Unryu-class Aircraft Carrier

Unryu-class Aircraft Carrier

Country	Japan
Ships in Class	3
Builders	Yokosuka Naval Arsenal: 1 Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard: 1 Kure Naval Arsenal: 1

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

This article refers to the entire Unryu-class; it is not about an individual vessel.

ww2dbaseThe Unryu-class aircraft carriers were based on the Hiryu-class design, meant to be used fleet carriers capable of embarking about 60 to 70 aircraft. Improved from the Hiryu-class design were the number of lifts (three lifts instead of only two), larger island structure, and the placement of the island structure on the starboard side (Hiryu-class ships had islands on the port side). Construction was approved in the War Construction Program of 1941 to 1942. Originally, a total of 15 carriers were planned, but by the end of the Pacific War only three were built and another three were incomplete.

ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.

Last Major Revision: Jan 2008

Unryu-class Aircraft Carrier Interactive Map

Photographs

Incomplete Unryu-class carrier Kasagi, Sasebo Bay, Japan, 2 Nov 1945

Incomplete Unryu-class carrier Ikoma, Shodoshima, Japan, 23 May 1946

Incomplete Unryu-class carrier Aso, Kure, Japan, 20 Dec 1946

Unryu-class Aircraft Carrier Operational Timeline

25 Jun 1942	The order for carrier Katsuragi was issued.
1 Aug 1942	The keel of Unryu was laid down at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan.
25 Sep 1943	Unryu was launched at Yokosuka, Japan.
6 Aug 1944	Unryu was commissioned into service at Yokosuka, Japan with Captain Konishi Kaname in command. She was assigned to Carrier Division 1 of Japanese 3rd Fleet.
10 Aug 1944	Amagi was commissioned into service.
10 Aug 1944	Unryu was assigned to 7th Base Air Force Air Attack Force under operational command of Japanese 3rd Air Fleet, although officially she remained with Carrier Division 1 of Japanese 3rd Fleet.
26 Sep 1944	Unryu departed Yokosuka, Japan.
27 Sep 1944	Unryu arrived at Kure, Japan.
30 Sep 1944	Unryu departed Kure, Japan.
2 Oct 1944	Unryu departed Hashirajima near Hiroshima, Japan and arrived at Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan.
3 Oct 1944	Katsuragi was commissioned into service.
6 Oct 1944	Unryu departed Matsuyama, Japan and arrived at Yashiro-jima across the Inland Sea.
8 Oct 1944	Unryu departed Yashiro-jima, Japan and arrived at Yashima, Kagawa, Japan.
16 Oct 1944	Unryu arrived at Kure, Japan.
28 Oct 1944	Unryu departed Kure, Japan.
30 Oct 1944	Unryu arrived at Kure, Japan and became the flagship of Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's Mobile Fleet.
7 Nov 1944	Unryu was relieved as the flagship of the Mobile Fleet.
15 Nov 1944	Unryu was assigned to Carrier Division 1.
27 Nov 1944	Unryu departed Kure, Japan.
7 Dec 1944	Unryu was assigned to emergency reinforcement duty for Luzon, Philippine Islands.
10 Dec 1944	Unryu arrived at Kure, Japan.
13 Dec 1944	Unryu embarked 30 MXY-7 Ohka special attack aircraft at Kure, Japan.
17 Dec 1944	Unryu departed Kure, Japan at 0830 hours.
19 Dec 1944	Unryu was hit by a torpedo from USS Redfish about 200 kilometers southeast of Shanghai, China, which rendered her dead in the water and afire. At 1650 hours, just as some power was restored, USS Redfish hit her again at 1650 hours, igniting aviation gas and sank within seven minutes. 1,241 were killed (including commanding officer Captain Konishi Kaname); 147 survived and were rescued by destroyer Shigure.
22 Dec 1944	Destroyer Shigure disembarked the 147 survivors of Unryu (sank three days prior) at Sasebo, Japan.
20 Feb 1945	Unryu was struck from the Japanese Navy list.
14 Jul 1945	American battleships USS South Dakota, USS Indiana, and USS Massachusetts and escorting destroyers bombarded Kamaishi, Honshu, Japan; the primary target was the Kamaishi Works of the Japan Iron Company, but several destroyers shells overshot the target and hit the town, killing many civilians; battleship shells were more accurate, destroying about 65% of the industrial complex, but they also killed many civilians; this was the first time the Japanese home islands were subjected to naval bombardment. To the north, the sinking of 6 warships and 37 steamers on the ferry route between Honshu and Hokkaido islands effectively cut off the latter from the rest of the home islands. At Kure in southern Japan, aircraft of US Navy TF 38 damaged carrier Amagi, carrier Katsuragi, and battleship Haruna; at Misawa in northern Japan, G4M bombers that were assigned to partake the planned Operation Ken, which sought to deliver 300 suicide commandos to the Mariana Islands, were destroyed (the American would not know of Operation Ken until after the war). The carriers were escorted by a large naval force that included battleship USS Missouri. Far to the south, the USAAF XXI Bomber Command canceled a long-range P-51 raid from Iwo Jima to attack Meiji and Kagamigahara near Nagoya due to poor weather.
24 Jul 1945	British TF 37 launched 416 sorties, 261 of which were sent against the Japanese home islands and 155 were for defensive patrols; escort carrier Kaiyo was damaged by British carrier planes. On the same day, American TF 38 launched 600 aircraft against Kure, Nagoya, Osaka, and Miho, sinking battleship-carrier Hyuga, heavy cruiser Tone, and target ship Settsu, and damaging carrier Ryuho, carrier Amagi, battleship-carrier Ise, battleship Haruna, heavy cruiser Aoba, light cruiser Oyodo, transport Kiyokawa Maru; the Aichi aircraft factories at Nagoya were seriously damaged.
28 Jul 1945	137 American P-47 aircraft based in Ie Shima, Okinawa, Japan attacked targest in Kyushu, Japan. On the same day, 471 B-29 bombers attacked smaller Japanese cities in the home islands with incendiary bombs. Finally, from the sea, US Navy carrier aircraft struck various Inland Sea ports between Nagoya and northern Kyushu, sinking battleship Haruna, battleship-carrier Ise, heavy cruiser Aoba (in shallow water), and light cruiser Oyodo, and damaging carrier Katsuragi, carrier Hosho, and already beached battleship Settsu.
1 Apr 1946	Katsuragi was decommissioned from service.

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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. nunorodriguez says:
29 Jan 2010 04:31:07 AM

i´m looking for fotos of a japanese carrier -hayataka.i´m not sure if she´s was built but i found this name when i was building the shinano carrier model.can you help?thank you for the magnifecent database

C. Peter Chen says:
29 Jan 2010 06:47:15 AM

Hayataka actually did not exist it came into the written record when the carrier Junyo's name was misread:

http://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=A22

3. nuno rodriguez says:
29 Jan 2010 08:14:33 AM

thank you for the explanation about hayataka.
i also saw a foto from a carrier named syukaku.don´t know if it´s shokaku or zuikaku
she looks like a shokaku class.

C. Peter Chen says:
29 Jan 2010 09:13:21 AM

If you've identified it as a Shokaku-class carrier and you're choosing between the two, then I'd say "syukaku" sounds closer to "Zuikaku".

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Unryu-class Aircraft Carrier