Жапондық "Хиё" класты ұшақ тасушы кемесі ("Jun'yō")

Hiyō class aircraft carrier

Jun'yō (隼鷹) was a of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). She was laid down as the passenger liner Kashiwara Maru (橿原丸), but was purchased by the IJN in 1941 while still under construction and converted into an aircraft carrier. Completed in May 1942, the ship participated in the Aleutian Islands Campaign the following month and in several battles during the Guadalcanal Campaign later in the year. Her aircraft were used from land bases during several battles in the New Guinea and Solomon Islands Campaigns. Jun'yō was torpedoed in November 1943 and spent three months under repair. She was damaged by several bombs during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in mid 1944, but quickly returned to service. Lacking aircraft, she was used as a transport in late 1944 and was torpedoed again in December. Jun'yō was under repair until March 1945, when work was cancelled as uneconomical. She was then effectively hulked for the rest of the war. After the surrender of Japan in September, the Americans also decided that she was not worth the cost to make her serviceable for use as a repatriation ship, and she was broken up in 1946–1947.

The ship was ordered in late 1938 as the fast luxury passenger liner Kashiwara Maru by Nippon Yusen Kaisha (the Japan Mail Steamship Company). In exchange for a 60 percent subsidy of her building costs by the Navy Ministry, she was designed to be converted to an auxiliary aircraft carrier, one of 10 such ships subsidized by the IJN. Jun'yō had an overall length of , a beam of and a draft of She displaced at standard load. Her crew ranged from 1,187 to 1,224 officers and men. The ship was fitted with two Mitsubishi Curtis geared steam turbine sets with a total of , each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by six Mitsubishi three drum water tube boilers. Jun'yō had a designed speed of , but reached during her sea trials. The ship carried of fuel oil, which gave her a range of at .

Jun'yōs flight deck was long and had a maximum width of The ship was designed with two superimposed hangars, each approximately long, wide and high. Each hangar could be subdivided by four fire curtains and they were fitted with fire fighting foam dispensers on each side. The hangars were served by two aircraft elevators. The ship's air group was originally intended to consist of 12 Mitsubishi A5M ("Claude") fighters, plus 4 in storage, 18 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers, plus 2 in reserve, and 18 Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers. This was revised to substitute a dozen Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, together with 3 more in storage, for the A5Ms by the time the ship commissioned in 1942. As a result of the lessons learned from the Battle of Midway in June, the ship's fighter complement was strengthened to 21 Zeros, and the B5Ns were reduced to 9. By the end of the year, 6 more Zeros replaced an equal number of D3As, giving totals of 27 A6Ms, 12 D3As and 9 B5Ns. Although it was possible to fit all these aircraft into the hangars, 8 or 9 were usually stored on the flight deck to reduce cramping below decks.

As a conversion from an ocean liner, the ship could not support much armor, although it had a double bottom. Two plates of Ducol steel, each thick, protected the sides of the ship's machinery spaces. The ship's aviation gasoline tanks and magazines were protected by one layer of Ducol steel. Her machinery spaces were further subdivided by transverse and longitudinal bulkheads to limit any flooding. The ship's primary armament consisted of a dozen 40 caliber Type 89 anti aircraft (AA) guns in six twin gun mounts on sponsons along the sides of the hull. Jun'yō was also initially equipped with eight triple mounts for 25 mm Type 96 light AA guns alongside the flight deck. In mid 1943, four more triple mounts were added and another four triple mounts in late 1943 and early 1944. Two of these last four mounts were mounted on the stern and the others were placed in front of and behind the island. A dozen single mounts were also added, some of which were portable and could be mounted on the flight deck. After the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, the ship's anti aircraft armament was reinforced with three more triple mounts, two twin mounts and eighteen single mounts for the 25 mm Type 96 gun. These guns were supplemented by six 28 round AA rocket launchers. In October 1944, Jun'yō had a total of 91 Type 96 guns: 57 in nineteen triple mounts, 4 in two twin mounts, and 30 single mounts. Two Type 94 high angle fire control directors, one on each side of the ship, were fitted to control the Type 89 guns. Each director mounted a rangefinder. When Jun'yō was first commissioned only the rangefinders were fitted and the directors were added later. Four Type 95 directors controlled the 25 mm guns and another pair were added in early 1943. Early warning was provided by two Type 2, Mark 2, Model 1 early warning radars. The first of these was mounted on the top of the island in July 1942, shortly after she was completed, and the other was added later in the year on the port side of the hull, outboard of the rear elevator. A smaller Type 3, Mark 1, Model 3 early warning radar was added in 1944.

