The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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| Tonnage | 24,140 tons standard displacement |
| Dimensions | 719'6" by 87'7" by 26'9" 219.30m by 26.70m by 8.15m |
| Maximum speed | 24-25.5 knots |
| Complement | 1187 |
| Aircraft | 689' (210m) flight deck 2 45' by 45' (13.7m by 13.7m) elevators 53 aircraft |
| Armament | 6x2 5"/40
dual-purpose guns 8x3 25mm AA guns |
| Protection |
2" armor + 0.8" plating (50mm
armor + 20mm plating) deck (machinery) 1" (25mm) box protection for magazines and aviation fuel |
| Machinery |
2-shaft geared turbine
(56,250
shp) 4-6 Kampon boilers |
| Bunkerage | 2800 tons fuel oil |
| Modifications |
1943: Added 16 25mm guns
1943?: Added Type 13
air search radar and Type
21 general
purpose radar. 1944: Total of 76 25mm guns and 6x28 5" rockets. Concrete added around gasoline bunkers. |
The Junyos were laid down in 1939 as 27,500-ton passenger liners Kashiwara Maru and Izumo Maru. Part of the "shadow program," they were designed with destroyer machinery and were converted to light carriers on the ways. They retained much of their civilian character, including clean hulls, forward sheer, and inadequate subdivision. Though rated as fleet carriers on account of their relatively large air group, their speed was inadequate for fleet operations. The two hangar decks were cramped, the lower having barely enough ceiling clearance for the A6M "Zero", let alone carrier bombers. The ships had almost no armor protection, which with their poor subdivision meant that their survivability in battle was minimal. However, they were the first Japanese carriers to direct their uptakes through the island, and the island was sponsoned out so that it did not encroach on the flight deck. The hulls were asymmetrically bulged to compensate for the island.
Junyo had
four boilers rather than the six of Hiyo,
giving her a slightly slower speed of 24 knots.
The original air group was 18 D3A "Val", 18 B5N "Kate" and 12 A6M "Zero"
plus a
few spares. Like the Americans,
the Japanese seem to have increased the proportion of fighters in their air groups
as the
war progressed, and Hiyo
was
operating 27 "Zeros", 6 B6N
"Jill",
and 18 "Vals" by 1944.
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Completed 1942-5-3 (Mitsubishi-Nagasaki)
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Crippled 1944-12-9 by Redfish and Sea Devil off Nagasaki and not returned to service | |
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Completed 1942-7-31 (Kawasaki-Kobe)
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Sunk by aircraft 20 June 1944 in the Philippine Sea |
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References
CombinedFleet.com (accessed 2007-12-2)
Gogin
(2010; accesssed 2012-12-25)
Jentschura, Jung, and Mickel (1977)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2016 by Kent G. Budge. Index
