines on the flight deck - significantly slowing down the process of spotting and launching aircraft compared to USN practice. Maybe toughness, but OTOH both _Yorktown_ and _Hornet_ took a whole lot of killing, far in excess of any abuse that either _Shokaku_ endured and survived; and _Enterprise_ for her part survived several serious beatings herself.
The only areas where I see the _Shokakus_ having a definite advantage over the _Yorktowns_ are raw size and a 2 knot margin of top speed. And while those are both useful things, especially for a CV, it's not clear to me that they're enough to make the _Shokakus_ "better carriers" than the _Yorktowns._
Shoukaku class was definitely some of the best CVs of their time.
That is shown in her service history, when they caused the loss of the carriers Lexington and Hornet.
The second greatest Aircraft Carrier of Japan is finally here.
Second greatest!
Shokaku was the greatest, surviving battle damage and sending dedicated and deadly air strikes to almost certain death yet playing a role in sinking Lexington, Hornet, and damaging Yorktown so she was barely repaired for Midway.
What other could be number 1 - Zuikaku, Shinano, Taiho?
None of them suffered, yet succeeded, as did Shokaku.
@@jimmacsween5891 Zui arguably is up there, but the rest don’t really qualify.
@@jimmacsween5891 Zuikaku is definitely the No. 1 followed by her sister Shokaku. Then either Akagi or Hiryu. Taiho didn't live up to expectations so she'll be dead last if we're talking about effectiveness.
@@paulsteaven dead last would be Shinano. At least Taiho entered service.
Interesting that Shokaku had a radar. I guess it was even better that neither one of them was at Midway. It was particularly horrifying reading about how the Shokaku went down.
The way she went down was similar to what I-19 did to Wasp (CV-7). Torpedoed while in the middle of flight operations.
Also the radar was fitted in September 1942. So they wouldn’t have had it at Midway. Unless Midway was delayed till October 1942.
I've always said that it was fortunate shokaku and zuikaku weren't there or midway would've gone different
I believe the Shokaku twims And the Yamato twins were armed with radar
Best of the IJN carriers
Enterprise: "You were such a pain in my ass, but I respect the hell out of your skill."
I almost feel sorry for the IJN carrier fleet. Starting off as the pride of the Navy, they finished as sacrificial diversions.
Great way to start the morning
wow, that photo at the end with the officers saluting as she sank, very sobering
Shokaku & Zuikaku means Soaring & Auspicious Cranes respectively.
I spotted a ~ 4 foot hand crafted model of the IJN Unryu at a yard sale in Huntington Beach, California last fall. No doubt based on the level of detail, it had significant meaning to the builder. The guy selling it had no ideas of the model's history and was asking $200.
For users of metric units thats 1,2m! Almost the size of a small Child :O Ps: did you bought it?
Had to pass.
@@wildweasel8564 I guess it's the kind of thing that is awesome to see, not so great to try and find space for it.
In case you're wondering, as I did when I first started seriously reading about the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Third and Fourth Carrier Divisions were made up of just about every other air unit the IJN possessed at one point or another. Initially they were primarily seaplane tender units, then they involved both the IJN's modern light carriers like Ryujo and Zuiho as well as their really antiquated or rickety ones like Hosho and Junyo (this being their makeup during the six-month initial period where the IJN could actually be said to operating on full war footing as close as it ever got to as-designed), and eventually even included the battleship hybrid conversions Hyuga and Ise.
I would not call Junyo "antiquated or rickety" - she was a conversion of a '30s passenger liner, like Hiyo, but both suffered from lighter non-military construction and engines that were not designed for the heavy steaming demanded of carriers.
@@gregorywright4918 I felt fairly comfortable applying "rickety" to Junyo based on her engines, which thoroughly crippled her potential -- "antiquated" was definitely more aimed at Hosho, not that it was her fault or anything.
I kind of hoped this ship would get a longer video, but I enjoyed it anyway.