Jun'yōs keel was laid down by Mitsubishi on Slipway No. 3 at their shipyard in Nagasaki on 20 March 1939. She was yard number 900 and had the name Kashiwara Maru at that time. The ship was purchased on 10 February 1941 by the Navy Ministry and she was temporarily referred to as No. 1001 Ship (Dai 1001 bankan) to keep her conversion secret. She was launched on 26 June 1941 and commissioned on 3 May 1942 as Jun'yō. Upon commissioning, the ship was assigned to the Fourth Carrier Division of the 1st Air Fleet, together with Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō, under the command of Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta. She was tasked to support Operation AL, an attack planned to seize several Aleutian Islands to provide advance warning in case of an American attack from the Aleutians down the Kurile Islands while the main body of the American fleet was occupied defending Midway. Jun'yō carried 18 A6M2 Zeros and 18 D3As for this operation. At dawn on 3 June, she launched 9 Zeros and a dozen D3As to attack Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island. They had to turn back due to bad weather, although an American PBY Catalina reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by a Zero. A second airstrike was launched later in the day to attack a group of destroyers discovered by aircraft from the first attack, but they failed to find the targets. Another airstrike was launched on the following day by the two carriers that consisted of 15 Zeros, 11 D3As, and 6 B5Ns and successfully bombed Dutch Harbor. As the aircraft from Jun'yō were regrouping after the attack, they were attacked by 8 Curtiss P 40 fighters that shot down 2 Zeros and a pair of D3As while losing 2 of their own. Another D3A got lost and failed to make it back to the carrier. Shortly after the aircraft were launched, the Americans attacked the carriers, but failed to inflict any damage. A Martin B 26 Marauder bomber and a PBY were shot down by Zeros, and a Boeing B 17 Flying Fortress bomber was shot down by flak during the attack. Jun'yō had initially been designated as an auxiliary aircraft carrier (Tokusetsu kokubokan), but following the loss of four Japanese fleet carriers in the Battle of Midway, she was redesignated as a regular carrier (Kokubokan) in July. On the night of 16 October, the two carriers were ordered to attack the American transports off Lunga Point, Guadalcanal and they moved south to their launching point 180 mile (290 km) north of Lunga. At 05:15 each ship launched nine each A6M Zeros and B5Ns (one of Jun'yōs B5Ns was forced to turn back with mechanical problems) which reached the target and discovered two destroyers bombarding Japanese supply dumps on Guadalcanal around 07:20. Hiyōs aircraft attacked Aaron Ward seven minutes later without effect, although the American ship shot down one B5N and damaged another which was forced to make a crash landing. Jun'yōs eight B5Ns engaged Lardner and also failed to hit their target, not least because they were attacked by Marine Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters at 07:32. The Marine pilots shot down three B5Ns on their first pass and severely damaged another pair which were also forced to crash land. They then shot down the three remaining bombers after they missed Lardner. The defending Zeros were only able to shoot down one Wildcat at the cost of one of Hiyōs fighters forced to crash land, although they claimed to have shot down thirteen Marine fighters. Hiyō was forced to depart the area after a fire reduced her top speed to and transferred three Zeros, one D3A and five B5Ns before she left. Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta, commander of the Second Carrier Division, also transferred and hoisted his flag aboard Jun'yō. In mid November 1942, Jun'yō was tasked to provide air cover for the convoy bringing reinforcements for the Japanese forces on Guadalcanal during the three day long Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. The ship had twenty seven A6M3 Zeros, a dozen D3A2s and nine B5N2s for this task. Six of her Zeros were on Combat Air Patrol when the convoy was discovered by two SBDs from Enterprise and shot down one dive bomber after it had made its spot report. They were unable to protect the convoy against further attacks by aircraft based at Henderson Field; seven transports were sunk and the remaining four transports were damaged before the end of the day. That afternoon, Enterprise had been discovered by a searching B5N and Jun'yō launched an air strike with her remaining aircraft, but they failed to locate the American carrier. In December 1942 and January 1943, the carrier covered several convoys that brought reinforcements to Wewak, New Guinea, and her air group protected the forces there for several days before returning to Truk on 20 January. The ship then covered the evacuation from Guadalcanal through early February. Jun'yō briefly returned to Japan in February before she sailed for Truk on 22 March together with Hiyō. and they sank the destroyer Aaron Ward. Leaving her aircraft behind, the carrier returned to Japan in late July. The survivors were back at Truk on 20 February and the air group was disbanded. The new base was closer to the oil wells in Borneo on which the Navy relied and also to the Palau and western Caroline Islands, where the Japanese expected the next American attack. However, the location lacked an airfield on which to train the green pilots, and American submarine activity restricted the ships to the anchorage.

