In which battle were the most aircraft carriers sunk and which ships were they?

On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a devastating surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. After the loss of more than 2,400 soldiers and civilians, a series of U.S. naval defeats followed that seemed to position Japan as the clear winner in the Pacific. Key to the naval conflicts at Pearl Harbor and the subsequent battles for Wake Island, the Philippines, New Guinea, and the Dutch East Indies were aircraft carriers. The fighters and bombers launched from their decks could inflict significant damage. In fact, the loss of an aircraft carrier was a critical blow to the entire fleet.

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This is one of the reasons why the Battle of Midway is considered a turning point in the Pacific. Although Japan held a strong position until June 1942, a key strategic move by the U.S. changed the position and gave the U.S. Navy a chance to push west and recapture territory lost in the early stages of the war. Although many ships were lost during the dozens of engagements in the Pacific, most of the aircraft carriers were sunk at Midway. Although the U.S. suffered losses at Midway, it was the Imperial Navy that escaped with a bruised ego and four fewer carriers.

[Featured image by U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled |Public Domain]

One could argue that it was aircraft carriers that officially started the war in the Pacific. After all, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, responsible for much of the damage at Pearl Harbor, could not make the flight from mainland Japan to Hawaii. On the morning of December 7, Akagi, Kaga, SoryuAnd Hiryu participated in the shooting down of more than 300 Zeros at Pearl Harbor. Although this was a surprise attack, carriers served a similar purpose in active combat and proved far more useful in fighting the enemy than originally thought before the war.

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Although aircraft carriers were originally designed to support the larger guns of battleships, the war in the Pacific proved otherwise. Both Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway demonstrated the true power of a carrier fleet, as the long-range capabilities of fighters and bombers increased strike ranges from about 20 to over 200 miles. While battleships used their broadside armament to hit enemy ships hard, a carrier's air fleet served two purposes. First, fighters provided cover for battleships and picked off bombers and kamikaze pilots from the sky. Second, bombers delivered additional payloads to enemy warships, increasing the damage inflicted.

[Featured image by U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled |Public Domain]

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Although the Battle of Midway was a great success in repelling the powerful Japanese fleet, the attack was not without casualties. Fortunately, the only aircraft carrier lost during the conflict was the USS Yorktown (CV-5), a ship that Japan initially thought was being repaired after it was destroyed in the Battle of the Coral Sea (in which the USS Lexington carrier was lost). Yorktown Repairs at Pearl Harbor took only two days before it was ready for combat.

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The USS Yorktown was commissioned in September 1937 and was on patrol in the Atlantic during the attack on Pearl Harbor. At the end of December she joined the Pacific Fleet and became the flagship of Task Force 17. Before her deployment with the Imperial Navy in the Coral Sea Yorktown served as an escort for naval operations in American Samoa. Her presence at Midway Atoll proved important for the Japanese defeat, as her bombers were responsible for the sinking of the Soryu Carrier.

Yorktown and her crew fought off several devastating attacks and finally succumbed to a direct torpedo attack. Although the carrier was left dead in the water, it only lost about 60 crew members before sinking a few days after the battle. In 2023, the crew of the exploration ship nautilus footage taken from the wreck of the USS Yorktown.

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[Featured image by U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled |Public Domain]

Japan's defeat at Midway Atoll was compounded by the loss of four of its most important aircraft carriers. Akagi, Kaga, HiryuAnd Soryu — all of which participated in the bombing of Pearl Harbor — fell victim to the Battle of Midway, a kind of poetic justice for the US Navy. Of the four carriers Kaga resurfaced decades later with the introduction of JS Kagathe largest warship of the Japanese Navy of the 21st century. Kaga was also the first Japanese aircraft carrier to suffer damage at the beginning of the battle. After the sinking Kaga remained an elusive wreck until the crew of the RV Storm petrel A research vessel found her body at a depth of 17,000 feet.

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Although originally designed as a battlecruiser, Akagi was later converted into an aircraft carrier. During the Battle of Midway Akagi suffered only one known direct hit by the USS Pursue Bombing Squadron 6, but it was enough to bring the carrier down for good. Kagathe ruins of Akagi became a success story for RV Storm petrel in 2019. In contrast Akagi, Hiryu proved to be a little more difficult to defeat, as you could use weapons from Pursue, hornetAnd Yorktown before it was finally sunk on June 5th.

From 2024, the debris of the Japanese Hiryu And Soryu Aircraft carriers still need to be located despite the efforts of research teams like RV Storm petrel.

[Featured image by U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled |Public Domain]

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