Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku
Zuikaku at Kobe on 25 September 1941 after launching, awaiting delivery to the Imperial Japanese Navy.
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| History | |
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 Japan
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| Name: | Zuikaku |
| Namesake: | Japanese: ずいかく Kanji: 瑞鶴 "Auspicious Crane") |
| Laid down: | 25 May 1938 |
| Launched: | 27 November 1939 |
| Commissioned: | 25 September 1941 |
| Struck: | 26 August 1945 |
| Fate: | Sunk by air attack in the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 25 October 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Shōkaku-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 29,800 normal tons, 32,000 tons full load |
| Length: | 257.5 m (844 ft 10 in) |
| Beam: | 26 m (85 ft 4 in) |
| Draft: | 8.9 m (29 ft 2 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 34.5 knots (63.9 km/h) |
| Range: | 7,581 mi (6,588 nmi) at 18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h) Fuel: 4100 tons |
| Complement: | 1,660 |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: |
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Zuikaku (Japanese: 瑞鶴 "Auspicious Crane") was a Shōkaku-class aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her complement of aircraft took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor that formally brought the United States into the Pacific War, and she fought in several of the most important naval battles of the war, before being sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
One of six carriers to participate in the Pearl Harbor attack, Zuikaku was the last of the six to be sunk in the war (four in the Battle of Midway and Shōkaku in the Battle of the Philippine Sea).
In 1941, Zuikaku, under the command of Captain Yokokawa Ichibei, and her sister ship Shōkaku comprised Carrier Division 5. On 26 November 1941, she left Hitokappu Bay for the attack on Pearl Harbor as part of the Kido Butai ("Mobile Force"). Her aircraft complement consisted of 15 Mitsubishi A6M fighters, 27 Aichi D3A dive bombers, and 27 Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers. On 7 December, she launched two waves of aircraft against American military installations on the island of Oahu. In the first wave, 25 dive bombers attacked Wheeler Army Airfield and five fighters attacked the airbase at Kaneohe. In the second wave, 27 torpedo bombers, armed with bombs, attacked the airbase at Hickam Field and 17 dive bombers targeted the battleships USS California and Maryland on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor. California later sank, while Maryland escaped Pearl Harbor with moderate damage.
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