warspite1
Posts: 41353
Joined: 2/2/2008
From: England
Status: offline
|
Almost finished Midway!!
[4332 Kaga - by Robert Jenkins]
.B Engine(s) output: 127,400 hp
.B Top Speed: 28 knots
.B Main armament: 10 x 8-inch (203mm), 16 x 5-inch (127mm) guns
.B Aircraft: 90 (Operational Maximum 66)
.B Displacement (full load): 43,650 tons
.B Thickest armour: 11-inch (belt)
.P The carrier Kaga began life as a battleship, having been designed as such
for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) at the end of the First World War. She was
to have been the name ship in a class of two battleships laid down in 1920.
.P Construction work was halted on both ships in February 1922 as a result of the
signing of the Washington Naval Treaty which limited capital ship construction.
That would have been the end for Kaga, but she received a reprieve from an
unexpected source. Under one of the provisions of the Treaty, the IJN were
allowed to convert two capital ships into aircraft carriers. For this they chose
to convert the battlecruisers Akagi and Amagi, then under construction. But when,
in 1923, Amagi was destroyed by an earthquake, Kaga was chosen to replace her.
.P Kaga was finally completed as an aircraft carrier only in March 1928 and was
then reconstructed in the mid-thirties. The technical details above are as at the
time of Pearl Harbor.
.P Her modernisation saw an additional thirty-four feet added to her length as
well as anti-torpedo bulges. An island structure was also added and placed on her
starboard side.
.P As a result of her modernisation, Kaga`s aircraft carrying capacity was
initially increased to ninety aircraft, although increases in aircraft size and
practical problems with operating that many aircraft ultimately limited Kaga to a
complement of less than seventy. She was fitted with a full length flight deck
and her two extended hangars were served by three lifts. As standard for all
Japanese carriers in World War II, there was no catapult to assist aircraft take-
off, but nine arrester wires were fitted to provide the necessary stopping power
when landing her aircraft.
.P Protection was minimal. Kaga benefitted from eleven-inch belt armour, courtesy
of her original battleship design, but her horizontal armour was limited to just
a thin 1.5-inch armoured deck, which provided little protection for her hangars,
magazines or her aviation fuel stores.
.P Defensive weaponry consisted of ten eight-inch guns, but these were fitted in
case-mates, fitted aft and low down, so restricting their use in poor weather.
Her anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of eight, twin 5-inch AA guns and
fifteen, twin 25mm close-range weapons.
.P Kaga proved a valuable addition to the carrier fleet, capable of operating a
large air group, but like all Japanese carriers she was vulnerable to attack from
either enemy aircraft or plunging shell fire.
.P Kaga was named after a former Japanese province.
.P Kaga was part of the 1st Carrier Division (CarDiv) within Vice-Admiral
Nagumo`s 1st Air Fleet that carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor in December
1941 (See Akagi). Following the Hawaiian Operation, Kaga and the other ships of
the 1st Air Fleet (Kido Butai) were sent to support the invasion of the islands
of New Britain and New Ireland in the Bismarck Archipelago (see Transport Counter
4446). This operation went without problem and she then sailed for Truk, where
she arrived on the 25th January. At the end of the month the 1st Air Fleet were
ordered to sea in response to American carrier raids against the Marshall and the
Gilbert Islands (see Katori). No engagement resulted from this sortie however.
.P After returning to Palau, Kaga ran aground, damaging her hull on a reef. She
was able to continue operations after temporary repairs however, and when the 1st
Air Fleet were tasked with launching an air raid on the northern Australian port
of Darwin between the 15th and 19th February, Kaga took part in the attack (see
Soryu).
.P Then, with barely time for replenishment, Kaga was sent south of Java at the
end of February as part of the Japanese invasion of that island. The 1st Air
Fleet were tasked with stopping Allied shipping from fleeing to Australia or
India from Java, and to stop any reinforcement of the island (see Chikuma). Upon
completion of this operation Nagumo`s hard pressed force were ordered to the
Indian Ocean to attack the British Eastern Fleet in Ceylon. However, Kaga was not
to take part in this raid, and instead she was sent for repairs to the damage
inflicted against the reef previously. After completion of the repair work, Kaga
was once more re-united with Akagi within the 1st CarDiv for their next
operation.
