Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō

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Career (Japan)
Builder:	Asano Dock, Yokosuka
Laid down:	16 December 1919
Launched:	13 November 1921
Commissioned:	27 December 1922
Decommissioned:	June 1946
Fate:	Dismantled in 1947
General characteristics
Displacement:	7,470 t standard;   9,330 t trial; 10,000 t full load
Length:	165.0 m LOA
Beam:	18.0 m
Draft:	6.2 m
Propulsion:	2-shaft geared turbine, 12 boilers, 30,000 hp (22 MW)
Speed:	25 knots (46 km/h)
Capacity:	Fuel oil 2,695 t, coal 940 t
Complement:	550
Armament:	4 × 140 mm / 50 caliber guns(1 × 4) 2 × 80 mm / 40 caliber AA guns(1 × 2) 2 machine guns
Aircraft carried:	26

Hōshō (Japanese: 鳳翔, meaning "flying phoenix") became the first flat-deck aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1921, and was the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier in the world to be commissioned.^[1]

Her predecessors in the Imperial Japanese Navy were seaplane carriers such as the Wakamiya (converted in 1920 to an aircraft carrier with forward launch platform), or the Notoro.

[edit] Development

The hull of the Hōshō was based on a cruiser design, but it was not a conversion. She was built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. Hōshō was commissioned on 27 December 1922, thirteen months before the Royal Navy's first purpose-built carrier Hermes, which was designed before Hōshō. The Hōshō however was originally conceived as a mixed aircraft carrier and seaplane tender and only during construction was her design modified to a dedicated carrier. She was the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier, but not the first purpose-designed dedicated aircraft carrier. (See aircraft carrier for more on the type's history).

The Hosho was designed with the assistance of a British technical mission which provided broad details of the Hermes. ^[2] Her design was originally based on a cruiser-style hull, a flight deck with a depressed fore-part to accelerate lift-off, a starboard island, and three starboard funnels that were reclinable during flight operations. After trials, she was improved by removing the island and flattening the flight deck, giving her a flush-deck design.

The Hōshō provided valuable experience for the subsequent conversions of Akagi and Kaga into aircraft carriers, and was influential in the design of the Ryūjō, the first Japanese aircraft carrier purpose built from keel up.

[edit] Operations

Being the first of its kind in the navy, Hōshō was actively used to develop the aircraft carrier operational methods and tactics of the Japanese Navy during the 1920s. She was preceded by the 1913 early aircraft carrier Wakamiya, which contributed to the development of the carrier techniques used in the Hōshō.

She served during the Shanghai Incident (bombing of Shanghai on 28 January 1932) and Sino-Japanese War in 1937. In August-December 1937, Hōshō supported land operations of the Japanese Army in China, as part of Carrier Division 1 with Ryūjō. Her aircraft complement consisted of nine Nakajima A2N fighters and six Yokosuka B3Y1 attack planes. [1]

By the beginning of World War II, Hōshō had been superseded by other models: she was too small and too slow to accommodate the newest types of carrier planes such as the Mitsubishi Zero. Moreover, the Hōshō did not have enough margin of stability to carry her full armament and aircraft complement. She saw action however during the battle of Midway in June 1942, offering modest air support to the main fleet. Her aircraft complement consisted of eight Yokosuka B4Y1 "Jean" torpedo bombers. [2]

For most of the postwar years, the assumption was made in English-language publications that the ship had been equipped with a 'modern' aircraft complement by the time of the Midway operation, on the basis of minimal translations published in English. However, beginning in the 1980s English-language researchers realized that this was a bad assumption, as Japanese official histories and air orders of battle began to appear. It has now become clear that at the time of Midway, Hōshō still carried a complement of the fixed landing gear biplane torpedo planes, the "Jean". It was one of these aircraft which took the photos of the burning, drifting Hiryū in the late afternoon of 4 June 1942.

Efforts were also made to lengthen and widen her flight deck, but the overhang weakened her stability and ocean-going capability.

