The Ships of Battlegroup: Japan Shokaku (CV)

Displacement	25,675 tons	Belt Armor	Nil
Overall Length	845 feet	Deck Armor	Nil
Beam	95 feet	Aircraft Complement	84
Speed	34.2 knots	Main Guns	16 × 5″

Launched on June 1939 and commissioned on August 23, 1941, Shokaku was the first “unlimited” aircraft carrier built after Japan had dropped out of the treaties that restricted aircraft carrier sizes. The name means “Soaring or Heaven-Bound Crane”. Shokaku was the lead ship of a two ship class that also included the Zuikaku . Both ships had their islands on the starboard side, unlike previous pairs of Japanese aircraft carriers, which had alternated islands on their port and starboard sides.

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. Both ships formed Carrier Division Five and took part (along with Akagi, Kaga, Haruna, Hiei, Hiryu, Kirishima, Kongo and Soryu) in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the “Day of Infamy” that would eventually lead to sunset for the rising sun of the Japanese empire. After raiding Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, the “Spoiled Children of Victory” were detached to the base at Truk and next sortied to cover an invasion fleet sailing for Port Moresby in southeast New Guinea. They bumped into an American carrier force built around Lexington (CV-2) and Yorktown (CV-5) in the confused Battle of the Coral Sea in early May 1942. When it was over, in addition to smaller ships, the Japanese light carrier Shoho was sunk, the Lexington was sunk, the Shokaku had caught fire and was barely saved and Carrier Division Five had lost over half of its aircraft. This damage and aircrew losses prevented both big flattops from participating in the disastrous Midway campaign, leaving them as the only surviving fast fleet carriers in the Japanese Navy.

In July, the two big aircraft carriers and light carrier Zuiho were formed into a new Carrier Division One. Carrier Division One (minus the Zuiho) participated in the Guadalcanal operations at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on August 24, 1942, where the light aircraft carrier Ryujo was lost and the U. S. S. Enterprise was damaged, and the Battle of Santa Cruz (all three carriers) on October 26, 1942, where the Hornet (CV-8) was sunk and the Enterprise was again damaged but so was the Shokaku. Just about the last 100 veteran Japanese carrier air crews went down in flames, the antiaircraft fire from fast battleship South Dakota alone credited with destroying 26 Japanese aircraft. The 1942 carrier to carrier battles had proved costlier than anyone could have imagined and the experienced Japanese carrier aircrews had been largely expended while the American pilot and aircrew training programs were just getting into high gear.

After the almost constant operations of 1942, the Shokaku was not again engaged until the Battle of the Philippine Sea. On June 19, 1944, while the Japanese carrier fleet steamed to meet the American flattops, she was struck by three torpedoes from the submarine U. S. S. Cavalla. An explosion ruptured her aviation fuel tanks and further explosions and fires sent Shokaku to the bottom. Less than four hours later, the American submarine Albacore sank the large new aircraft carrier Taiho . Hardly an auspicious opening for one of the decisive battles of the war!

For contemporary British aircraft carriers, see: Ark Royal and Victorious .

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