World War II Database

Laid down as the third Yamato-class battleship, it was decided to complete her as a carrier after the ugly events at Midway. Given her size (72,000 tons full load, near the size of a 1950s-vintage U.S. Forrestal-class supercarrier) she would have carried a pretty minimal number of planes (up to 47). Because of her prodigious bunkerage and ordnance stowage space, it was intended that she operate as both a carrier and a replenishment vessel. Ironically, she was sunk by the U.S. submarine Archerfish under the command of Commander Enright before she ever launched a plane. Actually, it was even before she had a chance to launch a plane -- she was spotted by Archerfish merely a few miles outside of Yokosuka. After being hit by four out of the six torpedoes fired, she was the victim of faulty damage control with unfinished watertight compartmentation ("which begs the question, whose bright idea was it to leave harbor for another port for final fitting out, in 1944, with the Inland Sea crawling with U.S. subs, without all her watertight doors installed? Not a real swift move" as commented by Jonathan Parshall.) Seven hours later, the giant carrier sank, taking with her the first squadron of piloted-bombs that were being planned as the next kamikaze weapon.

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