Japanese aircraft carrier Hiyō
Hiyō (飛鷹, "Flying Hawk") was the name ship of her class of two aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Originally planned as the ocean liner Izumo Maru (出雲丸) in 1939, she was purchased by the Navy Ministry in 1941 for conversion to an aircraft carrier. Completed shortly after the Battle of Midway in June 1942, she participated in the Guadalcanal campaign, but missed the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October because of an electrical generator fire.
Hiyō at anchor | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Empire of Japan | |
| Name | Izumo Maru |
| Owner | Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japan Mail Steamship Company) |
| Ordered | Late 1938 |
| Builder | Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kobe |
| Yard number | 660 |
| Way number | 4 |
| Laid down | 30 November 1939 |
| Fate | Sold to Imperial Japanese Navy, 10 February 1941 |
| Empire of Japan | |
| Name | Hiyō |
| Namesake | Flying Hawk |
| Launched | 24 June 1941 |
| Acquired | 10 February 1941 |
| Commissioned | 31 July 1942 |
| Stricken | 10 November 1944 |
| Fate | Sunk in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, 20 June 1944 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | Hiyō-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement | 24,150 t (23,770 long tons) (standard) |
| Length | 220 m (721 ft 9 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 26.7 m (87 ft 7 in) |
| Draught | 8.15 m (26 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbine sets |
| Speed | 25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph) |
| Range | 11,700 nmi (21,700 km; 13,500 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Complement | 1,187–1,224 |
| Sensors and processing systems | 1 × Type 2, Mark 2, Model 1 early-warning radar |
| Armament |
|
| Armour | Belt: 50 mm (2 in) |
| Aircraft carried | 53 |
The carrier's aircraft were disembarked several times and used from land bases in battles in the South West Pacific. Hiyō was torpedoed in mid-1943 and spent three months under repair. She spent most of the next six months training and ferrying aircraft before returning to combat. She was sunk by a gasoline-vapour explosion caused by an American torpedo hit during the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 20 June 1944 with the loss of 247 officers and ratings, about a fifth of her complement.