XPost: aalt.war.world-war-two, sci.military.naval, soc.history.war.misc

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Susanna Viljanen
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Knows FinnishUpdated 3y
Why were Japanese Aircraft carriers so weak compared to American carriers?
They were basically eggshells with hammers. Bogyo no tame no bogyo nashi.

They were designed to carry the maximum number of aircraft, ammunition
and fuel - which came at the cost of protection. It is the age-old
Japanese philosophy: “there is no use on defence for just the sake of defence” - just attack at any cost. I know this philosophy from kendo :-)

The result was they were excellent on dealing damage, but they could not
take it. HMS Illustrious got more hits from German Stukas - and by
heavier bombs - than the whole Japanese carrier fleet at Midway - during
the “Illustrious Blitz” - and she sailed on her own power to Malta for repairs. Akagi sank from one hit, Kaga got four hits and Soryu three.
The Japanese damage control proved ineffective and bad. Hiryu finally
got four hits and sank.

As a comparison, HMS Hermes got 40 hits when she was sunk in 1942.

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Aaron Davis
· 3y
The IJN had the misfortune to be caught in the middle of rearming their
bomber wings at Midway, but that pretty much just added fuel to the fire (literally, lol). The IJN had dedicated damage control personnel but
didn't train the whole crew in basic DC procedures the way the USN did,
and the fully enclosed hangar decks meant vapors built up belowdecks
(where US carriers could open their sidewalls to let in fresh air, and
mostly left them open except in heavy seas).

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Joe Jurkiewicz
· Nov 18
Also like to add the Japanese CAP was at sixes and sevens and the
American airmen had a free pass to do the business.

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Aaron Davis
· Nov 18
True, but that was after the CAP used the American torpedo bomber wings
for target practice.

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Andy Su
· 3y
“They were basically eggshells with hammers”

That pretty much describes Japan’s entire naval fleet except for the
Yamato class. Most of their “WW2 battleships” were just retrofitted WW1 battlecruisers that couldnt take a beating from their contemporaries.
(ex: Fuso sinking due to ONE torpedo hit and Kongo from 2) And their
cruisers were known to be floating dynamites, especially when their
vulnerable torpedoes tubes got hit. (ex: Suzuya sinking without ever
getting hit when nearby shrapnel detonated her torpedoes)

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Isaiah Wan
· 3y
Glass cannons or in the carrier case, a glass boomerang.

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