1 US Sub Sinks a Japanese Supercarrier - Sinking of Shinano Documentary

at a little past three in the morning on November 29 1944 the American submarine USS archerfish fired six Torpedoes and sank the 71 000 ton Japanese super carrier shinano this is the extraordinary story of how a single Submarine skippered by a then unremarkable Captain claimed the largest warship then afloat the events that led to the attack and sinking of shenano began years earlier she was originally planned as the third ship in Japan's Yamato class of enormous battleships but after the disastrous Battle of Midway in 1942 it was decided by the Japanese Navy to convert shinano into an aircraft carrier while she was still under construction to be completed in early 1945. the work to complete shenano as what would be the largest carrier ever to put to Sea were extensive once finished her colossal Hangar would host up to 170 planes allowing the ship to act as a central hub for the maintenance and support of an entire fleet aircraft it was a hugely ambitious and Powerful design and one that the Japanese Navy got more and more desperate for as the war situation declined through 1944. in need of something to change the tide the completion date Fortunato was rushed forward to November 1944. this greatly shortened deadline required a furious effort from the workers at Yokosuka Naval Shipyard and it was made even more frantic when the first USB 29 bombers began to overfly the Japanese Mainland on reconnaissance missions the Commerce war against Japan was entering its final ruthlessly destructive phase and the Japanese Navy soon became concerned that shanana would be spotted from the air and targeted with bombing raids they were therefore Keen to move the carrier to an Anchorage that was less exposed to American attacks the carrier was rushed out for Builders trials on November 11th and then hastily commissioned into the Imperial Navy a week later the ship was ordered to leave Yokosuka on November 28th to head for a safer Anchorage at curay in the Inland sea but the carrier's inaugural Skipper Captain toshio Abe was deeply concerned at the state of his ship he requested a delay to its departure as shinano only had eight of her 12 boilers operational and had not yet been able to carry out a whole host of tests to check that each compartment really was fully airtight the request was bluntly refused with the risk from air attacks if the carrier remained at Yokosuka any longer deemed to be too high and so the aircraft carrier shinano left port for her maiden voyage on the afternoon of November 28 1944. she was escorted by the kagaro-class Destroyers isakaze hamakaze and yukikaze there were more than two and a half thousand people on board including 300 civilian workers who were still completing parts of the ship it was a risky Voyage no air cover was available for schnanno so Captain Abe had been forced to try and make the passage to curate at night raising the prospect of an attack by American submarines with a third of her boilers out of action shinano could only steam at a reduced speed of 20 knots and so she was more vulnerable than usual to submarine attack by Nightfall the Japanese flotilla was clear of Tokyo bay and had to turn to the Southwest beginning a zigzag pattern that would take them towards the Inland sea at about the same time the American submarine archerfish was surfacing after another day spent beneath the waves its Captain was commander Joseph Enright who was on his first war Patrol with the archerfish described by the historian clay Blair as a cautious and uncertain Skipper more than a year earlier Enright had asked to be relieved from command of the USS Dace after losing confidence in his own abilities now though he was back at Sea with a fresh submarine and A Renewed determination at 8 50 PM archerfish's radar picked up a massive contact 22 kilometers to the north before too long it was visible on the horizon as an aircraft carrier though unlike any other scene before this was a huge potential prize and Enright was determined not to let it slip through his fingers so he authorized the regular use of his boat's radar to be sure of his Target's location at all times as he tried to maneuver into an attack position abortionano the regular emissions from archerfish's radar could be heard loud and clear but Captain Abe was not unduly concerned alone submarine was not in his mind a threat only a wolf pack of multiple submarines attacking simultaneously could pose a serious danger to such a huge ship so at 10 45 PM when the Destroyer isakaze broke her way to close down on the submarine that was shadowing the group Captain Abe quickly ordered it back into position he did not want his escorts being drawn away by a submarine acting as bait and leaving the carrier exposed to attack by other lurking American boats determined to wrong foot the wolf pack he was expecting at 11 PM are