"I will die on the deck of the Nagato, and by this time Tokyo will be bombed 3 times."
- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
The defeat of Japan in World War II seems to be so natural that there can be no options and discrepancies. The total superiority of the United States in natural, human and industrial resources, multiplied by a powerful economy and a high level of development of science - in such conditions, America's victory in the war was only a matter of time.
If everything is extremely clear with the general reasons for the defeat of the Japanese Empire, then the purely technical side of sea battles in the Pacific is of genuine interest: the Imperial Japanese Navy, once one of the most powerful fleets in the world, perished under the blows of numerically superior enemy forces. He died in terrible agony, suffering and torment. The armor was worn out, and rivets flew out, the skin burst, and streams of rushing water collided in a roaring whirlpool on the decks of the doomed ship. The Japanese fleet went into immortality.
Nevertheless, before their tragic death, the Japanese sailors were marked by a number of striking victories. "Second Pearl Harbor" off Savo Island, a pogrom in the Java Sea, a daring raid of aircraft carriers into the Indian Ocean …
As for the famous attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base, the role of this operation was greatly exaggerated by American propaganda: the US leadership needed to rally the nation in the face of the enemy. Unlike the Soviet Union, where every child understood that a terrible war was going on in his own country, the United States had to wage a naval war on foreign shores. This is where the tale of the "terrible attack" on an American military base came in handy.
Memorial on the hull of the deceased "Arizona" (the battleship was launched in 1915)
In reality, Pearl Harbor was a pure failure of Japanese carrier-based aircraft - all the "success" consisted in the sinking of four decrepit battleships of the First World War (two of which were raised and rebuilt by 1944). The fifth damaged battleship - "Nevada" was removed from the shallows and returned to service by the summer of 1942. In total, as a result of the Japanese raid, 18 ships of the US Navy were sunk or damaged, while a significant part of the "victims" escaped with only cosmetic defects.
At the same time, not a single bomb fell on:
- power plant, shipyards, harbor cranes and mechanical workshops. This allowed the Yankees to begin reconstruction work within an hour after the end of the raid.
- a giant dry dock 10/10 for the repair of battleships and aircraft carriers. The unforgivable mistake of Japanese carrier-based aircraft will become fatal in all subsequent battles in the Pacific Ocean: with the help of their superdock, the Americans will be able to restore damaged ships in a matter of days.
- 4,500,000 barrels of oil! The capacity of the tanks of the US Navy filling station in Pearl Harbor at that time exceeded all the fuel reserves of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Fuel, hospitals, piers, ammunition storage - Japanese pilots "donated" the entire infrastructure of the base to the US Navy!
There is a legend about the absence of two US Navy aircraft carriers in Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack: they say, if the Japanese had sunk Lexington and Enterprise, the outcome of the war could have been different. This is an absolute delusion: during the war years, US industry handed over 31 aircraft carriers to the Navy (many of which did not even have to participate in battles). If the Japanese had destroyed all aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers in Pearl Harbor, along with Pearl Harbor and the Hawaiian Islands, the outcome of the war would have been the same.
It is necessary to dwell separately on the figure of the "Pearl Harbor architect" - the Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. There is no doubt that he was an honest military and competent strategist who more than once warned the Japanese leadership about the futility and disastrous consequences of the impending war with the United States. The admiral argued that even with the most favorable development of events, the Imperial Japanese Navy would hold out for no more than a year - then the inevitable defeat and death of the Japanese Empire would follow. Admiral Yamamoto remained true to his duty - if Japan is destined to die in an unequal battle, he will do everything to make the memory of this war and the exploits of Japanese sailors forever go down in history.
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Japanese aircraft carriers on their way to Hawaii. In the foreground is Jikaku. Ahead - "Kaga"
Some sources call Yamamoto one of the most outstanding naval commanders - an image of an "eastern sage" has formed around the admiral's figure, whose decisions and actions are full of genius and "incomprehensible eternal truth." Alas, real events showed the opposite - Admiral Yamamoto turned out to be completely incompetent in tactical issues of fleet management.
The only successful operation planned by the admiral - the attack on Pearl Harbor - demonstrated a complete lack of logic in the choice of targets and the disgusting coordination of Japanese aviation. Yamamoto was planning a "stun strike." But why were the fuel storage and base infrastructure intact? - the most important objects, the destruction of which could really complicate the actions of the US Navy.
They don't take a hit
As Admiral Yamamoto had predicted, the Japanese military machine uncontrollably moved forward for six months, bright flashes of victories, one after another, illuminated the Pacific theater of operations. Problems began later - the continuous strengthening of the US Navy slowed the pace of the Japanese offensive. In the summer of 1942, the situation almost got out of control - the tactics of Admiral Yamamoto with the fragmentation of forces and the allocation of "shock" and "anti-ship" groups of carrier-based aircraft led to the disaster at Midway.
