Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire KAGA, AKAGI, SORYU AND HYRIU..

The Guadalcanal campaign would have been very different if the Japanese had a few more carriers and aircrews to use.

That would be a good Jeopardy question.

I've thought that identifying the names of the Japanese carriers would be a good question. "What were..."?

On one show a question was "On what day of the week did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor"? Not a single contestant knew it was Sunday. Hell, that was a major part of the Japanese strategy, catching the Americans off guard on a day of rest.

Ignorance of history abounds.

Paul

Unit history questions were always part of the E5 and E6 boards.
We would have BN and BDE formations and runs on historic dates everywhere I got stationed.


Lots of MI signals deception in the battle of midday
From the water supply transmissions
To false radio traffic to the Yorktown " still in the coral sea area"
That stuff allowed us to prestage on the sunsabytches big time.

Jap admiral trying to decide and squeeze time to the minute rearming, refueling landing and launching. Really worked to our benefit.

Biggest turning point in the Pacific naval war!

There would not have bee a Guadalcanal campaign, at least not then had we lost at Midway. Be that as it may, they still kicked our ass at Savo Island and had they pressed their attack could have probably won.

Thanks, JorgeI, as a previous post stated we were getting our asses handed to us until that first carrier was hit. Gutsy bunch of pilots we had.

We were lucky. LCDR Wade McCluskey on a hunch turned NW and at the limit of his fuel, found the carriers in the process of re-configuring their ordnance loads and their fighter coverage had been "pulled down" chasing (and destroying) Torpedo Bombing Squadron 8 . A young LT, name Dick Best, scored the first hit...

Sad, that...


Yep - I read about that in the book "The Big E".. I must have read that book about a hundred times..

And, two years ago, at Arlington, I was waiting for a shuttle bus and turned around on the bench and saw this:




IMHO one of the best Admirals in the war...

And some 300-odd of Japan's finest naval combat pilots. Irreplaceable.

Very neat. If you want to read the BEST book on the battle, get "Shattered Sword"... paperback on Amazon. incredible read..

Those Jap ship names sounded familiar. Used to play WWII board games as a kid.



Blitzkrieg was a good one too . . . Irwin Rommel - the Desert Fox

Ordered - and on the way.. Thanks jorge....

Actually, most of the aviators survived, it was the support element, crew chiefs, mechanics, etc who suffered terrible casualties when their ships went up like roman candles.

If you don't like it, send me the bill!

Thanks for the reminder Jorge. Important day that should be remembered.

Yes, that is my thought, it would have setback our timetable for the offensive and made the war much longer. It’s amazing that the Japanese were so timid with their Guadalcanal strategy, they could have won it early by being bold. Victory disease I guess.

Men of true grit, conviction, and determination..............The Greatest Generation.

Simply put, Badasses.

In the big scheme of things, Japan lost the war when the first bomb (or torpedo) came off the rails on December 7th...

You think that’s bad?

I was in a deli the other day and not a single kid knew who Shadrach, Meshach or Abendego were.

Are you going to force me to look that up? No way I was going to ask about the names, just what happened on 04 June, 1942...

An English translation of the Japanese carrier names:

From the Combined Fleet web page.

Hosho class
Hosho: "How a phoenix dives", implies power

Kaga class
Kaga: "Increased Joy", a province name (Kaga was originally laid down as a battleship)

Akagi class
Akagi: "Red Castle", a volcano in the Kanto area (Akagi was originally laid down as a battlecruiser)

Ryujo class
Ryujo: "Such as a dragon builds", "Sacred Dragon"

Soryu class
Soryu: "Blue-gray dragon"
Hiryu: "Dragon Flying in Heaven"

Zuiho class
Zuiho: "Lucky or Auspicious Phoenix"
Shoho: "Luckbringing Phoenix"

Ryuho class
Ryuho: "Dragon and Phoenix"

Shokaku class
Shokaku: "Crane Flying in Heaven" (also "Happy Crane")
Zuikaku: "Lucky or Fortunate or Auspicious Crane"

Hiyo class
Hiyo: "A Falcon Flying Away"
Junyo: "Wandering Falcon"

Taiho class
Taiho: "Great or Greater Phoenix"

Shinano class
Shinano: A province, containing Nagano City (Shinano was originally laid down as a battleship); also the longest river in Japan

Unryu class
Unryu: "Cloud of a Heaven-flying dragon", "Dragon in Clouds"
Amagi: "Heaven castle," a volcano
Katsuragi "Katsura Castle," a mountain

Chitose class
Chitose: "1000 Years," or, "Long Life", a city
Chiyoda: "That which will live 1000 years or 1000 generations", "Like the Fields" (also the name of the Imperial palace in Tokyo)

Taiyo class
Taiyo: "Greater falcon"
Unyo: "Cloud falcon"
Chuyo "High Seas Falcon"

Kaiyo class
Kaiyo "Sea falcon"

Shinyo class
Shinyo: "Condor"

Mizuho class
Mizuho: Juicy rice ears

Nisshin class
Nisshin: Daily fort patrol