There is a bit of an English Language myth about Shokaku being damaged and Zuikako losing all of her air group, and “why didn’t they just combine them?”. What everybody mostly misses is that while Zuikaku’s hangers were full to overflowing with aircraft, those aircraft were almost entirely A6M Zero’s. Absent were any large numbers of attack aircraft, be they Dive Bomber or Torpedo planes. And most of the attack plane crews had been lost. Coral Sea was really the first direct meeting between the Japanese and American A list carrier air groups, pilots and planes. While the F4F Wildcat was not as agile a dog fighter against the Zero, it’s heavy firepower and high ammunition load made it devastating against the Kate’s and Val’s. They didn’t send Zuikaku out with Shokako’s planes because it would have been an entirely defensive Carrier. Fielding nothing but Fighters. And Japanese Carrier Doctrine had no concept of such a thing. A Carrier was to hit the enemy. A Carrier without bombers was useless. In the 20/20 hindsight of History we can see that a purely defensive Carrier flying nothing but Fighter escort probably would have saved the day at Midway. If the Japanese Admirals would have been able to think outside the box. But “Victory Disease” tends to blunt the need for innovation or creative thinking. The Japanese Naval Air arm did not have a particularly deep pool of ready trained pilots. Given the harshness and intensity of their pilot training program, and the high degree of fail outs they were unable to replace entire attack units on the fly in a few days.
The air unit also "belonged" to the carrier, much like the crew did. The Zuikaku was holding the Shokaku's aircraft (what were left of them) that could not land on the damaged mother ship, but the expectation was that they would return to her once she was repaired. The flyer training was also done from "your" ship once you graduated from land-based flight school; they did not have training carriers at this point as intermediaries before final front-line assignment. Production of replacement attack planes was also an issue.
@@gregorywright4918 That whole “belonged to the Carrier” has a lot of nuance to it that often gets overlooked. In theory Shokako’s pilots could operate for a time from Zuikaku. And they might not even smack the bridge… which was on the opposite side from what they trained. But they were an adaptable group. Why a number of Zuikaku’s pilots demonstrated their cross deck capabilities and lined up for a perfect landing attempt on the Yorktown. Which goes a long way to explaining why there were vacancies in Zuikaku’s hanger. But the key thing is they had lost the better part of 4 attack squadrons. Above and beyond the loss of planes, which they likely could have found. They needed to reconstitute a large number of carrier qualified bomber pilots. Which they did not have enough of on short notice. Maybe if they had cancelled the Aleutian operation they could have scrounged up a full air wing.
@@andrewtaylor940 Again, cancelling the Aleutians would not "free up" squadrons for Zuikaku because those planes "belonged" to Junyo and Ryujo. The IJN did operate squadrons ashore, like on Taiwan and Rabaul, but considered those squadrons would need considerable retraining to operate from ship. Plus they were mostly fighter squadrons. The IJN was stretched thin by the middle of '42, and most ships had been hard at sea with little time for refits. Every spare air group was deployed somewhere, many in primitive conditions like DEI and Rabaul. Given standard IJN doctrine, I doubt they would have even considered doing the air group training for Shokaku's group on Zuikaku while they waited for Shokaku to complete repairs.
@@gregorywright4918 Oh I agree. It’s just the only place I see where they could have scrounged up some carrier qualified attack squadrons. But they were never going to do it. Japanese Carrier Doctrine was very much against thinking outside the box. Heck the Shokako and Zuikaku pilots that did make it back to Kure were shunned and ignored by the other Carrier groups. They were labeled as losers. Nobody wanted or was willing to talk to the only Japanese pilots to have gone head to head against an American Carrier air group. Whereas by the time Yorktown pulled into Pearl for her 48 hour duct tape and a prayer repair job every airman in the Navy had read and discussed every after action report and every piece of information that could be gleaned about the Japanese Planes, Carriers and Pilots. And were brainstorming ways to deal with them. Hence the legendary “Thatch Weave”.
Owing to their limited industrial capacity and lacking in raw materials, the overly ambitious Japanese have to bite more than they can chew and opted for a more offensive military doctrine and a short decissive war. This is the reason their defensive department is void of any provisions or reserve at all.
Great short on this ship Drach! I would love to see something on CV-2 and CV-3 (Lexington and Saratoga) the converted battle cruisers. My Dad served on CV-2 and was aboard when she was eventually scuttled. The stories... He always told me that they would not discover the Lex in his lifetime as it is in very deep water. 2 years after he passed, sure enough, they found it mostly intact.
ruclips.net/video/AAFsadbdbCU/видео.html. Here you go.
"refused to move the air group of a damaged carrier to an operational carrier that didn't have an air group". Thank you for reminding me of my list of "for gawd's sake, don't do it this way" (and fire anyone proposing this, immediately). Imagine Midway's outcome if the IJN fleet had another premier carrier available........................
It's they dont want to win the war lol.
It's also entirely possible that Zuikaku could have been sunk along with the others. Her presence would not have guaranteed a Japanese victory.
