One hundred years ago today, the first ship to be purpose-built as an aircraft carrier (rather than converted from another type of vessel) was commissioned. She was the Imperial Japanese Navy ship Hōshō.
(Click the image for a larger view)
She was the second purpose-built aircraft carrier to start construction (the first being the British HMS Hermes), but was completed and commissioned before Hermes. She's shown above during her sea trials. Later, her island was removed, leaving her flush decked.
The video below puts Hōshō in perspective, in the context of the naval rivalry between Japan, Britain and the USA in the 1920's and the geopolitical conflicts and currents of the 1930's.
Hōshō saw limited action during the Sino-Japanese wars. She was present at the Battle of Midway in 1942, but several hundred miles away from the main carrier task force, as she was providing air cover for the battleships of the Main Body. She spent the rest of World War II as a training carrier, not seeing further action. She was hit by US bombs in early 1945, but not severely damaged. After helping to repatriate Japanese servicemen, she was scrapped in 1946.
Hōshō had an unremarkable career, but she was the first of many carriers that followed. She deserves to be remembered for that.
Peter
4 comments:
Yep, lots of folks have NO idea the Japanese were actually first... sigh
They were and are a very innovative people. They also have a serious case of 'we've been invaded far too often, so...'
Just look at their current 'helicopter destroyers' that, conveniently, can be easily retrofitted into actual carriers with the addition of a skijump and thicker deck protection.
And they're still using flying boats for maritime surveillance and search and rescue. A capability we gave up many decades ago.
They don't need a skijump. Japan has ordered 42 F-35B, which will work off their Izumo "multi-purpose destroyer" ships (which, with a full-length flight deck, currently operate helicopters). Izumo needs some modifications (the F-35B puts a lot of heat onto the flight deck, which needs to be made more heat resistant), but that currently doesn't include the skijump.
There's a video of a pair of USMC F-35Bs landing and taking off from Izumo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6WqRCALGd0
Japan and the US appeared to be the pioneers of carrier-based aviation (along with the UK), and it took over 20 years to get the kinks worked out. I wonder how many of the lessons learned can be duplicated now by the Chinese by observation, vs. having to build the ships and do the flight ops themselves.
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