Hiryu

Hiryu

The hiryu

Ship data flag  Japan Ship type Aircraft carrier class Sōryū class Shipyard Yokosuka naval shipyard Keel laying July 8, 1936 Launch November 16, 1937 Commissioning July 5, 1939 Whereabouts by on June 5, 1942 bombing dropped

Ship dimensions and crew length 227.35 m ( Lüa ) width 22.32 m Draft Max. 7.74 m displacement Standard: 17,300 ts maximum: 20,156 ts   crew 1.103

Machine system machine 8 Kampon steam boilers 4 steam turbines Machine performance 153,000 PS (112,531 kW) Top speed 34.35 kn (64 km / h) propeller 4th

Armament Anti-aircraft artillery 6 × 2 12.7 cm Type 89 cannon 31 × 25 mm L / 60 cannon Type 96 Armor Belt armor: 46 mm Armored deck: 25 mm

Furnishing Flight deck dimensions 216.9 m Aircraft capacity 1942: 18 A6M 18 D3A 18 B5N 9 reserve

The Hiryū ( Japanese 飛龍 , dt. Flying dragon ) was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the second ship of the Sōryū class . Commissioned in 1939, the ship was used in World War II until its sinking on June 5, 1942 .

Construction and construction

The Hiryū lying in the roadstead in 1939

The Hiryū was built in the Yokosuka Kaigun Kōshō ( Yokosuka Navy Yard ), where it was launched on November 16, 1937. It entered service on July 5, 1939. It was the first Japanese aircraft carrier that no longer fell under the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty. In contrast to its sister ship Sōryū , it could therefore be widened by one meter and the bridge superstructures moved in the middle of the ship opposite the chimney flues on the port side. The measures were intended to facilitate the management of aircraft operations. The overall design, with the exception of the staggered bridge structures, was considered successful and ultimately served as the basis for the Shokaku class girders .

Calls

Pacific War

The Hiryū belonged to the Kidō Butai and was involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 .

Between December 21 and 23, their planes airstrikes Wake . In January 1942 she supported the Japanese landing on Palau . With her sister ship, the Sōryū , she undertook air strikes on the Australian city ​​of Darwin in the Northern Territory . In March of the same year she was involved in the Battle of the Java Sea with attacks on Allied ships near Tjilatjap and Christmas Island .

She then took part in other operations in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean , including the attack in the Indian Ocean , in which, among other things, the Royal Navy naval base on Ceylon attacked on April 5, 1942, and the British cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire southwest of Colombo and on April 9 the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and the Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire were sunk near Batticaloa .

Battle for Midway

→ Main article : Battle for Midway

The Hiryū is making an evasive maneuver to port while two rows of bombs dropped by a B-17 bomber on the morning of June 4th hit the ship

In June 1942, the Hiryū was part of the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet, which should support the invasion of Japanese forces on the Midway Islands . Kaigun-Chūjō Nagumo led with his staff the command of the fleet from the Akagi . The Hiryū was the flagship of the Second Carrier Division ( Hiryū and Soryū ), over which Kaigun-Shōshō Yamaguchi led from the Hiryū in command. The commander of the Hiryū was Kaigun-Taisa Tomeo Kaku .

The aircraft carrier carried 18 Mitsubishi A6M 2 Zero fighters , 18 Aichi D3A 1 dive bombers and 18 Nakajima B5N 2 torpedo bombers. In addition, he carried two dismantled reserve machines for each type and had three dismantled aircraft of Group 6 on board, which were later to be stationed on Midway Island.

For easier identification by its own pilots, a red circle with a white border was drawn across the entire width of the deck on the front quarter of the flight deck . Immediately on the aft edge of the flight deck, the katakana for Hi was painted on the deck on port side to identify the carrier as Hiryū for pilots on approach .

On June 4, 1942 at 4:30 took off from the Hiryu 17 B5N torpedo bomber, but armed with number 80 - bombs (805 kg), to attack American defenses on the Midway Atoll. They were accompanied by nine A6M2 fighters. At 6:34 a.m. they attacked the target and damaged a fuel depot, an anti-aircraft position and the departure platform of an American flying boat base. Four B5Ns were shot down by anti-aircraft and fighter aircraft. The nine escort fighters were involved in fighting with American aircraft of the US Marine Corps and the US Navy both via Midway and on their return via their own fleet , with all A6M2 fighters being damaged. 14 certain kills and 4 probable kills of American aircraft were reported.