Midway would still have been won even were Shokaku their, though maybe at the cost of one more US CV.
@@johnlee1297 but based on battle damages received by Shokaku throughout the war, she might/can survive the battle assuming that she will not suffer the catastrophic internal explosion damage suffered by 3 Japanese aircraft carriers.
@Yuri Setsuna deoends on hiw things play out. With more fighters on CAP and more for the inital strike Nagumo may mot be so hesitant about ammo load outs. More cap means better defense and if she was near Hiritu may surove the inital attack and help with the counter.
It would have been 5 vs 3 in thwor favor
You should create a playlist just for the videos you've created of the IJN's ships.
His playlists are sorted by ship types, not nationality. Good alternate suggestion, but it would take a bit of work (which we all prefer he put into quality...).
If I recall correctly, Shokaku means "Soaring Crane" and Zuikaku means "Happy Crane". Just thought I'd throw that in to the mix.
According to Wikipedia they translate as soaring crane and auspicious crane, not sure how accurate that is since my knowledge of Japanese is basically zero xD
The names Soaring & Happy Cranes strike terror in the hearts of any enemy!
翔鶴 Shou-"to fly, to soar", Kaku-"crane; stork; elderly, stately, fire-crowned bird". 瑞 Zui, Mizu-"youth, lustre, beauty, splendor, good omen, fortunate, auspicious". "Happy or blessed" would work. Kanji often don't translate word for word, you go with the general concept or quality they convey.
@@hektor6766 It sounds to me Zui means "the luck of youth" or "innocence of youth"
Some really ironic names for the two most terrifying and dangerous Axis naval units.
Eagerly waiting to see what "Drachism" we get today
Best crane
Younger sister is still gud
Even though they were the enemy, that last photo is tragic. Great video!
Always enjoy watching these quick ships' histories
Drachinifel is greater than coffee on Saturday mornings.
why not both? My Saturday morning ritual is to eat breakfast at my computer (only day i do) watching the latest offering
YOU TAKE THAT BACK!! (Coffee Hater, you!)
@@scottgiles7546 Yes, it's true. I hate coffee. I can't stand the taste or smell of it. 8 years in the USN and I hate coffee. Must be some kind of genetic disorder.
3:05
Me immediately raising my head as I’m making a 1:1200 scale model of Zuikaku
1/700 Shokaku, Hiryu, and Soryu on my desk rn, Zuikaku, Akagi, and Kaga thought about
Come and indulge yourself in Shoukaku's tenderness
*what?*
Another great timing for lunchtime video
Love the IJN guides.
Thank you sir for your authoritative documentaries.
Love these little quick summaries.
My 1/700 scale Zuikaku 1941 version, no radar (yet) liked this video as well.
While this pair were the best ships of the big 6 fleet carriers, their air wings apparently were formed later and less experienced than the wings assigned to the 4 carriers at Midway. These 2 carriers were given less important roles than the 4 older, less capable carriers but assigned more experienced wings.
An yet they still wreaked havoc across the Pacific
The older carriers had the older, more experienced air wings. The S & K were commissioned in '41, and mostly got air crews straight out of school (with a few experienced leaders). The usual arrangement would be a "working up" period to train and familiarize, but they had to forgo most of that due to being needed for Pearl. Since they were the newest ships, they were called on to "cover" the Port Moresby/Coral Sea action while the others retired for mini-refits in May. The IJN thought the USN carriers were in the Hawaiian waters, so Coral Sea would not be too hard.
The Shokakus actually demonstrated the greatest bombing accuracy out of the entire Kido Butai at PH in spite of their inexperience. They were by far the best capital ships Japan had, their own navy was far more focused on the Nagumo Four.
Honestly it’s a shame the Cranes aren’t household names like some other (often far less accomplished) WWII ships. Aside from their historical importance, they also have the distinction of not murdering Chinese civilians, which you can’t say about the rest of the Kido Butai (which were involved in bombing operations in China).
Great work drachinfel thank you sir
Thank you, Drachinifel.
Of the old 6 CVs of the Kido Butai that attacked Pearl Harbor, it's the Shokaku-class that were the only ones that did any real hurt to their American counterparts.
Shokaku & Zuikaku did the following number to American Carriers, all in 1942:
Coral Sea - Sank Lexington, heavily damaged Yorktown.
Eastern Solomons - Damaged Enterprise.
Santa Cruz Islands - Badly damaged Enterprise, sank Hornet.
