Which Aircraft Carrier is this

For those who don’t know, Shinano was originally planned as a Japanese Yamato class battleship. However, midway through construction Japan decided to convert it into a carrier.

Not an aircraft carrier though, a “support carrier” which would only carry 47 aircraft for self defense but held almost a hundred more aircraft as spares and many supplies to support the actual fleet carriers on extended operations. It was sunk by a US submarine in 1944.

Another such support carrier actually did exist, the HMS Unicorn.

What if the Shinano was converted into an actual fleet carrier though? It takes space to house not just replacement aircraft, but additional pilots, mechanics, etc.

So Shinano probably wouldn’t have been able to carry the 120 aircraft it theoretically could’ve. But it still probably would’ve carried a lot of aircraft owing to its size.

The question is, how much? I look forward to your responses!

@barnee said in Wrecks of WWII Carriers Kaga and Akagi Located:

@CWO-Marc
yea Spruance steaming away at night was a smart move. I wonder if Halsey was in the same situation if he would have. I kinda doubt it

Agreed. Ray Spruance was an excellent combat officer – he and Halsey spent the last few years of WWII alternating command of the 5th Fleet / 3rd Fleet, which was actually the same force whose name got switched every time the two admirals rotated, much to the confusion of Japanese naval intelligence – but he was very different from Bill Halsey in terms of style and personality. Spruance was precise and analytical; he certainly didn’t lack aggressiveness (when he made a decision to attack, he sent in “everything that wasn’t bolted to the flight deck”), but before making his decision to attack he would carefully weigh all the factors of the situation, which sometimes translated into over-cautiousness. Halsey was a hell-for-leather type – sort of the naval counterpart of George Patton – whose fighting spirit greatly inspired his men (the enlisted sailors loved him, not least for the fact that he could drink and swear as well as any of them), but this sometimes translated into recklessness. After the war, someone – I think it was Spruance himself – said that it would have been better if Halsey has been in command at the Battle of the Philippine Sea (where the IJN lost hundred of planes and pilots, but managed to save the bulk of its fleet) and if Spruance had been in command at the Battle of Leyte Gulf (where Halsey fell for a Japanese decoy operation, and compounded his error by leaving no covering force to guard the San Bernardino Straight).

Very cool, reminds me of the efforts to catalog and examine all the fortifications and pillboxes of the Invasion Scare era.

to me it would have to the junkers ju-87…that sound it made when coming in for the attack was deafening and it would terrify you on the ground

good points you raised Epiphany , what comes to my mind thinking about it is,  “Unternehmen Greif” 1944 BOTB.
The plan was causing confusion in the rear of the Allied lines and to force the Enemy to give out wrong Orders. And that was almost exactly what happend. It was getting that far that American Soldiers distrusted their own men and in some cases even killed own people in the confusions.

Imaging small bombing raids combiend with dropped off Japanese soldiers causing confusions like that on several points in the U.S.
Like you said:
@Epiphany:

From a mere terror standpoint, the I-400 might have worked to make American’s a little more frightened and on edge.  Japanese citizens certainly weren’t thrilled when Doolittle hit Tokyo.  It isn’t always the amount of physical damage you cause; psychology can play a vital factor in war too.  America felt invincible having not really tasted the war.  Our reaction to being hit at Pearl would not have been the same to the Japanese knocking down the Empire State Building or the hitting the White House.  Imagine those happening immediately after the Doolittle Raid.

I agree with Kurt that if the Japanese had specifically targeted things they knew they could destroy or that would seriously disrupt the war effort; such as bombing ball bearing factories or factories that produce batteries.  If you can hit the right targets, suddenly you have real disruption.  The I-400 could have afforded Japan some small measure of viable capability.  Small in the sense that it wouldn’t win the war, but I think it would have definitely been worth the investment for the capability alone.

A war brought to the doorsteps of America would be a Horroable thing…Pearl Harbor was still a little bit to far away…

Also, imagine being on the flight deck when you fired those things off.  Say good buy to sound.

With the Russian design, you would also have to be careful not to fire the guns pointed over the flight deck, or you’d blast away the deck with just the fireballs.  :-D

aequitas et veritas wrote:

As you can clearly read, I wrote that timeover will not response to this as a member.

You are right. And that merely reinforces my theory. After eight straight years of checking this thread, awaiting my response, he finally grew disillusioned and disappointed. So much so that he canceled his membership to this forum. :(

Now, one could reasonably ask, “Why would he have been awaiting my response for eight straight years when I haven’t even been here that long?” Well you see, on some level he sensed that I should be here, and that I’d be showing up here sooner or later. He evidently felt that “sooner” was more likely than “later,” so that I could respond to his thread. Which, let the record reflect, I did. Eventually. Better late than never, right? :)

This topic will submerge like a Tanker hit by a German Submarine.

Ah, but like a Type XXI U-boat, this topic emerged after having been submerged eight straight years! :o Maybe it will submerge again, only to surface in another eight years. :D

I read Shinano sunk because United States torpedo often malfunction and go below target so fire on Shinano set shallow.  Torpedo run actual depth setting that time and happen to hit on end of steel beam that hold out torpedo blister.  Beam ram through ship and cause to sink.