.P On the 27th May 1942, co-incidentally the anniversary of the IJN`s great
victory over the Russian Fleet at Tsushima, the four carriers of the Kido Butai
left their anchorage at Hashirajima for the last time. They were about to take
part in MI, an operation designed to bring the US Navy - and in particular the
enemy carriers missed during the attack on Pearl Harbor - to battle. The outlying
island of Midway, at the end of the Hawaiian Island chain and 1,300 miles from
Honolulu, would be invaded and this action, so it was thought, would bring the US
Navy to sea. For a detailed background to the wider operation and the order of
battle please see Mikuma; this write-up will deal purely with the Kido Butai and
their destruction on the 4th June at the hands of three American carriers.
.P Nagumo's First Carrier Striking Force contained the following fleet carriers
and their air groups: Akagi, sixty aircraft; Kaga, seventy-three; Hiryu, fifty-
seven; and Soryu; also fifty-seven. Included within these numbers were aircraft
from the 6th Air Group that were planned to operate from Midway once the island
was taken. In the meantime they were available to Nagumo for use in the MI
operation. These carriers, central to the entire Japanese plan, were supported by
the fast battleships Haruna and Kirishima; the heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma;
and eleven destroyers led by the light cruiser Nagara. Five tankers were on hand
to provide the necessary fuel for the journey.
.P The plan put together by Admiral Yamamoto, was typical of IJN plans during the
Second World War; the plan was complex, rigid and did not allow for what the
enemy may do. Yamamoto believed he would achieve surprise in attacking Midway and
that as a result, Nagumo would be able to position his Kido Butai, undetected,
north-west of the island. From there he would launch the air strikes that would
neutralise the island's defences, allowing an invasion to take place. Only then
would the American Fleet turn up; and be promptly dispatched to the bottom of the
Pacific; simple....
.P Armed with these orders, Nagumo`s Kido Butai arrived at its allotted place in
the early hours of the 4th June. The First Wave of one hundred and eight aircraft
took off from the four carriers at 0430hrs and proceeded toward Midway, led by
Lt Tomonaga. At the same time, to guard against air attack launched from the
island, eleven Zeros were launched to form the Combat Air Patrol (CAP) over the
carrier force. The Japanese launched a reconnaissance flight of seven aircraft,
one each coming from Kaga and Hiryu and the remainder from the battleships and
cruisers. However, the reconnaissance mission was very poorly planned and
executed. As well as having far too few aircraft given the area to be searched,
three of these - from the cruisers Tone and Chikuma - were late taking off.
Meanwhile, Nagumo's reserve aircraft were to be held back in reserve and the
Kates armed with torpedoes in order to deal with any surface threat should it
materialise.
.P The Americans on Midway had search plans of their own and an hour after
Tomonaga`s First Wave was launched, a long-range Catalina found Nagumo's carrier
force. Unlike at Pearl Harbor, Tomonaga would find few if any, American aircraft
on the ground this day; on hearing the news of the sighting, nearly all of
Midway's aircraft were soon heading for Nagumo's carriers. When the First Wave
finished their work over Midway and were returning to their carriers, Tomonaga
sent a message back to Nagumo at 0700hrs confirming that a second strike would be
required. At around the same time that this message was being received by Nagumo,
the first of the enemy aircraft from Midway began to arrive over the Kido Butai.
.P The first of these was a force of torpedo bombers, six brand new Grumman TBF's
making its combat debut, and four B-26 Marauder medium bombers. The former
attacked Hiryu and the latter headed for Akagi. The CAP fighters made short work
of the attackers and only one Avenger and two Marauders made it back to Midway
having hit nothing.
.P It would be around 0800hrs before the next attack from Midway came along, but
that did not mean that Nagumo had time to spare to consider his next move. The
sudden arrival of the American aircraft from Midway, along with Tomonaga`s
message, convinced Nagumo that he should order his reserve aircraft to be fitted
with bombs rather than torpedoes, and this order was given at around 0715hrs. But
then, at 0740hrs, Nagumo finally heard from one of his search planes; an American
surface force had been located north-east of Midway. Deeply troubled by the news,
Nagumo ordered the re-arming to be reversed, although it would be another forty
minutes before it was confirmed that a carrier was among the US ships.
