Shōkaku and Cavalla, a Confrontation of the WWII Pacific Theater

On June 19th 1944 one of the largest most important and most veteran ships in the Imperial Japanese Navy encountered a u.s. submarine one-sixteenth its size on its very first war patrol that encounter which represented a contest between two of the key naval technologies that defined the war in the Pacific also represented the shifting fortunes of the two navies in that war and was part of a significant turning point in that war the sinking of the Japanese aircraft carrier choukaku by the USS kavala is history that deserves to be remembered by June of 1944 the US was on the offensive having taken the Gilbert and Marshall Islands the u.s. strategy of island hopping had moved to the Mariana Islands the 71 thousand men of the fifth in fibia scorer Adam recored Lieutenant General Holland Howlin mad Smith had invented the strategically important island of Saipan the capture which would place the Japanese home islands within range of u.s. bombers the Japanese recognized the strategic importance of Saipan and committed a significant portion of their fleet to an attack the Imperial Japanese Navy was much depleted by the 1944 and had most suffered from losses of air crews but the fleet was still significant and was capable of mounting a large carrier action while the Americans assumed that the strategic objective was to attack the Saipan invasion fleet in fact the Japanese goal was to provoke a decisive naval engagement they hoped to inflict a significant enough loss on the US Navy that America would be forced to negotiate for peace the first mobile fleet under the command of Vice Admiral gia Shirow ozawa had five fleet carriers including the fleet carrier tayo the largest and knew his carrier in the Japanese fleet the show Kaku and the zuy Kaku veterans of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the so-called old fleet carriers Juno and geo as well as for like carriers the nine carriers are supported by a substantial battle fleet that included five battleships ten heavy cruisers two light cruisers and thirty-four destroyers while he was well outnumbered by the u.s. 5th fleet under the command of Admiral Raymond Spruance which included 15 aircraft carriers and roughly twice as many carrier-borne aircraft ozawa saw an advantage the [ __ ] these could count on more than 500 aircraft operating from Japanese controlled land bases at Guam Yap and rota not only would the land-based aircraft even the numbers but they had been arranged than carrier aircraft offering the possibility of attacking the US fleet while the u.s. planes would be out of range to strike back the Imperial Japanese Navy might never have a better opportunity the stage was set what would be the last major carrier unti reaction of the Pacific War but the Sawa's plan had a serious flaw earlier in the war the Japanese and had the advantage of better training and equipment but by 1944 the Americans had not just made up numbers but had substantially improved their equipment training and tactics meanwhile the Japanese fleet air arm had struggled to make good the losses of the previous battles and their equipment had failed to keep pace well as I was assumptions about being able to attack from a greater range did serve him in the battle the air duel was lopsided in air attacks the first day the Japanese lost more than 350 planes to an American loss of less than 30 the air battle was so lopsided that became known as the great Marianas turkey shoot but while the air battle is reasonably well known in fact the battle was largely won under the ocean the US had a number of submarines in the battle when they played a critical role in fighting and trucking as I was fleet among them was the USS Cabala on just its first patrol the Gallardo was a dato class submarine the gate Oh class were diesel-electric in the first mass-produced u.s. submarine class of the war 77 dedo class submarines were produced between 1940 and 1944 USS Kavala was laid down in March of 1943 the 32nd kiddo class boat to be built launched in November and commissioned at the end of February 1944 the Kavala sailed from Connecticut to Pearl Harbor and on May 31st set sail on its first patrol heading for the eastern Philippines Cavallo was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Hermann kossler a 1934 graduate of the u.s. Naval Academy who had been awarded two silver stars for a service as executive officer aboard the USS guard fish 311 foot 9 inches long with the surface displacement of 1525 long tons the Kabbalah's main armament was its 1021 inch torpedo to six forward and four aft and route to its patrol area in the eastern Philippines Kavala happened to be well placed as the two fleets approached each other the ninth of June seventeenth Kavala was trekking a small convoy when its radar registered a ship contact as Kavala approached the contact turned into several contacts kossler and kavala had discovered a part of Xhosa was task force while Kavala had easy targets submarines were under orders report contacts first kossler made the difficult decision to break off contact and report the sighting kossler spent the next day trying to regain contact it was dangerous work as the task force had ample air cover and escorts designed to kill submarines in the early morning of the 19th a plane flew solo over the submerged Kavala that the crew could hear the planes engine roaring around 10:30 the next morning Casa loosed a low-flying aircraft circling in the distance through the periscope as Kavala approached they found themselves in the midst of one of those always task groups the so called a force in front of him was a large aircraft carrier