Post-Midway, the Shokaku-class were the only big fleet carriers of the IJN until 1944. But by the time of 1944, when armored carrier Taiho entered service giving the IJN a grand total of 3 fleet CVs with air groups, the US Navy's carriers had grown several times over because the Essex-class started arriving in 1943. The USN carrier force was an unstoppable juggernaut come 1944.
"Only ones"? Who knocked out the Yorktown at Midway?
Let's not forget the IJN subs either... damaging Saratoga twice and sinking Wasp.
@@gregorywright4918 He said that they were the only ones out of the 6 members of the Kido Butai, not the entire navy
@@metaknight115 Hiryu was an aircraft carrier part of the Kidō Butai. She heavily damaged the Yorktown CV-5 at the battle of midway with two airstrikes making it possible for Yorktown to be later sunk by a submarine. So the head comment is wrong.
@@graceneilitz7661 Fair enough
Hooray, Zuikaku is my most favorite IJN ship
I love seeing video of the Japanese carriers!
The most famous grudge match in the pacific. Shokakus vs Yorktowns
The ultimate capital ship rivalry.
Shokaku and Zuikaku sent Yorktown running off, sent Enterprise running off twice, and sank Hornet. I would say one Shokaku and Zuikaku are superior
@@metaknight115 and Shokaku got beaten up in those battles.
@@metaknight115 and Zuikaku nearly loses her air group.
Also. Didn’t Nimitz refer to Shokaku and Zuikaku as “those two carriers.” Due to how much trouble they caused for him and the US Navy during 1942.
Yep, he did.
@@Nuke89345 Given how much pain the Cranes caused to the USN, he was justified in saying so.
They did cause the loss of two full sized fleet carriers, when every other carrier of the Kido Butai never even sunk one(Hiryu got close, but no cigar)
Love every episode, especially the RCN ones. 🇨🇦
Hi there mate, I've been watching your channel for years. Never commented before. Excellent. Great content always enjoy, especially RAN vessels. Thankyou, mate.
The Crane sisters
I tend to call them that as well.
Awesome video, as always!
Very informative..thank you!
Drach noticed something rarely mentioned by other Pacific air war observers, the Japanese could easily have had a fifth carrier at the Battle of Midway but the foolishly refused to combine the Shokaku and Zuikaku aircrews on to the undamaged Zuikaku... so they left her in port for the coming battle.
Meanwhile practical, Midwestern American Admiral Nimitz had the Pearl Harbor shipyards work night and day to get the Yorktown back to operational status in time for the coming battle. As the battle played out, with the Yorktown and Enterprise air crews completely missing the Hiryu in the morning attack, and the hornet Hornet dive bombers infamously flying off to nowhere, had the Zuikaku been in the fleet the Americans would have had a very hard time sinking her and the Hiryu before more American carriers were attacked by the deadly dive bombers and Long Lance torpedoes
Yamamoto really screwed up, he left the Zuikaku in port, and his three light carriers off on a wild goose chase to the Aleutians 6:37
All say this is the best channel of going for a minute. Your five minutes are little bit long, but I like everything you're doing rock on bro
I love when you come out with reviews where I'm like "how has he not already done this one?!"
Great content again.
Great as usual.
After which the ship sent to the breakers in the form of the strike aircraft of the USN.
Until the final battle, Zuikkaku clearly had higher luck stats over her sister.
Thank you 👍
Another great video
A great presentation!
Thank you for spotlighting Japan’s 2 greatest warships Sho & Zui - not Yamato & Musashi.
It is interesting to look back to see how the 3rd largest navy in the world, and probably the most modern and forward-thinking, was reduced to rusting wreckage on the floor of the Pacific in just 4 catastrophic years.
Salutes to the American submarines and aircraft carriers that caused that carnage!
To be fair to the Yamatos, while they WERE useless and a waste of resources, being a strategic failure is a WWII battleship thing in general. Even the American fast battleships, with the exception of Washington (and even she only had one real success to her name) failed to justify their existence despite active careers, as they ended up in roles that were a) already effectively covered by other warships (cruisers and destroyers as carrier escorts, and cruisers, destroyers, Standards, and even modified landing vessels for shore bombardment), and b) failed to justify the strategic expenditure of building a capital ship.