While the other three carriers of the Japanese fleet were badly damaged and were no longer fit for combat between 10:16 and 10:30 a.m. by bombs from aircraft of the American aircraft carriers Enterprise and Yorktown , which arrived unexpectedly and were able to attack unhindered, the Hiryū remained operational. It was also able to accommodate some of the planes from the three burning Japanese carriers; including two machines that had been used that morning as a reconnaissance aircraft to search for American ships: an Akagi B5N bomber and a prototype of the Yokosuka D4Y aircraft , which was stationed on the Sōryū .

Without waiting for an order from the commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Nagumo on the damaged Akagi , Rear Admiral Yamaguchi on the Hiryū decided to immediately launch all of his operational aircraft to attack the American fleet - but without re-equipping them for attacking ships, which, as a result the associated delays that had recently been the undoing of other Japanese aircraft carriers. Twelve of the 18 bombers carried delay detonator bombs ( number 25 standard type - 251 kg) for attack on ships, six carried bombs with impact detonator (number 25 - land type 242 kg) for attack on land targets.

At 10:58 a.m., all 18 D3A dive bombers and six A6M2 fighters of the Hiryū under the command of Lieutenant Kobayashi had started to attack the American fleet around the carrier Yorktown . They reached their destination at 12:08 p.m., but were attacked by American fighters because the aircraft carrier had detected the Japanese attackers early on with its radar system and was able to organize its defense accordingly. The pilots of the D3A bombers scored three bomb hits on the aircraft carrier, one of which was at the top of the chimney and damaged the exhaust systems of the boiler systems, forcing the carrier to a temporary stop. However, thirteen D3A dive bombers and three A6M2 fighters were lost due to the defense of American fighters.

At 1:31 p.m. the second wave to attack the American carrier started. This wave consisted of nine B5N torpedo bombers from the Hiryū , one B5N torpedo bomber from the Akagi , four A6M2 fighters from the Hiryū and two A6M2 from the Kaga . They reached Yorktown at 2:38 p.m. and dropped Type 91 Mod. 3 torpedoes, two of which hit the target. Four torpedo bombers and two own fighters were lost. After the two attacks, the Yorktown was badly damaged and unable to maneuver. After further torpedo hits by a Japanese submarine, she sank on June 7, 1942.

Downfall

The burning Hiryū with the hangar deck torn open. The remains of the front aircraft elevator can be seen in front of the bridge tower. A Hōshō reconnaissance plane took the photo the morning after the evacuation.

At 5:01 p.m., the Hiryū was attacked by Douglas SBD dive bombers from the American aircraft carrier Enterprise and the remnants of the Yorktown SBD squadron . The first three bombs dropped missed the ship, the next three hit the front half of the flight deck about at the height of the sun symbol painted on it. A few minutes later another bomb hit was made on the forward half of the ship. The explosions destroyed the flight deck, tore an elevator from its anchorage and hurled it against the bridge tower. Furthermore, they set off fires under the parked aircraft in the hangar, which, fed by fuel and ammunition in the hangars, spread quickly.

Since the bomb hits had damaged the extinguishing system, the seafarers first formed bucket chains to extinguish the spreading fire with seawater, which was unsuccessful. The fires triggered numerous explosions of aerial bombs and torpedoes, which were ready on the hangar decks for their assembly on fighter planes. The Hiryū , however, still held a speed of 30 knots .

The fire eventually spread to the decks below the hangars as well, cutting off the engine rooms from the rest of the ship. The situation in the rooms soon became untenable as they kept heating up. At 9 p.m. the Hiryū reported that she could still run 28 knots. The speech connections to the engine rooms finally collapsed and the majority of the technical staff in the rooms perished. At around 9:23 p.m., the entire machinery had failed and the Hiryū was stopped. Without the energy from the engine rooms, all pumps for the heavy extinguishing systems also failed, so that the fire could no longer be fought effectively by the ship's security using on-board resources.

