Kaga

1942

Midway, four bombs, the hangar oven Location: Pacific Ocean, NW of Midway Atoll · Coordinates: 30.37°N 179.30°W · Casualties: 811 · Survivors: ~1,190 · Depth: 5,400 m · Cause: aerial attack — Struck by four bombs from USS Enterprise's VB-6 in rapid succession at 10:22 on 4 June 1942. The bombs ignited fuelled and armed aircraft on the flight deck; ruptured aviation fuel lines turned the hangar into an oven. Burned all afternoon and sank at 19:25. · Fate: abyssal · located 2019 · Type: aircraft carrier (ex-battleship) · Tonnage: 38,200 tons · Crew: 2016 · Flag: Empire of Japan · Launched: 1921 Converted from the incomplete Tosa-class battleship, veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack. At Midway on 4 June 1942, struck by four bombs from USS Enterprise's VB-6 in rapid succession; the ruptured aviation fuel lines turned her hangar deck into an oven. 811 dead, the heaviest Japanese carrier loss of the battle. Located in 2019 at 5,400 metres, split in three and upside down. The Vessel The Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Kaga was, like her sister Akagi, a converted battleship hull. She had been originally laid down in 1920 as the lead ship of the projected Kaga-class battleships, was cancelled under the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922, and was converted to an aircraft carrier between 1923 and 1928. She was commissioned at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 31 March 1928. Her conversion produced the largest Imperial Japanese Navy carrier of her generation: 247 metres long, 38,200 tons as completed, and initially fitted with the three-flight-deck configuration. Her 1934-1935 modernisation rebuilt her to single-deck configuration with a 250-metre continuous flight deck, an enclosed island superstructure, and improved propulsion machinery giving her 28 knots. Her air group at the time of her final operations consisted of 63 aircraft (18 fighters, 18 dive bombers, 27 torpedo bombers). She was slower than Akagi but larger, with better internal subdivision and greater aviation fuel capacity. Her operational service from 1932 forward included fleet aviation exercises in the Inland Sea and off China, and from 1937 onward offensive air operations against Chinese shore targets during the Sino-Japanese War. She participated in every major Kidō Butai operation from Pearl Harbor through May 1942. The Disaster The four bomb hits on Kaga between 10:24 and 10:25 on 4 June 1942 initiated a chain of fires that could not be controlled. The second bomb, striking at the island structure, killed Captain Jisaku Okada and most of her command staff on the bridge. The surviving senior officer was Commander Takahisa Amagai, Kaga's air group commander, who assumed command but could not establish effective damage control with her communications destroyed. Kaga's fire behaviour was different from Akagi's and worse. Her larger aviation fuel capacity (2,000 tons of aviation gasoline, approximately 40 per cent more than Akagi's) ensured that her hangar fires were sustained for far longer. Her 1,200 crew, larger than Akagi's by 200 ratings, produced proportionally more casualties as the fires worked through the internal compartments. By 13:00 she was burning along her full length; by 14:00 her stern had begun to settle as the fires burned through her internal bulkheads. She went through three separate periods of severe internal explosions during the afternoon: at 12:45 (when her forward aviation fuel tank exploded), at 13:40 (her after magazine), and at 15:30 (her main boiler room). The 15:30 explosion was the terminal event; after it she began to sink by the stern. Her destroyer escort Hagikaze moved alongside to evacuate her remaining crew. At 16:25 Commander Amagai ordered abandon-ship. Hagikaze and the destroyer Maikaze took off approximately 811 survivors. 811 of her 1,630 crew died, the highest