steaming a steady course into the southeast wind raising large bow waves Casa could see the carrier was recovering planes a position that made it even more vulnerable kossler along with his executive officer and gunnery officer identified the carrier as a shikaku class carrier the Kavala had also detected a destroyer nearby although it did not appear to have detected the Kavala attacking the carrier would place the Kavala at risk the carrier sighted was in fact the shukaku itself laid down in December of 1937 the shukaku was the first Japanese carrier built without the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty which had expired in December of 1936 844 feet long with the displacement of 26,000 675 long tons the shukaku replaced 10,000 tons more than the lighter and smaller carriers built during the treaty period and was 20% larger than a pre-war US carrier choukaku which meant soaring crane had been one of the six carriers to participate in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor along with her sister ship Zhu ikkaku and had been a central fleet element in most of the important battles of the Pacific War her plans have played a critical role in the Japanese victory at the may 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea sinking the carrier USS Lexington her damaged control teams had saved the ship when it was damaged in the battle the damage kept shukaku out of the Battle of Midway and it is still a matter of conjecture whether shikaku is presence whether shifted the balance in that battle her plane said heavily damaged the carrier enterprise at the battle the eastern Solomon's and helped to sink the carrier Hornet at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands it was one of the largest most modern and most veteran ships in the Imperial Japanese Navy and it represented a butcher's bill that the Americans were eager to repay just 20 days into its first patrol Kavala found itself facing one of the most important targets in the Imperial Japanese Navy the Cabela's position on the carrier was so good that cosmo only had to use the periscope three times as it moved to attack consular decided to focus on the carrier and worry about the destroyer after at 11:18 a.m. he looked at the target through the periscope now approximately 1,500 yards away and push the button on the right handle the boats torpedo data computer or TDC then determined a firing solution the simple analog computer worked through the complex trigonometry needed to properly set the torpedoes gyros and led torpedo to meet the target at the anticipated intercept point given the torpedo and targets speeds to generate a fire control solution the TVC used inputs on the submarines course and speed obtained from the gyro compass in the potometer log device it measures about speed relative to the water and estimated the target course speed and range using data from the submarines periscope radar and sonar the TVC then performs the trigonometric you lace required a computed target intercept course for the torpedo and use an electromechanical interface to set the course while the torpedoes were in the tubes ready to be fired Hustler ordered a salvo of six torpedoes following multiple torpedoes at once gave a better chance of a hit and where the target is large to the shukaku multiple hits would likely be necessary to sink the ship he ordered that the torpedoes be set for a depth of 15 feet knowing that the torpedoes might be sighted and give away his location cos allah had the Kavala dive even as it fired the six torpedoes fired at eight second intervals begging for a forty second firing sequence at 11:20 a.m. lookout support the shukaku sighted the oncoming torpedoes they had been scanning the sky for airplanes and so may have been pre to Pyatt as they noticed their torpedoes after it was too late to avoid them the captain tried to turn the ship but there wasn't enough time sound equipment aboard the capella heard the sound of an explosion fifty seconds after the first torpedo was launched followed by two others at eight second intervals when they're no more explosions kossal assumed the other three torpedoes had missed he ordered the submarine to turn and rig for silent running hoping to avoid the carrier's escorts the first depth charge has exploded nearby less than two minutes after the torpedoes had been fired Castle took avala deep though their sound equipment they could hear the screws of at least three destroyers in pursuit the crew of Kavala could do little more than stay deep and stay quiet trying to avoid sound detection and went it out as the destroyers dropped deadly depth charges the most slowly tried to make distance and explosions that we were farther and farther off according to the log the Japanese destroyers dropped 108 depth charges in the three hours following the attack 56 of those exploded close to the submarine the Cabela's supersonic listening gear burned out when water was pushed into the ventilation system living only the Jaypee sonic listening gear but the damage did not threaten the boat as the Kavala slowly made distance they heard four large explosions from the direction of the attack Gosselaar moved to periscope depth to see if he could confirm that the carrier was destroyed but there were rain squalls and he wasn't able to see anything later that night when it was safe enough for Kavala to surface he radioed Pearl Harbor indicating that he had hit a Japanese carrier with three torpedoes concluding their part with believe the baby sunk the Chicago's detailed action report did not survive so the details exactly how many torpedoes hit and where is sketchy but there were I witness reports to the