The Japanese fleet was en route to Guimares Island in the central Philippines on 13 June, where they intended to practice carrier operations in an area better protected from submarines, when Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa learned of the American attack on the Mariana Islands the previous day. Upon reaching Guimares, the fleet refuelled and sortied into the Philippine Sea, where they spotted Task Force 58 on 18 June. The Americans failed to locate Ozawa's ships that day and the Japanese turned south to maintain a constant distance between them and the American carriers as Ozawa had decided on launching his air strikes early the following morning. At this time, the 652nd Naval Air Group consisted of 81 Zeros, 27 D3As, 9 Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bombers and 18 Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo bombers, roughly evenly divided among the three ships. The three carriers began launching their first air strike of 26 bomb carrying A6M2 Zeros, 16 A6M5 Zeros to escort the other aircraft and 7 B6Ns at about 09:30. Most of these aircraft were misdirected and failed to find any American ships, although a dozen persisted in their search and found one of the American task groups. A B6N, 5 bomb carrying Zeros and an escorting Zero were shot down by the defending fighters and no damage was inflicted on any American ships. A second air strike of 27 D3As, 9 D4Ys, 2 B6Ns and 26 escorting Zeros was launched around 11:00, accompanied by at least 18 A6Ms and B6Ns from Shōkaku and Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku. They had also been given an erroneous spot report and could not find any American ships. The 652nd aircraft headed for airfield at Rota and Guam to refuel while those from the other two carriers returned to them. A pair of Zeros and 6 D4Ys bound for Rota spotted the carriers Wasp and Bunker Hill en route, but failed to inflict any damage on the American ships while losing 5 D4Ys to anti aircraft fire. Radar had spotted those aircraft headed for Guam and they were intercepted by 41 Grumman F6F Hellcats. Only a single A6M5, 1 D4Y and 7 D3As of the 49 Japanese aircraft survived the encounter and landed. At dusk, the Japanese turned away to the northwest to regroup and to refuel and the Americans turned west to close the distance. They discovered the retiring Japanese fleet during the afternoon of the following day and Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher ordered an air strike launched. They found the ships of the Second Carrier Division and hit Jun'yō with two bombs near her island. The ship was not badly damaged, but flight operations had to be suspended. After repairs at Kure, Jun'yō remained in the Inland Sea without aircraft until 27 October, when she was tasked to transport material to Borneo. On 3 November, she was attacked by the submarine Pintado near Makung, but her escorting destroyer, Japanese destroyer Akikaze, deliberately intercepted the torpedoes and sank with no survivors. On her return voyage, the ship was unsuccessfully attacked by the submarines Barb and Jallao. On 25 November, she sailed for Manila via Makung to rendezvous with the battleship Japanese battleship Haruna and the destroyers Suzutsuki, Fuyutsuki, and Maki. Having loaded 200 survivors of the battleship Japanese battleship Musashi, Jun'yō was attacked by the submarines Sea Devil, Plaice and Redfish early in the morning of 9 December 1944. She was hit by three torpedoes that flooded several compartments and killed 19 men. These gave her a 10°–12° list to starboard, but she was able to proceed on one engine. She reached Sasebo the following day and began repairs on 18 December.