@@bkjeong4302 You've beaten this dead horse many times before, but just to reiterate that the decisions and designs for all WWII fleet organization and building were made in the mid and late '30s, well before the game-changing lessons of '40-'41. Everyone in the late '30s was building both battleships and carriers, and expected the latter to support the former. Kido Butai was only formed in '41, and that "genius" returned to a Kentai Kessen strategy of the Main Body being the battleships at Midway. The carrier was a sitting duck at night and in bad weather when she could not fly her planes (HMS Glorious?), so fast battleship escorts were still needed to escort them and assist with AA defense during the day. That it did not happen to the USN like the RN does not mean that the "strategic expenditure" was not justified - it was just changed as the new reality emerged.
Don't get me started on the Alaska's, though.
@@gregorywright4918
Glorious was sunk in good visibility, when air ops were completely possible. Her commanding officer was just a complete idiot who refused to make use of his aircraft. Not a good case study for carriers actually needing anti-surface escorts.
And yes, everyone (wrongly, as it turned out) expected that battleships would be the heavy hitters. But if you’re giving the Americans slack for making that mistake on that basis, the Japanese also should get a similar treatment.
@@bkjeong4302 Agreed.
So, it seems that the IJN was literally fighting three enemies at once - the US Navy, the Imperial Japanese Army, and their own internal gross mismanagement.
Finally Shokaku!
i've waited for this
Hit by multiplee torpedoes.
For seeming to be not very well armoured it took quite a few hits.
I've been on the submarine Cavala. She's at Drum Island near Galveston Texas.
Sho and Zui were legendary ships, fighting it out with Enterprise, Lexington, Yorktown, Hornet and (occasionally) Saratoga.
I understood Zuikaku had beveled edges on her flight deck which distinguished her. She relied on Shokaku for radar initially, as she did not have that in many early battles.
Zuikaku was a lucky ship, only taking severe damage at the time she was sunk, by which time she was just a sacrifice. In previous battles Shokaku took the brunt of strike damage in attacks on them both.
I don’t think Zuikaku being at Midway would have led to a Japanese victory - just a loss of 5 (out of 6 total) instead of 4 fleet carriers due to superior American intelligence.
What amazes me is the callous attitude IJN commanders took toward their highly-trained flight crews.
Poorly protected, flying vulnerable planes, and with little thought for parachutes (Sakai said many pilots didn’t use them) Japanese aircrew losses were horrific compared to U.S. losses.
Japanese military saw it as an honour to die for their emperor and the allies were happy to oblige them!
The video said 1/2 of the Zuikaku crew died when she sank but it appeared from the photo of her crowded, slanted deck that she sank slowly enough for a full abandonment - could it be many of her crew chose to die with the ship that had served them so long and well?
The Japanese thought showing a willingness to die would frighten the American public enough to force peace talks; the idea that the Americans would respond by shrugging and getting on with the war was somehow entirely outside Japan's predictions.
I heard that a number of US Navy pilots, especially those from Enterprise had stuck the finger up in response.
I disagree. If Zui had been there and may have joined Hiriyu on a counter hit. Hell if tgere the critical steije may have failed.
Nothing demonstrates better that "No Bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his" than the Japanese in WWI.
@@johnshepherd8687 Didn’t Halsey say that?
Could we get an episode of the Indian ocean raid?
The Zuikaku is my second favorite carrier in Naval history(with my favorite being the infamous CV-6 Enterprise)
The Eagle and the Crane. The greatest warships of their respective fleets, one a secret superweapon built for arguably the most evil regime the world has ever seen, the other a bloodthirsty ghost out to destroy all enemies in her sights.
Seriously why isn’t there an Enterprise vs. Zuikaku TV series following both vessels from Pearl Harbor to Leyte Gulf or at least to Santa Cruz?
(And yes the Japanese built the Shokakus as superweapons in the vein of the Yamatos-the two classes were even part of the same building program and all four vessels were built at the same time. This was a big part of why the Unryus became a thing as it turned out the Shokakus were too big and expensive to build in larger numbers).
Would love to see a video about the SMS Markgraf or Operation Albion.
it would be great to hear about japanese radar development ,did they develop it independently ,borrow it from germany or capture any tech at singapore /hongkong ?
A bit of everything actually.
Japan was knowledgeable in radar prior to the war, but the military failed to grasp its value and it went underappreciated, ironically the published research helped the allies develop theirs. The rivalry between Army, Navy and civilian groups didn't help either.
The Germans tried to ship a complete radar set to Japan, but they were sunk. Twice. However paperwork and documentation did make it.
They reverse engineered British and US radars left behind at the start of the war in the PTO.
