Japanese aircraft carrier Hosho
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| Missing image Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Hosho.jpg | |
| Career | Missing image 16-jo_kyokujitsu-ki.png RN Ensign |
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| 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; 10,500 t full load |
| Length: | 168 m LOA |
| Beam: | 18.0 m |
| Draught: | 6.17 m |
| Propulsion: | 2-shaft geared turbine, 12 boilers, 30,000 hp (22 MW) |
| Fuel: | Oil 2695 t, coal 940 t |
| Speed: | 25 knots (46 km/h) |
| Complement: | 550 |
| Armament: | 4 x 140 mm /50cal.guns(1x4) 2 x 80 mm /40cal.AA-guns(1x2) 2 machine guns |
| Aircraft: | 26 (in fact 19) |
Hosho (Japanese: 鳳翔, meaning "flying phoenix") was the first aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and while not the first aircraft carrier, it was the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier in the world to be commissioned. The hull was still based off a cruiser design, but it was not a conversion. Hosho was commissioned in on 27 December 1922, thirteen months before the Royal Navy's first purpose-built carrier Hermes, which was designed before Hosho. (See aircraft carrier for more on the type's history).
Being the first of her kind in the navy, Hosho was actively used to develop the aircraft carrier operational methods and tactics of the Japanese Navy during the 1920s.
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.
She served during the Shanghai Incident (bombing of Shanghai on January 28, 1932) and Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
By the beginning of World War II, Hosho had been superseded by other models: she was too small and too slow to accommodate the newest types of carrier planes such as the Mitsubishi Zero. She saw action however during the battle of Midway in June 1942, offering modest air support to the main fleet.
Efforts were made to lengthen and widen her flight deck, but the overhang weakened her stability and ocean-going capability. She was relegated to training duty in Japan's inland sea after 1943.
After the war, she was used as a transport to repatriate Japanese personnel from abroad until June 1946, before being dismantled in 1947. Hosho was the only aircraft carrier of the Japanese Navy to survive the war, but would be scrapped in 1947.
Hosho 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 B4Y1 'Jean' (19)
- 1942: 8 bombers B5N2 'Kate' (8)
External Links
- Naval Historical Center Images of the Hosho (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/japan/japsh-h/hosho2.htm)