Ryūjō
Ryūjō on September 6, 1934
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
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 |
See also
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
- Ryūjō on combinedfleet.com (English)
- Resume the Ryujo on combinedfleet.com (English)