The Ships of Battlegroup: Japan Akagi (CV)

Displacement	36,500 tons	Belt Armor	10 inches
Overall Length	855 feet	Deck Armor	3.1 inches
Beam	103 feet	Aircraft Complement	91
Speed	31 knots	Main Guns	6 × 8″

Laid down on December 6, 1920, launched on April 22, 1925 and commissioned on March 3, 1927, Akagi was designed to carry a main armament of ten 16 inch main guns mounted two per turret. As it turned out, she was one of the battlecruisers allowed by the Washington Naval Treaty to be completed as an aircraft carrier. Akagi’s sister ship, Amagi , was supposed to undergo the same conversion but the latter’s hull was destroyed in an earthquake. The name “Akagi” means “Red Castle”, the name of a mountain northwest of Tokyo.

Being Japan’s first full-sized carrier resulted in a number of attempted innovations. One such was having a ‘flying-off’ deck forward for each of the stacked hangers. These were found to be insufficient by 1935 as the growing weights of aircraft required a longer take-off run than was available on the short decks. The lower decks were removed and the top (and only) flight deck extended to the bow. Another interesting feature was the location of the island. Akagi was supposed to operate in conjunction with her carrier division partner, Kaga. It was felt that air traffic control would be enhanced if the aircraft upon take off would marshal in opposite directions. So Kaga’s island was constructed on the “standard” side of the flight deck, to starboard. She would travel on the portside of the formation with Akagi and upon take off her aircraft would circle to port. This put Akagi’s island to the portside of the flight desk and her air group circling to starboard. This was an interesting concept, but wartime experience showed it to be an unnecessary complication.

The four forward 8 inch guns were removed in the same 1935 refit that also saw the displacement rise from 29,600 to 36,500 tons. Japan started World War II in the Pacific with the best-trained aircrews and some of the best carrier aircraft in the world. Their problem was that as the veterans fell, there were no experienced aircrew to replace them and Japanese industry proved unable to produce reliable new aircraft models in the quantities to fight a total war. Akagi participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and devastating raids on Australia and in the Indian Ocean. Her existence was cut short by Dauntless dive bombers from the aircraft carrier U.S. S. Enterprise at the battle of Midway. Two bombs struck her while in the midst of refueling and rearming her air group, causing ammunition and fuel fires that quickly went out of control. The still burning hulk was sunk by Japanese destroyer torpedoes the next day, June 5, 1942.

For foreign aircraft carriers launched during the 1920s, see: Bearn and Hermes .

Where did we get all these fascinating historical tidbits and factoids? See the Bibliography for the major sources.