Hiyo (Japanese: Flying Hawk) was a Japanese light aircraft carrier, the keel of which was laid in 1939, launched in June 1941, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in July 1942. The ship was 219.3 meters long, 26.7 meters wide, and had a full displacement of 26,950 tons. The maximum speed of the aircraft carrier Hiyo was around 25 knots, and its main armament was 53 on-board planes.
Originally, Hiyo was built as a luxury ocean liner named Izumo Maru for one of the Japanese shipping lines. However, with the impending outbreak of the war in the Pacific and the desire of the navy command to expand its own air force, the as yet unfinished Izumo Maru was bought by the fleet and rebuilt into an aircraft carrier. Similarly to the twin Junyo. A characteristic feature of Hiyo was the relatively large and high superstructure on the starboard side and the funnel tilted away from the main axis of the ship in order to improve the conditions of the air force. During World War II, Hiyo took part in the battles for the Gudalcanal - especially in the Battle of Santa Cruz - and in June 1943 it was severely damaged by the American submarine USS Trigger, which necessitated many repairs on Hiyo, which excluded him from the fight for many weeks . In June 1944, he took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where he was sunk by American on-board planes.
Ryuho was a Japanese light aircraft carrier, the keel of which was laid in April 1933, launched in November of the same year, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in March 1934. The ship was 216 meters long, 19.5 meters wide, and had a full displacement of 16,700 tons. The maximum speed of the aircraft carrier Ryuho was 26 knots, and its main armament was 31-36 airplanes.
Ryuho originally entered service with the Japanese Navy as a submarine base ship called Taigei, but was designed to be quickly converted to an aircraft carrier if necessary. Actions in this direction were undertaken in December 1941, and from November 1942 Ryuho entered service as an aircraft carrier. She was baptized in combat, still as a submarine base ship, during the fighting in China in 1938. A more important battle during World War II in which Ryuho took part was the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, which, however, survived with only slight damage. Severely damaged in March 1945, it was not renovated until the end of the war, and by 1947 it was completely scrapped.
Unryu (Japanese: Dragon of Clouds) was a Japanese aircraft carrier whose keel was laid in 1942, launched in September 1943, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1944. The ship was 226 meters long, 22 meters wide, and had a full displacement of 20,400 tons. The top speed of the aircraft carrier Unryu was around 34 knots, and its main armament consisted of 65 on-board planes.
Unryu was the first of 16 planned aircraft carriers of the type to which he gave the name - Unryu. In fact, only three ships of this class entered service. Unryu, like its twin units, was based on the modified Hiryu aircraft carrier. The differences between the two types of ships were small and mainly related to the layout of the starting deck. The participation of aircraft carrier Unryu in World War II was symbolic and limited to a single voyage in December 1944, when it departed from the base at Kure and, accompanied by three destroyers, headed towards Manila. In the East China Sea, it was torpedoed by the USS Redfish submarine and sank on December 19, 1944 as a result of being hit by two torpedoes. The only commander of the ship was Kanale Konishi, which went down with his ship.
Aoba was a Japanese heavy cruiser the keel of which was laid in 1924, launched in September 1926, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in September 1927. The ship was 185 m long, 15.8 m wide, and had a full displacement of 10,900 tons. Cruiser Aoba's maximum speed was 36 knots. At the time of launching, the main armament was 6 203 mm guns in three twin turrets, and the additional armament included: 4 120 mm cannons and 12 610 mm torpedo tubes.
Aoba was the first cruiser of the type to bear the same name - ie Aoba. Cruisers of this type They were initially designed as further Furutaka units, but during construction, the plans were modified with the addition of twin artillery turrets and seaplane operation capabilities. This led to some ship instability at high waves. The cruiser Aoba underwent modernization in the years 1938-1940, which mainly consisted in adding a new fire control system and strengthening the anti-aircraft weapons. The combat career of cruiser Aoba in World War II began in December 1941 with supporting the Japanese landing on the island of Guam and - a little later - on the island of Wake. The cruiser took part in the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942), in which it was severely damaged. However, it was quickly renovated and in August 1942 he fought in the victorious battle near the island of Savo. From August to October 1942, he protected the convoys sailing to Gudalcanal - in the course of these operations, he was badly damaged and sent back to Japan. In October 1943, shortly after the repairs were completed, it was damaged again and was then declared unfit for repair. Until the end of the war, he did not take part in combat operations. Cruiser Aoba was sunk in July 1945 as a result of an attack by American on-board planes.