was a seaplane carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. The ship was built at Kawasaki Shipbuilding at

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and was completed in February 1939.

Design and description

''Mizuho'' was built to a similar design as the seaplane carrier , but with slightly less powerful diesel engines instead of ''Chitose''s turbines. She carried 24 seaplanes, and was equipped to carry twelve miniature submarines, although she could not carry full loads of both at one time.

Service history

''Mizuho'' participated in invasion support for much of her career; her first mission was with the Fourth Surprise Attack Force. On 1 March 1942, planes from ''Mizuho'' and ''Chitose'' damaged the American

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

, which was later sunk by aircraft from the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

and gunfire from the heavy cruisers and .

Sinking

The American

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

torpedoed ''Mizuho'' at 23:03 hours on 1 May 1942 off Omaezaki, Japan. She capsized and sank at 04:16 hours on 2 May 1942 with the loss of 101 lives. There were 472 survivors, of which 31 were wounded.combinedfleet.com IJN Mizuho Tabular Record of Movement
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Footnotes

External links

Ships built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries 1938 ships Seaplane tenders of the Imperial Japanese Navy Ships sunk by American submarines Maritime incidents in May 1942 World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean {{Japan-mil-ship-stub