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''Zuikaku'' ( Japanese: 瑞鶴 "Auspicious Crane") was the second and last built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) shortly before the beginning of the
Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
. Her aircraft took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor that formally brought the United States into the war, and she fought in several of the most important naval battles of the war, before being sunk during the
Battle of Leyte Gulf The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...
.Zuikaku @
www.history.navy.mil
''Zuikaku'' was one of six carriers to participate in the Pearl Harbor attack and was the last of the six to be sunk in the war ( Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Sōryū in the Battle of Midway, '' Shōkaku'' in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and ''Zuikaku'' in the
Battle of Leyte Gulf The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...
.)


Service history

In 1941, ''Zuikaku'', under the command of Captain Yokokawa Ichibei, and her
sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
comprised
Carrier Division 5 was an aircraft carrier unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy's First Air Fleet. At the beginning of the Pacific Campaign of World War II, the Fifth Carrier Division consisted of the fleet carriers ''Shōkaku'' and ''Zuikaku''. These two ships ...
. On 26 November 1941, she left
Hitokappu Bay Kasatka Bay ( rus, Залив Касатка, Zaliv Kasatka), formerly known by its Japanese name , is a natural harbor at the central part of Iturup, Kuril Islands. It has been controlled by the Soviet Union since the Soviets annexed the Kuril ...
for the attack on Pearl Harbor as part of the '' Kido Butai'' ("Mobile Force"). Her aircraft complement consisted of 18 Mitsubishi A6M
fighters Fighter(s) or The Fighter(s) may refer to: Combat and warfare * Combatant, an individual legally entitled to engage in hostilities during an international armed conflict * Fighter aircraft, a warplane designed to destroy or damage enemy warplan ...
, 27 Aichi D3A
dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...
s, and 27 Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers. On 7 December, she launched two waves of aircraft against American military installations on the island of Oahu. In the first wave, 25
Val Val may refer to: Val-a Film * ''Val'' (film), an American documentary about Val Kilmer, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo Military equipment * Aichi D3A, a Japanese World War II dive bomber codenamed "Val" by the Allies * AS Val, a Sov ...
dive bombers attacked Wheeler Army Airfield and five Zero fighters attacked the airbase at
Kaneohe Kāneohe () is a census-designated place (CDP) included in the City and County of Honolulu and located in Hawaii state District of Koolaupoko on the island of Oahu. In the Hawaiian language, ''kāne ohe'' means "bamboo man". According to an a ...
. In the second wave, 27 high-level Kate bombers attacked the airbase at Hickam Field. ''Zuikaku''s aircraft also attacked the
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n bases at
Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...
on 20 January 1942 and
Lae Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...
in New Guinea on 21 January. In April 1942, she took part in the Indian Ocean raid, striking the British naval bases at Colombo and Trincomalee on
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, and sinking the Royal Navy aircraft carrier and the heavy cruisers and , also with the help of ''Shōkaku''.


Battle of the Coral Sea

In May 1942, she was assigned along with ''Shōkaku'' to support
Operation Mo or the Port Moresby Operation was a Japanese plan to take control of the Australian Territory of New Guinea during World War II as well as other locations in the South Pacific. The goal was to isolate Australia and New Zealand from the Allied ...
, the invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea. Alerted by
intercepted In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...
and decrypted Japanese naval messages, the Americans dispatched the carriers and to stop this operation. On 8 May 1942, during the
Battle of the Coral Sea The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...
, the main carrier forces located one another and launched maximum-effort raids, which passed each other in the air. Hidden by a rain squall, ''Zuikaku'' escaped detection, but ''Shōkaku'' was hit three times by bombs and was unable to launch or recover her aircraft. In return, torpedo and dive bombers from both ships hit ''Lexington'', which was later scuttled by torpedoes from an escorting destroyer. ''Zuikaku'' was undamaged in the battle, but sustained severe losses in aircraft and aircrew. This required her to return to Japan with her sister ship for resupply and aircrew training, and neither carrier was able to take part in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, where every carrier that participated in the Pearl Harbor attack besides the two ''Shōkaku'' class ships were sunk by American carrier based aircraft.