[edit] Fate after withdrawal from combat duty

After her withdrawal in June 1942, she was relegated to training duty in Japan's Inland Sea after 1943. Subsequently she was damaged by grounding in 1944 and hit by American bombs at Kure, but remained afloat by the end of World War II after being laid up for lack of airmen to fly her aircraft. Post war, she served as a transport conduit to repatriate Japanese servicemen from south-east Asia until August 1946. She was scrapped in 1947. Hōshō was one of four carriers of the Japanese Navy to survive the war.

Hōshō air group:

• 1932: 9 fighters A1N1 (Type 3), 3 bombers B1M2 (Type 13), 3 reconnaissance aircraft C1M (Type 10) (15 aircraft)
• 1937: 9 fighters A4N1 (Type 95), 6 bombers B3Y1 (Type 92) (15)
• 1941: 11 fighters A5M4 "Claude"', 8 bombers Yokosuka B4Y1 "Jean" (19)
• 1942: 8 bombers Yokosuka B4Y1 "Jean" (8)

[edit] Commanding Officers

1. Capt. Ryutaro Kaizu — Chief Equipping Officer
   (13 November 1921 - 27 December 1922)
2. Capt. Jiro Toshima
   (27 December 1922 - 1 April 1923)
3. Capt. Heizaburo Fukuyo
   (1 April 1923 - 1 December 1923)
4. Capt. Ryutaro Kaizu
   (1 December 1923 - 15 April 1925)
5. Capt. Seizaburo Kobayashi
   (15 April 1925 - 1 November 1926)
6. Capt. Giichiro Kawamura
   (1 November 1926 - 1 November 1927)
7. Capt. Kiyoshi Kitagawa
   (1 November 1927 - 10 December 1928)
8. Capt. Goro Hara
   (10 December 1928 - 30 November 1929)
9. Capt. Hideho Wada
   (30 November 1929 - 1 December 1930)
10. Capt. Eijiro Kondo
    (1 December 1930 - 14 November 1931)
11. Capt. Rokuro Horie
    (14 November 1931 - 1 December 1932)
12. Capt. Teizo Mitsunami
    (1 December 1932 - 20 October 1933)
13. Capt. Rokukichi Takeda
    (20 October 1933 - 15 November 1934)
14. Capt. Seigo Yamagata
    (15 November 1934 - 12 June 1935)
15. Capt. Kokichi Terada
    (12 June 1935 - 15 November 1935)
16. Capt. Munetaka Sakamaki
    (15 November 1935 - 16 November 1936)
17. Capt. Rynosuke Kusaka
    (16 November 1936]] - 16 October 1937)
18. Capt. Takatsugu Jojima
    (16 October 1937 - 15 November 1939)
19. Capt. Kaku Harada
    (15 November 1939 - 20 August 1940)
20. Capt. Ushie Sugimoto
    (20 August 1940 - 11 November 1940)
21. Capt. Tomozo Kikuchi
    (11 November 1940 - 5 September 1941)
22. Capt. Kaoru Umetani
    (5 September 1941 - 1 August 1942)
23. Capt. Bunjiro Yamaguchi
    (1 August 1942 - 15 November 1942)
24. Capt. Katsuji Hattori
    (15 November 1942 - 5 July 1943)
25. Capt. Takeo Kaizuka
    (5 July 1943 - 18 December [[1943)
26. Capt. Yoshi Matsuura
    (18 December 1943 - 1 March 1944)
27. Capt. Kiyoshi Koda
    (1 March 1944 - 6 July 1944)
28. Capt. Yujiro Takarada
    (6 July 1944 - 5 March 1945)
29. Capt. Shuichi Osuga
    (5 March 1945 - 18 May 1945)
30. Capt. Keiji Furutani
    (18 May 1945 - 20 September 1945)
31. Capt. Kunizo Kanaoka
    (20 September 1945 - 31 August 1946)

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Naval Historical Center Images of the Hōshō