Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 26 November 1929 |
| Launched: | 2 April 1931 |
| Commissioned: | 9 May 1933 |
| Fate: | Sunk by US air attack in the battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August 1942 |
| Struck: | 10 November 1942 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 12,732 tons |
| Length: | 167 m |
| Beam: | 20.32 m |
| Draught: | 5.56 m |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbines, 6 boilers, 2 shafts, 65,000 hp (48.5 MW) |
| Speed: | 29 knots (54 km/h) |
| Range: | 10,000 nmi. at 14 knots (19,000 km at 26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 924 |
| Armament: | Eight 5 inch (127 mm) guns, four 25 mm guns, twenty-four 13 mm guns |
| Aircraft: | 38 |
Ryūjō (Japanese: 龍驤, "prancing dragon") was a light aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was laid down by Mitsubishi at Yokohama in 1929, launched in 1931 and commissioned in 1933.
Her small design — when launched she displaced only 8,000 tons — proved to be incapable of safe operation in heavy seas. In the 1930s she was extensively modified to improve her seakeeping, and in 1940 her low forecastle was built up one deck to make her less wet. Nonetheless, she was employed in operations in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
In August-December 1937, Ryūjō supported land operations of the Japanese Army in China, as flagship of Carrier Division 1. Her aircraft complement consisted of 12 Nakajima A4N fighters and 15 Aichi D1A dive bombers. [1]
In World War II, she was commanded by Captain Kato Tadao and was the flagship of Carrier Division 4. The presence of large fleet carriers meant that she was initially assigned to secondary tasks.
In December 1941 she supported the invasion of the Philippines, providing air cover for the landings at Davao on 20 December at Jolo on 25 December. In January 1942 she supported the conquest of Malaya and in February 1942 she attacked ABDA forces around Java. On 1 March 1942 she took part in the battle of the Java Sea, assisting in the sinking of USS Pope. In March she operated against the Andaman Islands and the coast of Burma.
In early April, as part of the Indian Ocean raid she attacked shipping in the Bay of Bengal. Together with the cruisers Chōkai, Kumano, Suzuya, Mogami, Mikuma, Yura, and four destroyers, she sank 23 merchant ships. On 6 April she launched air strikes against Cocanada and Vizagapatam in India.
In June 1942 Ryūjō was part of the Northern Force that attacked the Aleutian Islands. Ryūjō's planes struck Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island on 3 June and 4 June 1942. The strike on the Aleutian Islands is often seen as a diversion for Battle of Midway, but recent publications by historians Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully had made strong arguments that Operation AL was meant to be a concurrent operation instead of merely a diversion. During this operation, one of the Mitsubishi Zero fighters from the Ryujo, flown by Petty Officer Tadahito Koga, crashlanded on the island of Akutan. Koga was killed in the crash due to a broken neck, but the aircraft remained largely intact. This was the first Zero to fall into the hands of the U.S. military intelligence.
The sinking of four of Japan's six fleet carriers in the battle of Midway made Ryūjō much more important to the Japanese Navy.
In August 1942 she was reassigned to Carrier Division 2, and with Shōkaku and Zuikaku she was dispatched to the Solomon Islands. Ryūjō's role in the operation was to support a convoy of transports that were to reinforce and resupply Japanese troops on Guadalcanal, and to attack the Allied air base at Henderson Field, while the fleet carriers operated against the US Navy's aircraft carriers. This operation resulted in the battle of the Eastern Solomons.
On 24 August 1942, Ryūjō, escorted by the cruiser Tone and the destroyers Amatsukaze and Tokitsukaze, launched two strikes on Guadalcanal from a position 100 miles north of Tulagi. At 13:57 she was attacked by dive-bombers and torpedo bombers from USS Saratoga (CV-3), and was hit by several bombs (sources differ as to how many) and one torpedo. The torpedo hit flooded the starboard engine room and Ryūjō began to list. At 15:15 the order to abandon ship was given. At 18:00 she capsized and sank. 120 of the crew were killed. The survivors, including Captain Kato, were taken off by her escorts.