Battle for Guadalcanal

In August 1942, commanded by Captain Tameteru Notomo, ''Zuikaku'' was dispatched as part of the
First Carrier Division was an aircraft carrier unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy's First Air Fleet. At the beginning of the Pacific War, Pacific Campaign of World War II, the First Carrier Division consisted of the fleet carriers Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi, ''Ak ...
along with the repaired ''Shōkaku'' and the light carrier to oppose the American offensive in the Solomon Islands. On 24 August 1942, in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, her aircraft severely damaged the carrier . She was based at Truk for the next few months. On 26 October 1942, in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, her aircraft again damaged the repaired ''Enterprise'', and crippled (''Hornet'' was abandoned after a failed scuttling attempt and later sunk by Japanese destroyers). However, ''Shōkaku'' and ''Zuihō'' were both severely damaged by American air attacks, and ''Zuikaku'' had to recover their surviving aircraft in addition to her own. Of the 110 aircraft launched by the three Japanese carriers, only 67 returned to ''Zuikaku''. She then returned to the home islands via Truk for training and aircraft ferrying duties. In February 1943, she covered the evacuation of Japanese ground forces from
Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...
. In May, she was assigned to a mission to counterattack the American offensive in the Aleutian Islands, but this operation was cancelled after the Allied victory on Attu on 29 May 1943. Later in 1943, under the command of Captain Kikuchi Tomozo, she was again based at Truk and operated against U.S. forces in the Marshall Islands.


Battle of the Philippine Sea

In 1944, she was based at Singapore. In June, she was assigned to Operation A-Go, an attempt to repulse the Allied invasion of the
Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...
. On 19 June, in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and ''Shōkaku'' were both sunk by 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 ...
s, leaving ''Zuikaku'', the only survivor of Carrier Division One, to recover the Division's few remaining aircraft. On 20 June, a bomb hit started a fire in the hangar, but ''Zuikaku''s experienced damage control teams managed to get it under control, and she was able to escape under her own power. After this battle, ''Zuikaku'' was the only survivor of the six fleet carriers that had launched the attack on Pearl Harbor.


Battle off Cape Engaño

In October 1944, she was the flagship of Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's decoy Northern Force in
Operation Shō-Gō 1 The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...
, the Japanese counterattack to the Allied landings on Leyte. On 24 October, as part of the depleted (just 108 aircraft across four carriers)
Third Carrier Division The was primarily a seaplane tender unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet The was the main sea-going component of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Until 1933, the Combined Fleet was not a permanent organization, but a temporary f ...
, she launched aircraft along with the light carriers , , and in an ineffective strike against the
U.S. Third Fleet The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering ...
. Several of these aircraft were shot down, and the majority of the surviving aircraft did not return to the carriers, instead landing at Japanese land bases on Luzon. However, some of her aircraft made '' kamikaze'' attacks and helped sink the light carrier ; and most of the others were sent to other surviving carriers and air bases, to later sink the
escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft ...
during the Battle off Samar after again using the new ''kamikaze'' tactics. The next day, during the Battle off Cape Engaño, she launched her few remaining aircraft for combat air patrol, search, or to join the aircraft already on Luzon. She then came under heavy air attack and was hit by seven torpedoes and nine bombs. With ''Zuikaku'' listing heavily to port, Ozawa shifted his flag to the light cruiser . The order to abandon ship was issued at 13:58 and the naval ensign was lowered. ''Zuikaku'' rolled over and sank stern-first at 14:14, taking the lives of Rear Admiral (promoted from captain 10 days earlier) Kaizuka Takeo and 842 of the ship's crew; 862 officers and men were rescued by the
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 ...
s and . Before her loss, ''Zuikaku'' was the last surviving Japanese carrier to have attacked Pearl Harbor. She was also the only Japanese fleet carrier (as opposed to a light carrier) to have been sunk by aircraft-launched torpedoes, as all others were sunk by dive bombers or submarine-launched torpedoes.


Gallery

Image:Zuikaku at Hitokappu Bay 1941.jpg, Sailors winching up the anchor on the quarter-deck of ''Zuikaku'', 26 November 1941. Image:Zuikaku flight deck.jpg, A Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" taking off from ''Zuikaku'' to attack Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. Image:Zuikaku Cape Engano.jpg, ''Zuikaku'' during the Battle off Cape Engaño, 25 October 1944. Image:Lowering the flag on Zuikaku.jpg, The crew of the sinking ''Zuikaku'' salute as the flag is lowered on 25 October 1944.


Notes


Bibliography

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External links


Tabular record of movement
fro
combinedfleet.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuikaku Shōkaku-class aircraft carriers Ships built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries 1939 ships World War II aircraft carriers of Japan Attack on Pearl Harbor World War II shipwrecks in the Philippine Sea Aircraft carriers sunk by aircraft Maritime incidents in October 1944 Ships sunk by US aircraft Ships sunk by aircraft during the Battle of Leyte Gulf