But the real nightmare began in 1943 - the Japanese fleet suffered defeats one after another, the shortage of ships, aircraft and fuel was becoming more and more acute. The scientific and technical backwardness of Japan made itself felt - when trying to break through to the squadrons of the US Navy, Japanese aircraft fell from the heavens like cherry petals. At the same time, the Americans confidently flew over the very masts of Japanese ships. There was a shortage of radars and sonar stations - more and more often Japanese ships became victims of American submarines.
The Japanese defensive perimeter was bursting at the seams - colossal reserves allowed the Americans to land troops simultaneously in different regions of the Pacific Ocean. And in the meantime … more and more ships appeared in the open spaces of the Pacific theater of operations - the US industry daily handed over to the fleet a pair of new combat units (destroyers, cruisers, submarines or aircraft carriers).
The ugly truth about the Imperial Japanese Navy has been revealed: Admiral Yamamoto's stake on the carrier fleet has collapsed! In conditions of total enemy superiority, Japanese aircraft carriers died, barely reaching the combat zone.
Japanese carrier-based aircraft achieved noticeable success in raiding operations - a raid on Ceylon or Pearl Harbor (if you do not take into account the missed opportunities). The factor of surprise and the large combat radius of the aircraft made it possible to avoid return fire and return to base after the successful completion of the mission.
The Japanese had an equal chance of winning in squadrons with the US Navy (Battle of the Coral Sea, Midway, Santa Cruz). Here everything was decided by the quality of training of pilots, crews of ships and, most importantly, His Majesty Chance.
But in conditions of the enemy's numerical superiority (i.e.when the probability of being hit by return fire was 100%), the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet did not even have the illusory hope of any favorable outcome of the situation. The principle of "winning not by numbers, but by skill" turned out to be useless - any fire contact ended in an imminent and inevitable death of an aircraft carrier.
It turned out that the once formidable aircraft carriers absolutely "do not take the blow" and drown like puppies, even with a weak effect of enemy fire. Sometimes, a few hits of conventional aerial bombs were enough to sink an aircraft carrier. This was a death sentence to the Imperial Navy - aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft were extremely ineffective in a defensive war.
The disgusting survivability of aircraft carriers was best described by the battle at Midway Atoll: an escaped group of 30 Dontless dive bombers under the command of Captain McClusky burned two Japanese attack aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga literally in a minute.). A similar fate befell the aircraft carriers Soryu and Hiryu on the same day.
American attack aircraft carrier Bellow Wood after kamikaze attack
Everything is learned by comparison: in October 1944, a Japanese squadron of 12 battleships and cruisers marched for several hours under continuous attacks from more than 500 American carrier-based aircraft. Without any air cover and with primitive air defense systems. The result was only the death of the cruiser Suzuya and heavy damage to a couple of other ships. The rest of Admiral Takeo Kurita's squadron safely left the American air force and returned to Japan.
It's even scary to imagine what would have happened if large aircraft carriers were in place of the battleships Yamato and Nagato - a hail of small-caliber bombs would cause uncontrolled fires on the flight and hangar decks, and then the quick death of ships from internal explosions.
The reason for the poor condition of the Nagato superstructures is a 23 kt nuclear explosion.
The old Japanese battleship turned out to be stronger than nuclear fire!
Admiral Kurita's squadron happily escaped death. And at this time, a real massacre was taking place in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean:
On June 19, 1944, the heavy aircraft carrier Taiho was sunk. A single torpedo hit from the Albacor submarine did not cause significant damage, but caused a depressurization of the fuel line. A small imperceptible problem turned into a disaster - 6, 5 hours after the torpedo attack, the Taiho was torn to shreds by an explosion of gasoline vapors (1650 sailors died).
The trick was that the brand new aircraft carrier Taiho was destroyed on its first combat mission, just three months after launching.
A day later, on June 20, 1944, the strike aircraft carrier Hiyo was killed under similar circumstances. The only difference is that the fatal torpedo was dropped by a carrier-based aircraft.
The fantastic sinking of the supercarrier "Shinano" 17 hours after its first launch at sea is just a common curiosity in the history of naval battles. The ship was unfinished, the bulkheads were not pressurized, and the crew was not trained. However, in every joke there is a grain of a joke - eyewitnesses reported that one of the torpedo hits fell exactly in the area of the aviation fuel tanks. Perhaps the crew of the aircraft carrier was very lucky - at the time of sinking, the Shinano was running empty.
It seems that the aircraft carrier "Sekaku" has problems with the flight deck.
However, aircraft carriers were also out of order for less significant reasons. During the battle in the Coral Sea, three bombs permanently removed the heavy aircraft carrier Shokaku from the game.
