As the aircraft carrier Taihō settled in the water and plunged to her doom,
Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa opted to go down with her. The Battle of the Philippine
Sea had just begun, and his magnificent vessel had endured irreparable damage.
In the minutes that followed, Ozawa’s staff convinced him they truly needed his leadership,
so he took the Emperor's portrait and decided to continue fighting aboard a nearby vessel.
But as he was transported to a friendly destroyer on his way to his new flagship,
a devastating explosion dismantled what was left of his beloved ship.
Ozawa had to abandon Taihō to her fate - one that
may have been sealed more by his own crew than the enemy…
Delusions of Glory
The new Taihō aircraft carrier design was approved for construction in 1939.
Based on the veteran carrier Shōkaku, she eventually became a type of her own,
with plans for a new batch of new-generation Japanese aircraft carriers. However,
she would become the only ship of her class.
Taihō was the first Japanese aircraft carrier fitted with an armored flight deck.
Notably, the armor was as thick as 80 millimeters in some areas,
and the ship could endure multiple 500-kilogram bomb hits and still remain in the fight.
The ship’s flight deck measured 257 by 30 meters, the largest total area of any Japanese carrier
before the Shinano. She was so large she had to be offset two meters to port to compensate
for her island structure and balance her weight. And in contrast to all pre-war Japanese carriers,
her flight deck was not wooden-planked but made of steel and coated with latex.
The carrier also featured 14 hydraulically-operated arrester wires
for landing, as well as three crash barriers. And her two large, 100-long-ton armored elevators, one
at the aft and the other forward of the island, could convey aircraft as heavy as 7.5 long tons.
Taihō's original design was conceived with two catapults on her bow for assisted take-offs,
but the engineers opted to employ rocket-assisted gear instead.
Headway
Taihō had a similar profile to British Illustrious-class carriers, and her plated bow
to flight deck level enabled better seakeeping and airflow over the forward end of the deck.
With 160,000 shaft horsepower, the carrier had a
top speed of 33.3 knots and a radius of 10,000 nautical miles at 18 knots.
Unlike European ships, Taihō's original design never contemplated a radar installation. The
Japanese Imperial Navy was unaware that other nations were using pulsed radar for
combat until 1941, when a Japanese technical mission visited Germany.
Soon after, Japan initiated a crash plan to speed up radar development, and Taihō received a Type
21 radar atop her island and another on the lower bridge deck just before her completion in 1944.
As for armament, the carrier was fitted with 12 brand-new 65-caliber Type 98
anti-aircraft guns in six twin-gun arrangements, three on each side.
Though powered electro-hydraulically, they could also function manually in case of need.
On average, the gun could fire at a rate of 15 rounds per minute at
14 kilometers horizontally or one kilometer vertically while operated by 11 crew members.
Moreover, the carrier had 17 triple-mount 25-millimeter anti-aircraft cannons,
16 mounted on sponsons just below flight deck level, and one on the flight deck.
The electrically-powered mounts could also operate manually, and their firing
rate reached 110 to 120 rounds per minute, with a maximum range of three kilometers.
Additionally, the vessel had 25 portable standard Type 96 guns.
A Heavy Carrier
The carrier's upper and lower hangars were 150 meters long and five meters high.
For fire safety, the vessel's two hangars were divided into sections, five on the upper one
and four on the lower one. They were separated by fire-proofed fabric curtains that restricted
the air supply, thus delaying the spread of fire. Additionally, a foam spray system ran along the
walls and ends of the rooms, and the lower hangar could be flooded with carbon dioxide if necessary.
The vessel's planned airwing varied during her construction from 126 aircraft to a mere 53 by
the time of operation. In contrast to American carriers, Japanese aircraft had a wide folded
wingspan, with many types only folding near the tips while others did not fold at all.
The ship was supposed to carry larger and more modern carrier-based aircraft,
all of which were still under development at the time, but most weren’t ready on time.
At the peak of her career, Taihō was equipped with 22 Mitsubishi A6M5 Reisen "Zero" fighters,
22 Yokosuka D4Y1 Suisei "Judy" dive bombers,
three Aichi D3A2 "Val" dive bombers, and 18 Nakajima B6N2 Tenzan "Jill" torpedo bombers.
