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Akagi

Country Japan Ship Class Akagi-class Aircraft Carrier Builder Name Kure Naval Arsenal Laid Down 6 Dec 1920 Launched 22 Apr 1925 Commissioned 25 Mar 1927 Sunk 4 Jun 1942 Displacement 36,500 tons standard; 41,300 tons full Length 855 feet Beam 103 feet Draft 29 feet Machinery Gijitsu Honbu geared turbines, 19 Kampon boilers, 4 shafts Bunkerage 5,775t fuel oil, 225gal aviation fuel Power Output 133,000 SHP Speed 31 knots Range 8,000nm at 14 knots Crew 1630 Armament 6x8-in, 12x4.7-in, 28x25mm anti-aircraft Armor 6-in belt, 3.1-in deck Flight Deck Dimensions 818ft x 100ft Elevators 3 Arrester Wires 9 Hangar Decks 3 Aircraft 91

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Akagi was designed as a battlecruiser, much like her American Lexington-class contemporaries. She was converted into an aircraft carrier under the auspices of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty at a hefty price tag of 53 million Yen (USD$36 million). Based on a battlecruiser, Akagi was a unique looking aircraft carrier. At the time of her construction, there were not many air craft carriers in the navies around the world, hence there were no "standard design" at this early stage, which resulted in her unique configuration: triple-flight deck, unconventional port-side island, and six 8-in guns. Already being the most expensive ship in the Japanese fleet, she underwent an expensive refitting in 1935 that gave her the full-length flight deck configuration that she would enter the Pacific War with. The American pilots identified her as a carrier with a boxy superstructure and an improbably high flight deck that towered six-stories above the main deck.

ww2dbaseAfter the 1935 refitting Akagi became the first Japanese carrier with a modern large flight deck, and it was the operational experiences aboard the Akagi that forged the Japanese naval airpower doctrine. She participated in every major action in the early part of the war, including Pearl Harbor, the attack against Port Darwin, operations in the Indian Ocean, and the Battle of Midway. Unfortunately, with her unique design came an unique weakness as well, and the weakness presented itself during the Battle of Midway. Aside from the fact that her anti-aircraft weaponry were of an older and slow-firing design, they were also positioned poorly. Her anti-aircraft batteries were positioned on the port and starboard sides of the ship, twenty or so feet below the flight deck, therefore guns on each side could only fire at targets on the same side of the ship. Additionally, port side guns are additionally blocked by the island, further reducing the effectiveness of the weapons. This was one of the many reasons why she was fatally attacked at Midway on 4 Jun 1942 at the hands of American dive bombers. The fatal shot was scored by American pilot Lieutenant Richard Best whose bomb landed at the aft edge of the middle elevator. "Nobody pushed his dive steeper or held it longer than Dick," commented Best's backseater James Murray. Best's 1,000-lb bomb crashed through the flight deck and exploded in the upper hangar, instantly killing many Japanese crewmen working in the enclosed hangar and hurling everything from men to aircrafts over the edge of the flight deck. When Captain Taijiro Aoki abandoned the ship (he was the last to leave her), she had already been burning for nearly nine hours. He remembered later:

The dive bombers attacked my ship while we were still taking evasive action from the torpedo bombers. We were unable to avoid the dive bombers because we were so occupied in avoiding the torpedo attacks.... We only received two hits.... Akagi was sunk by torpedoes from a Japanese destroyer early next morning because, as a result of the two hits, the whole ship was on fire.

ww2dbaseAkagi took two bomb hits at 1026, tearing into below decks. The most damaging hit on Akagi came in the form of a near miss by Ensign Frederick Thomas Weber, which jammed the ship's port rudder, rendering her essentially unnavigable. Initially refusing to leave the ship, Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, in operational command, was finally convinced by Captain Taijiro Aoki to transfer his flag to another ship after explaining to the admiral that commanding a fleet would be impossible on a burning ship without working radio; they transferred to the light cruiser Nagara. Her engine somehow came back to life at 1203, but it was somewhat useless as she could only sail in circles to starboard due to rudder damage. At 1338, the Emperor's portrait was removed in preparation for abandoning ship, which commenced at 1350. Her hull remained afloat until 0200 the next morning when she was scuttled by two or three torpedoes from one or more of the Destroyer Division Four ships, Arashi, Nowaki, Hagikaze, and Maikaze; Akagi was the first Japanese capital ship in WW2 to be scuttled by her own fellow ships in the Pacific. As she went down, survivors aboard destroyers "Banzai! Akagi banzai!" from the safety of the destroyers.

ww2dbaseAkagi was supposed to have a sister ship, Amagi. The Amagi project was abandoned after her under-construction hull was damaged beyond repair during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

ww2dbaseSources: Imperial Japanese Navy Page, Midway Dauntless Victory, the Pacific Campaign, Shattered Sword.

Last Major Revision: Oct 2008

Aircraft Carrier Akagi Interactive Map

Akagi Operational Timeline

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