.P As Tomonaga`s First Wave began to reach their carriers, so the next wave of
attacks from Midway began; Tomonaga would have to circle while these battles were
concluded. The first attack came from sixteen Dauntless dive-bombers flown by an
inexperienced Marine unit led by Major Henderson. Their target was Hiryu, but
despite half the bomber force getting through to the carrier, no hits were
registered. No sooner had the surviving Marines left the scene than the next
attack began; a high-level attack by twelve B-17s led by Lt-Col Sweeney. Their
bombs were dropped from high altitude and although both carriers of CarDiv 2 were
surrounded by huge plumes of spray, neither was actually hit. As with the
previous high level attack, no enemy aircraft were shot down by the Zeros or the
largely ineffective Japanese AA guns. The third and final Midway based attack
followed hot on the heals of the B-17`s and came via another Marine unit. This
contained eleven Vindicator aircraft led by Major Norris and their target was
Haruna, which managed to succesfully avoid damage through skilful evasive moves
by her commander, Rear-Admiral Takama.
.P With the last of the US aircraft departed from the scene, Nagumo could at last
order his First Wave to land and shortly after 0830hrs, Tomonaga`s strike force
began landing on their carriers. At the same time, Nagumo ordered a course north-
east in order to close the gap on the US ships. All four carriers completed the
recovery of their aircraft by 0910hrs and they were swiftly removed from the
flight-deck and taken to the hangars below. However, having achieved this
milestone, the next attack on the Kido Butai began just ten minutes later.
.P This attack, the first that morning from carrier borne aircraft, was led by
Lt-Cdr Waldron from the carrier Hornet. Unlike his fellow squadron commanders,
Waldron correctly guessed where he was likely to find the Japanese fleet and his
was to be the only squadron from Hornet to engage the Kido Butai. He had fifteen old
Devastator torpedo bombers with which to attack while the Japanese had over
twenty CAP fighters available to pounce on them. All but one American aircraft
was blown out of the sky before they had a chance to drop their torpedoes, and
the lone torpedo that was dropped was easily evaded by the target, Soryu.
.P The various American attacks that had been mounted throughout the morning had
been uncoordinated and devoid of fighter cover. Importantly though, the American
sacrifices had not been in vain. The incessant attacks had meant that Nagumo did
not have the opportunity to launch aircraft against the known position of the US
carrier found earlier. But what was far worse for the fortunes of the Kido Butai
was that the Americans were about to be hit with the first coordinated attack of
the morning; an attack that would devastate Nagumo`s once proud carrier force.
.P Shortly after 1000hrs there were three formations from the carrier Yorktown
on their way to attack the Kido Butai: VF-3, consisting of six fighters led by
Lt-Cdr Thach; the torpedo bombers of VT-3, led by Lt-Cdr Massey and dive-bombers
of VB-3 led by Lt-Cdr Leslie. By chance, at the same time, a dive-bomber group
from Enterprise, under the command of Lt-Cdr McClusky, also arrived from another
direction. The latter were VB-6 and VS-6, led by Lt Best and Lt Gallaher
respectively. By now, thanks to the events of that morning, Nagumo`s ships were
no longer in their box formation, but were instead roughly line abreast, with
Soryu, Hiryu, Akagi and Kaga respectively in a rough north-east / south-west
line.
.P First to begin their attack was the Devastator torpedo bombers of VT-3 which
targeted the northern most of the carriers, Soryu. This time they had Wildcat
fighter support. During the approach, Massey`s aircraft switched target to the
Hiryu, which was closer, but the end result was no different to that of the
earlier Devastator attacks. Zeros soon pounced on Massey`s aircraft, shooting
down all but five; of these, just two were able to get back home but no hits on
Hiryu were recorded.
.P Meanwhile, with the CAP engaged with the US fighters and the torpedo bombers,
the remaining three units took the opportunity of positioning themselves for
their own attacks almost unnoticed. Leslie's Dauntless dive-bombers were some way
behind Massey and they continued on to attack Soryu as Massey headed for Hiryu.
To the south-west, Best and Gallaher lined up their Dauntlesses to attack Kaga.
It was 1024hrs. Kaga spotted her attackers late, but immediately put her AA
weaponry into effect; downing one Dauntless. It would not save her. Kaga was hit
in quick succession by four bombs: the first aft, followed by a hit on the
forward hangar, the third scored a direct hit on her bridge and lastly one fell
amidships. With this much damage, and her senior officers almost all killed, it
was soon readily apparent that there was no hope of saving the ship; however her
crew courageously fought the blaze for many hours.