Sturdy as she was, Taihō had a waterline belt armor as thick as 152 millimeters in some points
and was able to withstand a 300-kilogram charge. However, the weight of the armor alone caused her
hull to immerse so much that her lower hangar deck barely showed above the load waterline.
In fact, the bottom part of her two elevator wells was below the waterline.
These elevators formed the roofs of the fuel tanks,
which were only partially protected with armor because the naval designers chose to cover the
bomb and torpedo magazines instead - a mistake that would prove to be fatal.
A Lurking Enemy
The aircraft carrier first started her service in Singapore before being sent
to Lingga Roads off Sumatra, where she joined two veteran carriers of
the First Carrier Division, First Mobile Force: Shōkaku and Zuikaku.
After a training period, Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa officially transferred his flag to Taihō,
intending to capitalize on the vessel's extensive command facilities. Subsequently,
the ground parted towards Borneo, where they would await the start of the Kantai Kessen final battle.
The Americans struck the Marianas on June 11, signaling the invasion of Saipan and
pushing the Japanese to launch Operation A-GO. Within two days, Ozawa mobilized his
fleet towards the Philippines, where they would intercept American carrier forces.
At 7:45am on June 19, Taihō was drawn into the Battle of the Philippine Sea,
where she became one of nine Japanese carriers to engage the Americans.
During the brutal encounter, the ship deployed 16 Zeros, 17 "Judy" dive bombers,
and nine "Jill" torpedo bombers as part of Ozawa's second attack wave.
But as the aircraft took off and circled overhead, an enemy submarine approached the carrier.
Without warning, Albacore fired six torpedoes at Taihō.
Japanese strike pilot Warrant Officer Sakio Komatsu soon noticed the torpedo
wakes and plummeted toward the sea in a brave attempt to stop them.
Like Nothing Happened
Komatsu deliberately crashed into the path of one of the mines, successfully protecting the vessel.
However, the sixth torpedo hit its mark, and the subsequent explosion holed the hull on the
starboard ahead of the island. The impact, which fractured the aviation fuel tanks,
also jammed the forward elevator between the flight deck and the upper hangar deck.
The flooding dragged the ship down 1.5 meters by the bow, as the elevator pit filled with
seawater and a dangerous combination of fuel oil and aviation gasoline.
As such, the captain reduced the speed by a knot and a half, slowing the ingress of seawater.
As no fires had broken out, Vice Admiral Ozawa ordered that normal
flight operations be resumed, and a flight deck damage control party
planked over the ruptured well with wooden benches and tables.
By 9:20am, Taihō was ready to launch two more waves of strike aircraft. However,
gasoline kept accumulating inside the pit as vapors and fumes permeated both hangar decks.
The crew was aware of all the risks, but poorly trained and lacking in practical knowledge, the
men were neither capable of pumping out the well nor covering the flammable substance with foam.
Enclosed, the carrier's hangars were difficult to
fill with fresh air except for mechanical ventilation,
and the desperate damage control teams hammered through the glass in the ship's portholes.
As normal operations resumed, the chief damage
control officer switched the general ventilation system to full capacity
and opened all doors and hatches in a desperate attempt to get rid of the fumes.
Even so, the measure took an unexpected turn.
Downfall
Taihō's armor being so heavy eventually determined her fate, as her hull was immersed so deeply into
the water that her lower hangar deck was barely above the load waterline, and the two elevator
wells were below. Also, since her aviation fuel tanks were only partially protected with armor,
the empty air spaces around them turned out to be Taihō's downfall.
Areas previously unexposed to the vapors were suddenly saturated with hazardous chemicals,
increasing the risk of spontaneous ignition.
Around six and a half hours after the initial hit,
a severe explosion jolted the carrier as the flight deck heaved up and the sides blew out.
Moments later, a second explosion destroyed what remained of Taihō,
which sank stern-first, dragging 1,650 irreplaceable officers and men with her.
After her sinking, all subsequent Japanese carriers had their pits
filled with concrete. However, it was one issue alone that could be
blamed for the loss of the capital ship: deficient damage control.
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