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Shōhō (Japanese: 祥鳳, "Auspicious Phoenix" or "Happy Phoenix") was a light aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy.Originally built as the submarine support ship Tsurugizaki (Japanese: 剣埼, "Sword Cape") in the late 1930s, she was converted before the Pacific War into an aircraft carrier and renamed.
Completed in early 1942, Shōhō supported the invasion forces in Operation MO, the invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, and was sunk by American carrier aircraft on her first combat operation during the Battle of the Coral Sea on 7 May. Shōhō was the first Japanese aircraft carrier to be sunk during World War II.
The aircraft returned after dark and landed safely after the carrier turned on its lights. In order to recover the aircraft, however, the carrier and her three escorting destroyers had to steam east and therefore lost sight of the Main Body in the darkness. There does not appear to have been any enemy submarines in Japanese waters at this time.
Light aircraft carrier: Hiyō (1942–1944) Jun'yō (1942–1946) 24,150 tonnes Converted from an ocean liner in 1939. Hiyō sunk and Jun'yō scrapped 1946–1947. Zuihō-class: Light aircraft carrier: Zuihō (1940–1944) Shōhō (1939–1942) 11,443 tonnes Both sunk during WWII. Chitose-class: Light aircraft carrier: Chitose (1938/1944–1944)
The first wave spotted one group of four carriers from Task Force 58 at 07:34 and the Japanese carriers launched their aircraft an hour later. This consisted of 43 Zero fighter-bombers and 7 B6Ns, escorted by 14 A6M5 fighters; the carriers retained only 3 fighters, 2 fighter-bombers, 2 B6Ns and 2 B5Ns for self-defense and later searches.
The U.S. aircraft carriers had slightly larger aircraft complements than the Japanese carriers, which, when combined with the land-based aircraft at Midway, the availability of Yorktown, and the loss of two Japanese carriers, meant that the Japanese Navy and the U.S. Navy would have near parity in aircraft for the impending battle.
Merchant Aircraft Carriers. Britain converted a total of nineteen merchant ships to Merchant Aircraft Carriers during the war. Nine of these were converted Royal Dutch Shell oil tankers, two of which operated under the flag of the Netherlands. [s] All served in the Atlantic theater and typically carried three or four Fairey Swordfish torpedo ...
In the later Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, as Lexington's Air Group Commander, Ault led Lexington's bombers into combat in the successful May 7 attack on the Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō, sinking the light carrier fifteen minutes after the first attack. [12] [13] The Shōhō was the first Japanese aircraft carrier sunk in World War ...