Japanese aircraft carrier Zuihō

Japanese lead ship of Zuiho class
the Taiwanese town officially named 'Zuiho' during the Japanese era

Zuihō (瑞鳳) was the name ship of her class of two light aircraft carriers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Originally laid down as the submarine tender Takasaki (Japanese: 高崎, "Tall Cape"), she was renamed and converted while under construction into an aircraft carrier. The ship was completed during the first year of World War II and played a minor role in the Battle of Midway in mid 1942. She participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign during the rest of 1942. Significantly damaged during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in that campaign, after repairs Zuihō covered the evacuation of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal in early 1943. Her aircraft were disembarked several times in mid to late 1943 and used from land bases in a series of battles in the Southwest Pacific. Zuihō participated in the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf in mid 1944. In this last engagement, she mainly served as a decoy for the main striking forces and was sunk by American aircraft. In between battles, the ship served as an aircraft ferry and a training ship.

The submarine support ship Takasaki was laid down on 20 June 1935 at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal and was designed to be converted to either a fleet oiler or a light aircraft carrier as needed. She was launched on 19 June 1936 and began a lengthy conversion into a carrier while fitting out. The ship was renamed Zuihō during the process which was not completed until 27 December 1940 when she was commissioned. Her crew numbered 785 officers and men. Zuihō was a flush deck design and lacked an island superstructure. intended to house 30 aircraft. The hangar was served by two octagonal centerline aircraft elevators. She had arresting gear with six cables, but was not fitted with an aircraft catapult.

After commissioning, Zuihō remained in Japanese waters until late 1941. Captain Sueo Ōbayashi assumed command on 20 September and Zuihō became flagship of the Third Carrier Division ten days later. She was briefly assigned to the 11th Air Fleet in Formosa on 13 October and arrived in Takao the following day. The ship returned to Japan in early November, rejoining the Third Carrier Division, and was given a brief refit later in the month. Together with the carrier Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō and six battleships, Zuihō covered the return of the ships of the 1st Air Fleet (Kido Butai) as they returned from the attack on Pearl Harbor in mid December. In February 1942, the ship ferried Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighters to Davao City, Philippines for the 11th Air Fleet. Transferred to the First Fleet after the Third Carrier Division was disbanded on 1 April, Zuihō remained in Japanese waters until June when she participated in the Battle of Midway. After a brief refit in July–August in Sasebo, the ship was assigned to the First Carrier Division with the carriers Japanese aircraft carrier Shōkaku and Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku on 12 August. Together with the damaged Shōkaku, the ship withdrew from the battle and reached Truk two days later. After temporary repairs, the two carriers returned to Japan in early November and Zuihōs repairs were completed on 16 December. In the meantime, Captain Bunjiro Yamaguchi assumed command. Zuihō arrived at Sasebo on 9 May and received a brief refit in mid June. She returned to Truk on 15 July and remained in the area until 5 November when she returned to Yokosuka. By this time, Zuihō was assigned to the First Carrier Division with Shōkaku and Zuikaku and they sailed for Eniwetok Atoll on 18 September for training; a secondary objective was to be in position to intercept any attacks by American carriers in the vicinity of Wake Island and the Marshall Islands area. That day the American carriers raided the Gilbert Islands and were gone by the time the Japanese reached Eniwetok on 20 September. Japanese intelligence reports pointed to another American attack in the Wake Marshall Islands area in mid October and Admiral Mineichi Koga sortied the Combined Fleet, including the First Carrier Division, on 17 October. They arrived at Eniwetok two days later and waited for reports of American activity until 23 October. They then sailed for Wake Island and then returned to Truk on 26 October without encountering any American ships. Zuihōs air group was transferred to Rabaul at the beginning of November, just in time to participate in the raid on Rabaul a few days later. The fighters claimed to have shot down 25 American aircraft at the cost of eight pilots; the survivors flew back to Truk and remained ashore. From December to May 1944, Zuihō ferried aircraft and supplies to Truk and Guam although she was reassigned to the Third Carrier Division on 29 January, the air group's pilots were largely drawn from the two most recent classes of flight school graduates and lacked experience. The ship sailed for Tawi Tawi on 11 May in the Philippines. 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 submarines were very active in the vicinity which restricted the ships to the anchorage.