With all that, they then got around to developing their own radar sets. However overall they were still a few years behind everyone else, albeit catching up quickly. They had lots of issues with production though, lack of resources and poor quality control meant only a few sets were produced and only a few warships were fitted.
Bilge Pumps podcast 38 had some guests to talk about Japanese radar in WW2 which I highly recommend. Short version: much more and better by the end of the war than we usually think.
You would be surprised. Japanese radar research was actually quite advanced prior to the war. For example there is a reason why the Yagi antenna used in various radars is named as such
Shokaku
Soryuu
Shinano
Shohou
Shimakaze
Shigure
All used to get mixed up by me...
It’s either Shi or Sho
(Technically differences exist, but I’m not providing a guide to a language I have yet to learn)
Shikaku
Shiyuu/Shoyuu
Shonano
Shihou
Shomakaze
Shogure
I never got Sor mixed with anything else...
Differences between ships R new & interesting 💜.
I always thought that Japanese Carriers were to goofiest patch up job possible, but watching Drach, I now understand that, well, they were just "repurposed" other ships.
Thank God they were Fire Traps in Battle.
I love how she looks, its perfect.
The Shokaku class carriers were probably the closest vessels Japan had to the Yorktown class as a worthy adversary.
I would argue that they WERE a worthy adversary as late as Santa Cruz. They did more damage to the Yorktowns than every other Japanese military asset of WWII combined, and even managed to sink Hornet and nearly sank Enterprise twice, in exchange for Shokaku nearly being sunk at Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz and the catastrophic loss of Japanese air groups during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
You'd have a lot of arguments that the Shokakus were the superior ships as well, but either way, it's a close race. Both very competent designs.
@@bimmerbomber2002 Yorktowns had superior radar, avgas protection, and slightly more planes all on a much lower displacement. The IJN in general had better air crew training, experience and doctrine in '42 so battle results tended their way. The real kicker was the poor US torpedoes compared to IJN, which tended to be the ship killers.
The island placement is now contrasted to new Ford class, with the islands 2/3rd of the way aft.
b/c it's easier to launch aircraft than recover them
@vvvci every new generation of carriers has moved the island further aft, from Lexington (CV-2), to Essex, to Kittyhawk, the islands have been moved further aft Gerald Ford is just the evolution..... Plus which when the ship Wei g hs 106,000 THOUSAND tons, it don't matter if you can see ahead, you are probably going to win any collision/right of way argument you get into LOL
Another excellent video. Thanks.
I must admit that I find the notion that aircraft from different wings cannot serve on the same carrier is frankly ridiculous. It's like the Japanese were trying to sabotage themselves.
IJA Infiltrators!!
I’ve always wondered the same thing. The Imperial Japanese Navy had their faults, but they weren’t stupid. They obviously could see the same undermanned carrier(s) and availability of air crews then, that we see now. There must have been some compelling reason, in their doctrinal thinking, important enough to deprive themselves of these naval air assets at these critical periods of time in the war.
Does anyone know of any post war allied surveys and/or interviews of senior Japanese naval officers, where this particular question ever discussed?
Shattered Sword (Parshall and Tully) has a discussion of this. Basically it just wasn't the way it was done.
Be grateful. 5 against 3 would have been worse odds for Fletcher and Spruance.
Shattered Sword is indeed an excellent resource on this subject. It was just an entirely different training philosophy than comparable Western services. That's why they never recovered from Midway in any appreciable way. The loss was beyond catastrophic, not in material terms, but in personnel. The cream of the Imperial Japanese Naval Aviation's crop went down in flames at Midway. Pilots. Flight deck crews, mechanics, ordinance men, those four were most prestigious, so the best of the best were assigned to them accordingly. A lot of the training occured within a ship's cadre, without a real process to send men ashore to train others in serious numbers like USN and USMC policy that ensured American pilots only got more lethal through out the war, and preserved combat pilot experience, both by turning experience into instruction, and ensuring pilots get to rest and be out the fur ball for a bit.
@@kalashnikovdevil
Pilot losses at Midway were surprisingly light (and Shattered Sword points this out). It was the Guadalcanal campaign that really took a toll on Japanese pilot numbers.
And the Japanese really couldn’t have implemented a more effective pilot training program even if they wanted, for lack of fuel.
Quality over quantity really backfired when you consider the problems the Yamatos had with armor quality and boiler circulation issues.