they ordered a turn to the south at 20 knots away from the enemy submarine Enright pushed archerfish's engine to its absolute maximum but the submarine could only get to 19 knots and by half past 11 visual contact was lost with the Japanese carrier unable to keep up a frustrated Commander Enright decided instead to keep on his boat's current course hoping to be in a better position if the carrier eventually turned back northwards at 11 40 shenano obliged changing course to steam Due West after an engine fault developed on board which cut her top speed to 18 knots slower now than what artifice was achieving Captain Abe was Keen now to make progress towards his ship's destination but once the carrier swung West it did not take long for archerfish to regain contact by this stage the boat was south of shinano and could now turn swiftly to stalk the carrier from this direction as archerfish was now traveling faster than the Japanese ship it slowly pulled ahead positioning itself in an ideal attack position if shanano came back to her original course of 210 degrees Commander Enright and his crew had no idea what the Japanese ship's eventual destination was so all they could do was wait and hope unable to get any closer on the surface without being spotted again the hours ticked by and shinano remained on her Westerly course frustrated at 2 41 am Enright sent off a report to the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor giving the carrier's position and course shanana picked up this transmission a minute later and it spooked the Japanese skipper Captain rbe guessed that it was a message on the commander of the wolf pack of submarines he was convinced of stalking the carrier and that other subs would now be lining up ahead of him for an attack he quickly decided to change course and believing it more likely that hostile submarines would be lurking closer to the coast to the north decided to turn the other way and so at 2 56 am captain Abe ordered shinano to turn to the Southwest watching from his colleague Tower seven and a half miles away Commander Enright was stunned the Japanese carrier had turned obligingly onto the precise bearing he had hoped and was now coming straight for them unable to believe his luck the American Skipper took his boat across the carrier's new track and swung it around lining up for an attack on chinano's starboard side as the 70 000 ton vessel passed by at 306 the submarine dived something that the carrier was immediately aware of as the radar Transmissions they had been hearing for the last four hours suddenly ceased this was a sign an attack was imminent seeking to throw them off Captain Abe ordered a further changing course at 3 10 round to 180 degrees due south by 313 shenano was just three kilometers from the submerged archerfish which was picking its way past the escort screen determined to press home his attack Enright stayed on his course even as one of the escorts passed directly over his boat without realizing he was there with barely 10 feet of clearance between them as the propellers receded Commander Enright wasted no time he took one more look through the Periscope and fired six Torpedoes of the Japanese carrier in front of him before descending rapidly to 400 feet and getting as far away as possible it was 3 15 am the mark 14 Torpedoes raced over the now very short distance to the Japanese aircraft carrier 317 as shenano was completing her turn to the South the Torpedoes reached their Target's starboard side there were four large explosions as two-thirds of the American Torpedoes found their targets the enormous carrier shuddered and it did not take long for Captain Abe on the bridge to realize they had been torpedoed it was a serious development but four torpedo hits should not in theory lead to the loss of Abe's ship shinano was a colossal vessel with sophisticated armor and anti-torpedo bulges below the waterline it had taken 19 Torpedoes and 17 bombs to sanctiono's sistership Musashi the previous month at Leyte golf Captain makami these ship's second in command soon took control of the damage response from the number one damage control center located in the carriers Island initial reports were not good mikami discovered there had been four torpedo hits three of which were inside the crucial Citadel of the ship where the most important machinery and magazines were positioned and protected by better armor at each impact site the Torpedoes though had punched right through shedano's torpedo protection where it was thinner just a few feet below the surface the result was catastrophic damage at the stern storage units and an empty aviation fuel tank have been blown open rapidly filling with water inside the Citadel turbine room 3 had also flooded immediately along with Boiler Room 3 and adjoining oil tank and the air compressor room with significant loss of life as water rushed into the ship it began to steadily