damage and aftermath the first torpedo struck amidships just forward of the island rupturing a tank carrying volatile aviation fuel and sending a fireball and burning spray upward in front of the bridge several pilots have been relaxing by the island were burned by the flaming fuel aircraft were being serviced and armed in the hangar which was turned into an inferno as aviation fuel that was running through pipes to fuel the planes caught fire and munitions and hoists ready to be mounted on the aircraft exploded the next strikes the eyewitnesses differ on whether three or four torpedoes hit started flooding in the boiler room causing a starboard list the ship lost both power and propulsion and started trim towards the bow where another torpedo had left a man that whole possibly having gone clean through the torpedoes combined for a particularly damaging blow not only causing fires and flooding but disabling power needed for damage control with the loss of the boilers propulsion was lost and the damage to the bow disabled navigation the captain ordered counter flooding to address the list actually clotting too much and causing a slight list to the port however that required flooding another boiler room without power the crew could not operate the pumps that would allow them to address the flooding and fires burned throughout the hangar the show kaku's damage control crews were veteran and they had saved the ship when it had taken damage during the battles with Coral Sea in the Santa Cruz Islands they managed to douse the fire in the fuel tank by cutting off access to the surrounding spaces but without power to operate the pumps that could not adjust the flooding at the bow and the hanger fires raged at 130 it became clear that they could not save the ship and the captain ordered abandon ship the crew gathered on the deck of the stern and prepared to abandon ship the bow was sinking slowly and the time for proceed in an orderly manner searching to not leave anyone behind then suddenly at 8 minutes after 2 there was a large explosion at the bow an aerial bomb possibly caught in the hangar fire or possibly thrown forward as the bow settled exploded inside the hangar below deck the ship had been slowly filling with petrol fumes and the result of ruptured tanks and poor quality fuel the bomb ignited the fuse stuffed the ship causing four terrific explosions the ones that cost ler hurt aboard the Kavala water port across the deck and flowed down through the open elevator into the hangar this threw the stern where the crew had gathered upward throwing men down the deck into the fires the ship sank almost vertically going under less than two minutes after the great explosion 1263 of the ship's crew perished only 557 were rescued shikaku was not the only Japanese loss of the battle the carrier kayo the newest and largest carrier of the fleet had been struck by a single torpedo from the submarine USS albacore the tayo will armoured should have shrugged off a single torpedo hit but a series of mistakes by its inexperience damage control crews led to an internal explosion that sent the ship in addition the fleet carrier Hyo was sunk by planes from the USS Bella would z' just as important where the air losses as many of the planes that were shot down were lost with the three carriers sunk the Japanese lost more than 400 care aircraft and 200 land-based aircraft in the battle the Fleet Air Arm was devastated the few remaining carriers made virtually irrelevant for lack of planes and skilled air crews asawa retreated north the battle was a turning point that eliminated the Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier operations the Kavala went on to finish its patrol was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for sinking Shikoku it successfully completed six wartime patrols in specific sinking the Japanese destroyer shim Itsuki in November 1944 Kavala went on to serve after the war and wasn't stricken from the naval rolls clear until 1969 was transformed into a museum ship today the USS Koval is on display at sea woof Park on Pelican Island in Texas and you can go and visit it DISA burrow ozawa finish the war is les commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy he was considered one of Japan's most capable flag officers during the war and was described as being both courageous and compassionate towards his men he passed away in 1966 at the age of 80 Hermann kossler served with the United States Navy for 43 years through the Second World War and into Korea and Vietnam he retired a Rear Admiral having been awarded three Silver Stars the Navy Cross the Distinguished Service Medal and two legions of Merit he passed away in 1988 at the age of 76 I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets a forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guide on Facebook Instagram Twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring comm and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music] you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 924,866

Keywords: history, the history guy, pacific theater, world war II, WWII, US History, history guy

Id: KXbHsRYZlKE

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/TankmanTom7]

When submarines are added, Shokaku players are going to get diarrhoea.

[u/YOUREABOT]

The U.S. Submarine Veterans Salute u Sir. I and we would like to see more on the WWII Subs and the Subs that are still out there keeping America safe that very day.

[u/Akito99]

It bugs me that he got Taiyou and Taihou mixed up. The former a small escort carrier converted from an ocean liner and the later a large fleet carrier with an armored flight deck and a hurricane bow.