"IJN Shokaku at Santa Cruz" Topic

This demonstrates that the IJN had learned much after Midway.

YouTube link

The Shokaku used the new radar to detect a US air attack at 78 miles while damage control was much improved. The ship survived.

Barry

Great link, thanks.

@BillyNM:
You are most welcome!

Barry

Well, thanks indeed. A vital but often overlooked aspect of Pacific War carrier warfare.

I've often heard it said that the American victory at Midway was even more amazing because of how much more experienced the Japanese were at that point. But it's not really true. None of the Japanese carriers at Midway had ever come under serious air attack, nor had they had to deal with battle damage. Of the Americans, both Yorktown and Enterprise had been attacked, and Yorktown had survived serious damage. Shokaku had much more experience in those matters and it showed here.

None of the Japanese carriers at Midway had ever come under serious air attack, nor had they had to deal with battle damage.

Huh? How that, all of them were dive-bombed and sunk…

Of the Americans, both Yorktown and Enterprise had been attacked

IIRC, the only US carrier attacked at Midway was the Yorktown

foxbat, he's referring to the period of the war up to Midway.

Thanks for the link Warspite1, an interesting watch.

From the after-action photos looks like Shokaku certainly had her fair share of luck, as well as good damage control and intelligent use of her new Type 21 radar at the Battle of Santa Cruz. None of the 4 carriers lost at Midway were able to contain similar amounts of damage inflicted by the American SBD's.

ScottW – Depends what you call a "serious" air attack. Akagi was "near missed" by a formation of 9 RAF Blenhiem IV's from No 11 Squadron RAF on 9 April 1942 some 300 miles of the East coast of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) during the latter part of Operation "C".

Worryingly for the Japanese the unescorted Blenheims were not spotted until just before they level bombed from 11,000 ft, dispite it being a quite clear day and a substantial CAP of A6M2 Zeros being airborne over Nagumo's carriers.

5 of the Blenheims, including that of Sqn Ldr Ault the squadron CO, were subsiquently shot down by the defending Zeros for the loss of 2 of their number.

While Shokaku's damage control was much improved after the disaster at Midway it appears that levels again regressed by mid 1944 when both Taiho and Shokaku were lost due to inferior damage control measures after being hit by US submarine torpedoes during the Battle of the Phillipine Sea.

It doesn't take long for a warship to lose its edge. There is a constant drain of experienced people to man new ships and with oil shortages I expect training time had to be cut down significantly.