The supposed poor protection of the Yamatos is massively overblown (as covered on this channel and elsewhere and by Nathan Okun), and the real problem with the Yamatos was there was no need for them.
"Fair Winds and Following Seas" Brothers on your eternal patrol.
I do love me a ship from the IJN
As Admiral Yamamoto once mused "The two yearlings of Carrier Div 5 would probably not get into too much trouble at Coral Sea" and so allowed them to go off by themselves to support the Port Moresby invasion force. That, in retrospect, was a grave tactical error as they should have been kept firmly in check and accompanied the 4 large fleet carriers at Midway. What a difference they may have made to the outcome of that battle...They certainly were fine ships and would have made the Kido Butai damn near invincible had they been used in each operation after Pearl Harbor.
But they also would have faced a much stronger American force with Lexington surviving Coral sea and Yorktown not damaged
@@damianzaninovich4900 There is no dispute as to the long term implications of America's ability to outproduce Japan in Naval strength. The point of the comments were on the near term implications of having an intact Kido Butai at Midway.
@Jason Lee, good observation however Yorktown's Coral Sea damage did not interfere significantly with its performance at Midway regardless.
It should be noted that CarDiv5 was badly underestimated by the Japanese themselves, despite being superior to CarDiv1 and CarDiv2, on the basis that it had less combat experience.
@@bkjeong4302 I’ve heard one of the numerous reasons for the IJN’s overconfidence at Midway was that the pilots and staff on CarDivs 1 and 2 thought that. “If the shinies can sink 2 American Carriers. We can do the same with less casualties.”
@@bkjeong4302 agreed
A very concise history of a very storied ship. I had read somewhere that it turned out to be better to put the bridge on the right-hand side, as right-handed pilots who were injured tended to pull the stick to the left while landing (contraction beats extension), thus aiming the plane toward anything lined up on that side. Might this be the reason for a right-sided bridge, or were there other reasons?
Radial engines tended to pull aircraft to the left, which fits in with the injured pilots/damaged aircraft bit you suggested. I read somewhere the first purpose-built aircraft carrier had towers on both sides, but that idea was quickly abandoned. Everyone has used strictly starboard towers since.
@@stefanlaskowski6660 ah, your explanation helps, as all carrier aircraft had radial engines. Even an intact returning pilot (were there ever such, having just returned from being shot at by an entire enemy fleet in nothing more than a gasoline-filled aluminum can?) would have to be conscious of the need to monitor engine torque upon landing, just another thing to think about in addition to hitting the wire.
@@stefanlaskowski6660 Early UK carriers had port side islands. Rotary engines, as opposed to radial turn better to the right.
Were the Shoukaku's more comparable to the Essexes or the Yorktowns?
Yorktowns. The Essex-class came later; their contemporary would be the Taihou-class, or perhaps the Hiryu-derived carrier class that Japan had attempted to mass produce.
closer to yorky's but a tad bigger!!
@@Raptor747 I disagree, since the Japanese dumped the carriers, the Shokakus were 32k tonnes while the Yorktowns were ~23k tonnes. They are closer to the Essexes than the Yorktowns in terms of size. Yes they were a bit earlier, it was only about 2-3 years.
Time-wise they're close to the Yorktowns but capability-wise they're actually closer to the Essex class (which, like the Shokaku's, are the first non-treaty bound design of their respective nations), overall they're something of an in-between step, although on a subtly different development course and offset by several years of technological development.
@@Raptor747 the Unryu class.
Hey Drac, I had a thought recently: It feels like Seaplane tenders are at least to my knowlage are completely uncovered or loved in naval history. By chance is there a class or ship of them you feel is worth covering or could at least recommend for research if you haven't already? Long term goal I might like to make a 3d model of one (if I ever get that good in blender) but in the meantime it would just be nice to see them given some love and learn some things myself.
This! The sea plane tenders are a very interesting topic!
Doctrine of use would be an interesting topic of research. The IJN had seaplane fighters as well as recon/patrol units, and they were heavily used in the Solomons. One of the task forces from Rabaul was ignored because they thought the big ship in it was a seaplane tender going to establish a new base in northern Solomons (don't remember which - don't have my books around me).
Pretty sure Zuikaku missing Midway probably prolonged her life expectancy by a few years.
