Hiyō was one of two aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Begun as the ocean liner Izumo Maru in 1939, she was purchased by the Navy Ministry in 1941 for conversion to an aircraft carrier. Completed shortly after the Battle of Midway in June 1942, she participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign. The carrier’s aircraft were disembarked several times and used from land bases in battles in the South West Pacific.
About Japanese aircraft carrier Hiyō in brief
Hiyō was one of two aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Begun as the ocean liner Izumo Maru in 1939, she was purchased by the Navy Ministry in 1941 for conversion to an aircraft carrier. Completed shortly after the Battle of Midway in June 1942, she participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign. The carrier’s aircraft were disembarked several times and used from land bases in battles in the South West Pacific. She was torpedoed in mid-1943 and spent three months under repair. She spent most of the next six months training and ferrying aircraft before returning to combat. The ship was sunk by a gasoline-vapour explosion caused by an American torpedo hit during theBattle of the Philippine Sea on 20 June 1944 with the loss of 247 officers and ratings, about a fifth of her complement. Her air group was initially intended to consist of 12 Mitsubishi A5M “Claude” fighters, plus four in storage, 18 Aichi D3A “Val” dive bombers, plus two in storage. By the end of the year, 6 more Zeros replaced an equal number of A6Ms, 12 D3As and 9 B5Ns. According to historian Mark Stille, the twin and triple mounts on the hull were unable to handle sufficient speed or elevation; the gun sights also exhibited excessive vibration. This was the standard Japanese light AA gun deck during World War II but it suffered from severe design shortcomings from severe weather conditions.
The ships were designed to carry a total of 890 passengers; 220 first class, 120 second class and 550 third class. After her conversion, Hiyō had a length of 220 metres overall. She had a beam of 26. 7 metres and a draught of 8. 15 metres. She displaced 24,150 tonnes at standard load. Her crew ranged from 1,187 to 1,224 officers and Ratings. She carried enough fuel oil to give her a range of 11,700 nautical miles at 18 knots. The ship’s flight deck was 210. 3 metres long and had a maximum width of 27.3 metres. It was designed with two superimposed hangars, each approximately 153 metres long, 15 metres wide and 5 metres high. Her spaces were subdivided by four fire curtains and they had fire fighting foam dispensers on each side. Her primary armament consisted of 12 7-centimetre 7-inch Type 89-purpose guns in twin mounts on sponsons along the sponsons of the hull. Her hull had a double hull. Two plates of Ducol steel, each 25 millimetres thick, protected the sides of the ship’s machinery spaces. Her bulkheads were protected by transverse and longitudinal flooding to limit any damage to the bulkheads. Her engines were fitted with a pair of 56,250 shaft horsepower, each driving one propeller, using steam provided by six Kawasaki-LaMont boilers. The vessel had a designed speed of 25. 5 knots and slightly exceeded that during sea trials.
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