The 1st Mobile 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 refueled 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 airstrikes early the following morning. He had deployed his forces in a "T" shaped formation with the Third Carrier Division at the end of the stem, ahead of the First and Second Carrier Divisions that formed the crossbar of the "T". Zuihō and her consorts were intended to draw the attention of the Americans while the other carriers conducted their airstrikes without disruption. Sixteen Aichi E13A floatplanes were launched by the heavy cruisers accompanying the carriers at 04:30 to search for the Americans; the three carriers launched a follow up wave of 13 B5Ns at 05:20. The first wave spotted one group of four carriers from Task Force 58 at 07:34 and the Japanese carriers launched their aircraft an hour later. This consisted of 43 Zero fighter bombers and 7 B6Ns, escorted by 14 A6M5 fighters; the carriers retained only 3 fighters, 2 fighter bombers, 2 B6Ns and 2 B5Ns for self defense and later searches. While the airstrike was still forming up, the second wave of searchers located Task Force 58's battleships and the airstrike was diverted to attack them. The Americans detected the incoming Japanese aircraft at 09:59 and had a total of 199 Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters in the air by the time the Japanese aircraft were in range of the American ships. The defending fighters decimated the Japanese aircraft and only 21 survived. The only damage inflicted was from one A6M2 that hit the battleship South Dakota in her superstructure with a single bomb that wounded 50 crewmen, but did little other damage. Only 3 Hellcats were lost in the affair, 1 to a B6N, although the Japanese claimed four victories. Some of the surviving Japanese aircraft landed at Guam while others, including the 5 surviving B6Ns, returned to their carriers where they claimed one carrier definitely damaged and another probably hit. At dusk, the Japanese turned away to the northwest to regroup and to refuel, while the Americans turned west to close the distance. Both sides launched aircraft the next day to locate each other; Zuihō launched three aircraft at 12:00 to search east of the fleet, but they did not find the Americans. The Americans discovered the retiring Japanese fleet during the afternoon and Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher ordered an airstrike launched. While their attack sank the carrier Japanese aircraft carrier Hiyō and damaged two others, Zuihō escaped unscathed and successfully disengaged that evening. By the end of the battle, Ozawa had only 34 intact aircraft. After reaching Japan on 1 July, the ship remained in Japanese waters until October, He activated Shō Gō 2 after the Americans attacked the Philippines, Formosa and the Ryukyu Islands beginning on 10 October. This required the transfer of most of the 653rd Naval Air Group to Formosa and Luzon to attack the American forces, with only a few aircraft retained for carrier operations. Most of the 653rd's aircraft were fruitlessly destroyed when the Americans suppressed Japanese defenses in the Philippines, preparatory to the actual invasion. On 17 October Toyoda alerted the fleet that Shō Gō 1 was imminent and activated the plan the following day after receiving reports of the landings on Leyte. Under the plan, Zuihō and the rest of Ozawa's carrier force were to approach Leyte Gulf from the north as a diversion from two other forces approaching from the south and west, with all three forces converging on the gulf on 25 October; the Main Body left Japan on 20 October. As decoys, the carriers were only provided with a total of 116 aircraft: 52 A6M5 fighters, 28 A6M2 fighter bombers, 7 Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bombers, 26 B6Ns and 4 B5Ns. By the morning of 24 October, the Main Body was within range of the northernmost American carriers of Task Force 38 and Ozawa ordered an airstrike launched to attract the attention of the Americans. This accomplished little else as the Japanese aircraft failed to penetrate past the defending fighters; the survivors landed at airfields on Luzon. Preoccupied with the other Japanese naval forces and land based air attacks, the Americans could not spare any aircraft to search for the Japanese carriers until the afternoon. They were spotted at 16:05, but Admiral William Halsey, Jr., commander of Task Force 38, decided that it was too late in the day to mount an effective strike. He did, however, turn all of his ships north to position himself for a dawn attack on the Japanese carriers the next day in what came to be called the Battle off Cape Engaño. Aircraft from the light carrier Independence were able to track the Japanese ships for most of the night and Halsey ordered an airstrike of 60 Hellcats, 65 Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bombers and 55 Avengers launched shortly after dawn in anticipation of locating the Japanese fleet. They spotted them at 07:35 and brushed aside the 13 Zeros that the Japanese had retained for self defense. Zuihō attempted to launch her few remaining aircraft, but was hit by a single bomb on her aft flight deck after a number of torpedo carrying Avengers missed. The bomb started several small fires, lifted the rear elevator, bulged the flight deck, knocked out steering and gave the ship a small list to port. Twenty minutes later, the fires were put out, steering repaired and the list corrected. A second attack an hour later focused on Chiyoda and ignored Zuihō. The third wave arrived around 13:00 and badly damaged the ship. She was hit once by a torpedo and twice by small bombs, although fragments from as many as 67 near misses cut steam pipes and caused flooding of both engine rooms and one boiler room. Zuihō was forced to reduce speed to and flooding increased so that all available hands were ordered to man the pumps at 14:10. The ship took on a 13° list to starboard and went dead in the water at 14:45 when the port engine room fully flooded. The fourth wave of American aircraft attacked ten minutes later, but only damaged her with splinters from another ten near misses. This was enough to increase her list to 23° and she was ordered abandoned at 15:10. Zuihō sank at 15:26 at position with the loss of 7 officers and 208 men. The destroyer Japanese destroyer Kuwa and the battleship Japanese battleship Ise rescued 58 officers and 701 men between them.