list to starboard first to five and then swiftly to 10 degrees in the hydraulic pump room who informed him that 3 000 tons of water was being pumped into the port bilges to try and counteract the growing list but that it didn't seem to be working it was now past 4 AM and the list was up to 13 degrees in the bowels of the ship Lieutenant Commander mayura the engineering watch officer was grappling with a situation that was rapidly getting out of control the initial torpedo hits were bad enough but janano was still steaming at her maximum speed of 18 knots as Captain Abe tried to avoid any further hits from other lurking submarines this put a huge amount of stress on the already weakened Hull and bulkheads the length of the ship were battling under the pressure next to the already flooded areas water was pouring through ill-fitting doors and rivets compromising boiler rooms one and seven fatally by 5 AM extensive flooding was now starting to slow the carrier's speed as the list steadily increased to 15 then 18 and by 6 AM 20 degrees the ship had now healed so far over that the water intake on the port side were above the water line meaning the crew could no longer counter flood on that side shortly afterwards the ship's remaining boilers began to shut down as the fresh water supply failed shinano's speed dropped to less than 10 knots the starboard hydraulic pump room began to fill with water and Lieutenant inada found he and his crew trapped with little Prospect of rescue meanwhile on the bridge captain arbe now appreciated the serious danger his ship was in he ordered a course change to 300 to Simply head for the closest bit of land he could and try and Beach the carrier in shallow water by now the sun was up and shinano had traveled about 36 miles since the torpedo impacts but at a steadily slowing speed the situation below decks was becoming incredibly dangerous engine room one had also now flooded along with Boiler Room one in a desperate attempt to ride the ship at 8am Captain Abe ordered the deliberate counter flooding of all three boiler rooms on the port side this provided temporary relief to the list but with water continuing to pour in it wasn't enough to save the carrier at 8 30 the starboard hydraulic pump room flooded completely shortly before the waters overcame him Lieutenant inada addressed the bridge crew through a voice pipe I'm going before you and I will pray for shinano and her company an hour later it was clear to everyone that shenano was going to sink on the bridge ensign's shoulder was dispatched to order the crew in the steering station who had been manually operating these ship's Rudder Machinery to leave their posts and head topside one of those rescued by shoda was 16 year old Seaman ishi who would go on to survive the sinking more than a thousand crew were now on the flight deck Clinging On as the ever increasing list once again went past 20 degrees and the water began to lap at the bottom of the island a 1018 Captain arbe unable to bring himself to issue an abandoned ship order simply addressed his crew to say you are all released from Duty save yourselves shinano finally went down at 10 55 a.m with Captain arbe and other officers going down with the ship three escorting destroyers did their best to pick up survivors for several hours but at 2PM they cooled off their operations of 2515 people on board that day 1455 died in the sinking as shinano sank beneath the waves her attacker made a clean getaway archerfish returned to Guam at the end of her patrol on December 15 1944. after initial skepticism of Commander enright's claim Archer fish was eventually credited with sinking an aircraft carrier of between 59 and 72 000 tons depending on which source you take whatever the size it made it not only the largest ship ever sunk by a submarine it also made enrights Patrol the most successful by U.S submarine by tonnage of the entire War on the Japanese side the loss of shinano was a devastating blow to plan to mount a fight back against the Allies so as not to harm morale its loss was kept top secret for months with the survivors effectively interned near curay away from the public an inquiry was convened under Vice abrogenichi makawa which essentially found that so many mistakes have been made by so many people that it was fruitless to assign blame poor decision making by Captain Abe had combined with shoddy build quality inadequate torpedo protection and inexperienced crew and sheer bad luck to create a perfect storm that sent a 71 000 ton supercarrier to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Historigraph

Views: 8,011,192

Keywords: pacifc war ww2, american submarines, sinking of shinano, japanese supercarrier, uss archerfish, historigraph, historiography, histograph, historical documentary, american u boats

Id: 9Lgc_NtwApQ

Length: 16min 45sec (1005 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 23 2022