The song about the quick death of Japanese aircraft carriers would not be complete without mentioning their opponents. The Americans faced the same problem - the slightest impact of enemy fire caused terrible fires aboard aircraft carrier ships.
In October 1944, the light aircraft carrier Princeton was completely destroyed by two 250-kg aerial bombs.
In March 1945, the aircraft carrier "Franklin" was severely damaged - only two 250-kg bombs hit the ship, which caused one of the largest victims of the US Navy tragedies. Bombs fell in the center of the flight deck - the fire instantly engulfed 50 fully fueled and ready to take off aircraft. Result: 807 fatalities, a completely destroyed wing, uncontrolled fires on all decks of the ship, loss of progress, a 13-degree roll to port and readiness to sink the aircraft carrier.
"Franklin" was saved only due to the absence of the main enemy forces nearby - in a real battle, the ship would certainly have been sunk.
The aircraft carrier "Franklin" has not yet decided whether to stay afloat or sink
Survivors pack their bags and prepare for evacuation
Kamikaze got the aircraft carrier "Interpid"
Fire on the aircraft carrier "Saint-Lo" as a result of a kamikaze attack (ship will die)
But the real madness began with the advent of the Japanese kamikaze. The "living bombs" falling from the sky could not damage the underwater part of the hull, but the consequences of their fall on the flight deck lined with aircraft were simply terrible.
The case on the attack aircraft carrier Bunker Hill became a textbook case: on May 11, 1945, the ship was attacked by two kamikazes off the coast of Okinawa. In a terrible fire, Bunker Hill lost its entire wing and more than 400 crew members.
From all these stories, the conclusion is quite obvious:
The Imperial Japanese Navy was doomed - building a heavy cruiser or battleship instead of the Taiho aircraft carrier would have made no difference. The enemy had a 10-fold numerical superiority, coupled with an overwhelming technical superiority. The war was already lost at the very hour that Japanese aircraft struck Pearl Harbor.
Nevertheless, it can be assumed that with highly protected artillery ships instead of aircraft carriers, the Imperial Navy, in the situation in which it found itself by the end of the war, could prolong its agony and cause additional damage to the enemy. The American fleet easily smashed the Japanese aircraft carrier groups, but every time it encountered a heavy Japanese cruiser or battleship, the US Navy had to tinker a lot.
Admiral Yamamoto's stake on aircraft carrier ships was disastrous. But why did the Japanese continue to build aircraft carriers until the very end of the war (they even rebuilt the last Yamato-class battleship into the Shinano aircraft carrier)? The answer is simple: Japan's dying industry could not have built anything more complex than an aircraft carrier. It sounds incredible, but 70 years ago, an aircraft carrier was structurally quite simple and cheap, much simpler than a cruiser or battleship. No electromagnetic super catapults or nuclear reactors. The simplest steel box for servicing the same small and simple aircraft.
True, the aircraft carrier trough will sink even from small-caliber bombs, but the aircraft carrier's crew hopes that they will have to fight only against an obviously weak and unprepared enemy. Otherwise - the "overkill" manner.
Epilogue
Low survivability is inherent in the very idea of an aircraft carrier. Aviation needs SPACE - instead, it is driven onto the cramped decks of a rocking ship and forced to carry out takeoff and landing operations with a runway length three times shorter than required. The dense layout and overcrowding of aircraft inevitably serves as a source of increased accident rate of the aircraft carrier, and the general lack of protection and constant work with flammable substances lead to a natural result - the aircraft carrier is contraindicated in a serious naval battle.
8-hour fire aboard the aircraft carrier Oriskani (1966). The explosion of a magnesium signal rocket (!) Led to a massive fire in the hangar, with the death of all aircraft and 44 sailors from the ship's crew.
The terrible fire on the aircraft carrier Forrestal (1967), which became the largest tragedy in terms of the number of victims in the post-war history of the US Navy (134 sailors killed).
Repetition of similar events on board the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" (1969).
Measures were taken urgently to increase the survivability of aircraft carrier ships, automatic deck irrigation systems and other special equipment appeared. It would seem that all the troubles are over.
But … 1981, the unsuccessful landing of the electronic warfare EA-6B Prowler. Explosions are thundering on the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz, tongues of flame rise above the ship's superstructure. 14 victims, 48 injured. In addition to the Prowler itself and its crew, the fire burned three F-14 Tomcat interceptors. Ten Corsair II and Intruder attack aircraft, two F-14s, three Viking anti-submarine aircraft and a Sea King helicopter were seriously damaged. The Nimitz lost a third of its wing at one point.
A similar case on the aircraft carrier "Midway"
An ineradicable problem with safety and survivability will haunt aircraft carriers as long as there is a circus called "carrier-based aircraft".