Maybe or she may have prevented the death of Kido Butai
Another example how the country with relatively small economy and which a few decades earlier fought with bows and swords suddenly became the leader in modern warship building, being a good few years ahead of everyone. I miss a bit of technicalities in this (too short...) guide.
they hadn't been fighting with bows and swords for like 60 years before ww2 and even before that they had plenty of guns, just some people didn't get the hint, and they got into building warships about the same time as everybody else got into building dreadnoughts, so nobody really had an all out engineering advantage. Their main problem was that the economy that could sustain a pre-ww1 ship building spree utterly collapsed in the post ww1 years due to natural disasters, massive political instability, and that double edged sword of a military industrial complex that drains all the funds for everything else and leaves your normal economy withered especially when half your industrial base got wiped out by a tsunami
@@AsbestosMuffins The root cause seems to come down to lunatic conservatives, with close ties to the military, sidelining the civilian leadership. When the Japanese PM is informed that the army started a war in Manchuria, while in the middle of negotiations - you know things have gone off the rails. Once people who attempted to assassinated politicians could be kept out of jail by military pressure, it was just the inevitable hell ride to disaster.
That’s just not accurate, the Japanese weren’t fighting with bows a few decades before, the Meiji restoration was almost 80 years before ww2. And even before it, the shogunate era japan had fought with muskets, which they had been domestically producing in vast numbers ever since being introduced to European style ones by the Portuguese in the 1540s.
Yes it’s still extremely impressive how fast they modernised, but don’t downplay their technology.
Well, Satsuma rebellion still featured battles with swords and bows, so it was mere ~65 years before designing things like oxygen torpedo, superbattleship or Shokaku mentioned here. So a few decades.
Distance to cover between a sword and the best carrier in the world was certainly much greater in Japan than in Europe or even in the US...
Regarding "good moment" (new dreadnoughts, new carriers) explaining everything - I disagree. You can say this about any period in modern history. You need a developed industry, and you need a few decades of educating specialists to produce things like the best torpedo in the world, the strongest battleship or aircraft carrier. They didn't just copy foreign designs, they created (and built) better themselves. Many nations didn't get to this stage at all. The best example for comparison might be Russia..
And "military complex draining the funds"? I assume you do know that Japan didn't have a choice, because lacked natural resources on their islands to remain independent state? The alternative was to fight & conquer for a regional superiority or to become a remote exploited colony. Military expansion was the only way for the Japanese - but unfortunately for them the "world centre of power" was at this time transferred across the Atlantic, much closer to Japan...
@@Tom-2142 A big part of the IJN's initial modernisation during and after the Meiji Restoration was down to a Frenchman, Léonce Verny. He's not that well known outside Japan but there's a commemorative park dockside at Yokosuka Naval base dedicated to his memory. The US Navy still uses a dry dock he had built there over 150 years ago.
5:18 That's just crazy.
Would the history of the Shokaku have been more brutish and short if the U. S. Had sent 4 carriers into the Coral Sea, rather than dedicating the Enterprise and Hornet to the Doolittle Raid in the same week?
Great question! Should also include the secondary effect of the Japanese not having to respond to the Doolittle raid. One step forward, one back. Would the net result be a positive, or a negative, for either Japan or the US and it’s allies?
The Battle of the Coral Sea was so chaotic, there's no telling what would have happened. _Probably_ doubling US carrier strength would have helped, and the same for putting in a more experienced carrier commander; but honestly, the whole thing went about as well as it could have for the USN given the technical and doctrinal limitations of the time (except for USS _Lexington_ blowing up; but even that taught USN damage control crews a lot that probably couldn't have been learned any other way).
But it was close to happening. The Doolittle Raid was executed on 18 April, and Halsey's carriers returned to Pearl Harbor on the 25th; they departed again on 30 April, reaching the Coral Sea area just a couple of days after the conclusion of the battle.
Interesting. First time I had ever heard of Japanese anti-aircraft rocket launchers aboard ships. Looks like I have to Google them
the Ise-class Battlecarriers and the Shinano had them too. I don't know if other ships also had them though.
"Biggest carriers until Essex class"
US to Japan: I heard you like big carriers.
Japan to US: Wait, you have how many? That's cheating!
Lexington and Saratoga were bigger, but they were battlecruiser conversions.
It was miracle at Midway
I seem to recall a Shokaku class vessel would become the school ship for Ōarai Girls' Academy (大洗女子学園)
Have you made any videos on Great Britain's armed merchant cruisers? Specifically HMS Rawalpindi and Jervis Bay? You make great and informative videos...thanks!
ruclips.net/video/0Ciw6vXasC0/видео.html
Nice
hail to the brave japanese sailors!