The subsequent attempt to extinguish the source of the fire from the accompanying destroyers also proved to be impracticable.

At around 11:30 p.m. the order was given to prepare to leave the ship. At 11:50 p.m. the admiral made a brief address and the flag was lowered. The surviving crew members and the portrait of the emperor were captured by the destroyers Kazagumo and Makigumo over the next hour . Rear Admiral Yamaguchi and Captain Kaku remained on the ship.

The Hiryū , seen from starboard. Smoke from fires below deck envelops a large part of the ship.

The Hiryū was torpedoed by the Makigumo at 2:10 a.m. on the morning of June 5 , in order to sink the carrier. However, the ship did not sink immediately and was spotted by a reconnaissance aircraft of the carrier Hōshō that morning. Several sailors, who had left the destroyers on the ship that night, because they were initially locked in one of the engine rooms, waved to the scout and another destroyer was dispatched to rescue them. The Tanikaze did not arrive until the Hiryū had already sunk. 35 of the 70 or so forgotten survivors were rescued by the Americans on June 19.

losses

In addition to Captain Kaku and Rear Admiral Yamagushi, 414 other crew members of the Hiryū were killed during the bombing and the subsequent attempts to save the ship.

wreck

So far, no serious attempts have been made to track down the wreck of the Hiryū . Of the Makigumo reported place where the HIRYU torpedierte, was 31 ° 27 '  N , 179 ° 23'  W coordinates: 31 ° 27 '5 "  N , 179 ° 23' 5"  W . However, the wreck drifted for several hours before it finally sank, so the actual location is unknown.

See also

• List of Historic Aircraft Carriers (Japan)

Evidence and references

Remarks

1. ↑ The Japanese rank Chūjō corresponds to the German rank of Vice Admiral . The prefix Kaigun indicates that it is a naval officer.
2. ↑ The Japanese rank Shōshō corresponds to the German rank of rear admiral . The prefix Kaigun indicates that it is a naval officer.
3. ↑ The Japanese rank Taisa corresponds to the German rank of captain at sea . The prefix Kaigun indicates that it is a naval officer.
4. ↑ All times for the Battle of Midway are given in the literature either according to Japanese time, i.e. UTC + 9 hours or according to the time used by the Americans, UTC −12 hours (as also in this article), so that the corresponding date is at can differ one day. See the article time zone .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ history.navy.mil, viewed on August 2, 2010
2. ^ The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. OPNAV P32-1002, pp. 43, 44.
3. ↑ Midway inquest: why the Japanese lost the Battle of Midway. Pp. 234, 363.
4. ^ The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. OPNAV P32-1002, p. 45.
5. ^ The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. OPNAV P32-1002, p. 23.
6. ^ The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. OPNAV P32-1002, p. 25.
7. ^ The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. OPNAV P32-1002, p. 26.
8. ^ The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. OPNAV P32-1002, pp. 46, 47.
9. ^ Paul S. Dull: A battle history of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1941-1945. US Naval Institute Press, 2007, ISBN 1-59114-219-9 , p. 158.
10. ^ The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. OPNAV P32-1002, p. 35.
11. ↑ Shattered Sword. Tully / Parshall, p. 341.
12. ^ John Prados: Combined fleet decoded: the secret history of American intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II. Random House, 1995, ISBN 0-679-43701-0 , p. 328.
13. ^ The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. OPNAV P32-1002, p. 54.
14. ↑ Shattered Sword. Tully / Parshall, p. 572.

literature

Literature in Japanese language:

• Aircraft Carriers Vol I, Kojinsha, 1989, ISBN 4-7698-0453-9 .
• Carrier Strike Force, Gakken Pacific War Series, 1997, ISBN 4-05-601497-3 .

Literature in other languages:

• Jonathan Parshall / Anthony Tully: Shattered Sword. Potomac Books, 2005, ISBN 1-57488-924-9 .
• Dallas Woodbury Isom: Midway inquest: why the Japanese lost the Battle of Midway. Indiana University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-253-34904-4 .
• The Japanese Story Of The Battle Of Midway. Translation, Office of Naval Intelligence, USN, 1947, OPNAV P32-1002.

Web links

Commons : Hiryū  - collection of images, videos and audio files