The damage got worse with increasing water pressure and was beyond the crews’ ability to correct. For IJN ships, rivets were used throughout the hull unlike modernized vessels, which are largely built by welding. Upon impact, several thousand rivets on the bulkhead, especially between the shaft room and the engine room, came loose all at once. 29, 1944, Archerfish fired six torpedoes, striking Shinano.Īccording to Hosokawa, Shinano was hit in the shaft-room of the #3 Engine Room on the starboard side. Within a matter of minutes, the ship turned south, inadvertently exposing its side, offering an ideal firing situation for the submarine to attack.Īt 3:15 a.m. Shinano tried to turn southwest but ended up heading straight toward the submarine. However, by midnight, the ships were forced to reduce the speed to prevent the Shinano’s propeller shaft’s bearing from overheating.Īrcherfish grabbed the opportunity and submerged in preparation for an attack. Toshio Abe, commanding officer of Shinano, ordered that the ships outrun it by using a zigzag maneuver. Shinano’s escorts included the ships Isokaze, Yukikaze and Hamakaze, which were caught on Archerfish’s radar and followed by the submarine on a parallel course.īelieving that Archerfish was a decoy to lure Shinano into a convoy attack, Capt.
Shinano, with escort ships, had only been cruising four hours before they were caught on radar by the Balao-class submarine USS Archerfish (SS 311) and followed through the waters near Tokyo Bay. 28 departed for Kure, Yamaguchi prefecture, where the remainder of the ship-fitting work would take place.
19, 1944, Shinano was officially commissioned, and on Nov. “After a quick repair of 10 days, she was launched again.”
“An unexpected flooding accident occurred during the flooding of the dock at the initial launching, which seemed to predict her fate and the coming end of WWII,” said Hosokawa. It was estimated that inexperienced workers and sailors, who had been mobilized for expedited construction of the ship, mishandled the caisson on the dock, causing a sudden rush of water into the dry dock, pushing the ship forward. 8, 1944, was delayed due to an accident involving the ship’s undocking, which resulted in damage to the bow. The launch, which was originally scheduled for Oct. Therefore, the ship design was altered, even though the hull construction was almost complete and the ship was ready for the installation of a 46-centimeter gun on the upper deck.Īfter four years and six months of around-the-clock work, the construction, and modifications were completed in 1944. However, the idea that a “major ship for sea battle should be an aircraft carrier instead of a battleship,” was getting stronger among the IJN authorities. Shinano was originally planned as the third Yamato-class battleship. The construction of the dock was commenced in 1935 and completed in 1940, and almost at the same time, Shinano’s keel was laid on May 4, 1940. With a length of 136.5 meters, a width of 67.5 meters, and a depth of 17 meters, the dock was exclusively planned for building and maintaining Yamato-class battleships. While the other five preceding docks in Yokosuka were built primarily for ship maintenance, dry dock #6 was specifically designed for shipbuilding. IJN aircraft carrier Shinano, which was the largest carrier ever during World War II, was built at Yokosuka Arsenal’s dry dock #6 in 1944. His last assignment at the IJN was aboard Shinano as a group leader in the #3 Engine Room beginning in early 1944. After graduation, he was assigned to several ships, and promoted to the rank of petty officer as a machinist mate. Hosokawa joined the IJN and finished the Yokosuka Naval Recruiting Training course in 1937 as a machinist mate apprentice. Here is a story from Hosokawa Chiyokichi, who worked as a ship rigger at Ship Repair Facility (SRF) onboard Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY), recounted in the Sept. Most of the story of Shinano, an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) aircraft carrier during World War II, is only known through a few eye-witness accounts, as the records or photos were scattered or lost after the war.
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