Ryūjō

**Ryūjō**
	Ryūjō on September 6, 1934
Ship data
flag	Japan
Ship type	Light aircraft carrier
Shipyard	Mitsubishi in Yokohama; and Yokosuka Navy Yard
Keel laying	November 26, 1929
Launch	April 2, 1931
Commissioning	May 9, 1933
Removal from the ship register	November 10, 1942
Whereabouts	Sunk on August 24, 1942 in the Battle of the East Solomon Islands .
Ship dimensions and crew
length	179.9 m ( Lüa ) 167 m ( Lpp )
width	23 m
Draft	Max. 5.56 m
displacement	Standard : 10,600 t ; maximum: 13,650 t
crew	924 men
Machine system
machine	6 Kampon boilers ; 2 geared turbine sets
Machine ; performance	65,000 PS (47,807 kW)
Top ; speed	29 kn (54 km / h)
propeller	2
Armament
	When commissioned in 1933 12 × 12.7 cm type 96; 24 × 13.2 mm MG type 93; After modernization in 1936 8 × 12.7 cm type 96; 4 × 2.5 cm type 96; 24 × 13.2 mm MG type 93;
Furnishing
Flight deck dimensions	165.5 m × 23 m
Aircraft capacity	48

The Ryūjō ( Japanese 龍驤 , dt. "Dragon Horse") was a light aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy . It was completed in May 1933 in Yokosuka .

General

The technical advances, especially in the area of increasing combat strength when deploying carrier fleets on the open sea, made an upgrade inevitable as early as the mid-1930s. The Ryūjō was completely redesigned to prepare it for safe use.

In the Second Sino-Japanese War , the aircraft of the Ryūjō had their first significant missions. In 1940 renovations were carried out again.

When the two newest Japanese aircraft carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku were launched, the Ryūjō was downgraded to the second member of the Japanese fleet. It was deployed in the Philippines during the first few weeks of the Pacific War to support the Japanese invasion of the islands.

In early 1942, the carrier drove further missions in East Asia . While the large fleet attacked Kidō Butai Midway , the aircraft of the Ryūjō attacked on June 3 and 4, 1942 Dutch Harbor in Alaska .

After the Americans began to conquer the southern Solomon Islands in August 1942 , the Ryūjō ran with a convoy towards Guadalcanal to support the Japanese troops there. To do this, their warplanes attacked Henderson Field on the island in particular . Since the Ryūjō was far from the other Japanese carriers, it was an easy target for the aircraft of the USS Saratoga in the battle of the Eastern Solomon Islands . She was so badly damaged in the attack that she sank. Some survivors were taken on board by Japanese destroyers .

Surname

The Ryūjō is after the ironclad of the same name - which was in service from mid-1869 to December 1893 - the second warship of a Japanese Navy to bear this name.

List of commanders

No.	Surname	Beginning of the term of office	Term expires	Remarks
1.	Sea captain Matsunaga Toshio	May 9, 1933	October 20, 1933	entrusted with building instruction since December 1, 1931
2.	Sea captain Kuwabara Tarao	October 20, 1933	November 15, 1934
3.	Sea captain Ono Ichiro	November 15, 1934	October 31, 1935
4th	Sea captain Kira Shunichi	October 31, 1935	November 16, 1936
5.	Sea captain Abe Katsuo	November 16, 1936	December 1, 1937
6th	Sea captain Okada Jisaku	December 1, 1937	December 15, 1938
7th	Sea captain Kosaka Kanae	December 15, 1938	November 15, 1939
8th.	Sea captain Hasegawa Kiichi	November 15, 1939	June 21, 1940
9.	Sea captain Sugimoto Ushie	June 21, 1940	April 25, 1942
10.	Sea captain Kato Tadao	April 25, 1942	August 24, 1942

literature

Hansgeorg Jentschura, Dieter Jung, Peter Mickel: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1869-1945 . US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1977, ISBN 0-87021-893-X , pp. 45-46 (English).
Mark Stille: Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921–45 . Osprey Publishing , Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-1-84176-853-3 , pp. 14-15 (English).

Web links

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

Ryūjō on combinedfleet.com (English)
Resume the Ryujo on combinedfleet.com (English)