.P Soryu was the next victim five minutes later, and she too belatedly put up
desperate AA fire, all to no avail; three hits were taken and fires rapidly
spread in the packed hangars below. No doubt as a consequence of her lack of
armour protection, Soryu was the worst of the three carriers affected, one bomb
exploding deep within her. Fires raged through the carrier, and there was soon no
hope of saving her. The final victim was Nagumo`s flagship. Akagi, which was
attacked by just three aircraft and was hit just once. Unfortunately for her, the
bomb tore through her flight deck near her middle lift and exploded in the hangar
below. Fires began to burn that her damage control parties could not get to grips
with and they increased in intensity to the point of no return. All three ships
would ultimately be scuttled.
.P However, while the crews of the three carriers were forlornly trying to save
their doomed ships, the IJN still had one carrier intact. Rear-Admiral Yamaguchi
was determined to close the US Navy carrier or carriers (even at this stage of
the battle they were unsure how many carriers the enemy had) and extract revenge
for what had just happened. He ordered the launch of twenty-four aircraft, a mix
of dive-bombers and fighters led by Lt Kobayashi, and they took off from the sole
remaining flight deck available to the Japanese at 1100hrs. Twenty Wildcat
fighters flying CAP for Yorktown were waiting for them, together with a heavy AA
screen of cruisers and destroyers that surrounded the carrier. A terrible toll
was exacted on the dive-bombers and escorting Zeros, but despite this, a number
of aircraft emerged unscathed and their pilots continued relentlessly toward
Yorktown. The first bomb hit the carrier near her aft lift, a second caught her
amidships and a third hit her forward lift. Six Japanese aircraft, five Vals and
one Zero, returned to Hiryu quite understandably thinking they had put Yorktown
out of action; they were wrong. The damage control skills of the US Navy were far
in advance of those of the IJN, and within a short space of time Yorktown had her
fires under control and ultimately extinguished.
.P While this had been taking place, Nagumo, who had transferred his flag to
Nagara, had decided upon attacking the US forces at night using his battleships,
cruisers and destroyers. He resolved to close the gap to the Americans, who he
thought, would be heading toward his force with the intention of finishing them
off.
.P Meanwhile, at 1330hrs, Hiryu had launched a second wave of aircraft, this time
under the command of Tomonaga who would be on a one way mission as damage to his
aircraft would not allow a return trip. For this attack, just sixteen aircraft
were available; ten torpedo bombers and six fighters. Tomonaga believed that a
second carrier had been found as there was no evidence of damage to their new
found target. However, the object of the attack was indeed the patched up
Yorktown. For the loss of eight attacking aircraft, the Japanese achieved two
torpedo hits on the Yorktown and these caused serious flooding and a loss of
power. Yorktown would eventually succumb to submarine I-168 the following morning
(see submarine Counter 4453).
.P However, Hiryu`s operational life would only last until mid-afternoon. Having
just recovered her surviving aircraft from the second attack and put in place the
largest CAP component she could, the men aboard Hiryu began preparations for a
third strike; it was never to be launched.
.P After search planes had located Hiryu once more earlier that afternoon, forty
Dauntlesses from Enterprise and Hornet were dispatched by the Americans without
fighter cover. The attack proved every bit as devastating as the earlier dive-
bomber attacks on the Kido Butai. Hiryu was hit forward by no less than four
bombs and was effectively out of action as a carrier immediately. She burned
through the night and did not eventually sink until after 0900hrs the following
morning after her planned scuttling had been botched.
.P The remaining ships of Nagumo`s force were unscathed in the attack; only
Nagumo's carriers were vulnerable this day. That evening Nagumo was ordered to
head west to rendezvous with Yamamoto`s Main Body and eventual withdrawal back to
Japan. In the waters off Midway Island Kido Butai had left behind four fleet
carriers, 2,181 officers and men and 110 aircrew. Kaga alone had lost 811 and 21
of these respectively. Yamamoto's dream of dispatching Nimitz`s carriers to the
bottom of the Pacific had turned into a nightmare. Never again would the Japanese
hold the initiative in the Pacific War; Japan's long road to total ruin began in
earnest on the 4th June 1942.
_____________________________
England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805  |
Printable Version
RE: Unit Descriptions: Air, Naval, Land - 
. 
) and yes it is not 100% totally reliable information, then again... what intel is...? 
The new sentence does read more fluid and makes more sense... IMHO. 
- I will make the change 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread