Known in China and perhaps most of Asia as the Japanese Fascist Invasion, which was quite bloody indeed. Japan was also on the offensive side versus the Qing Dynasty and the Russian, but those wars mostly inflicted casualties and dmg on the military aspects.
The very striking aerial photo at @7:07 of AKAGI, KAGA, and SORYU all burning after the 1020 attack is, in fact, one of a series of battle dioramas created for LIFE magazine by Norman Bel Geddes during the war, based on eyewitness accounts and photographs. For a long time, I had thought this was a bonafide photo taken by an American aviator. A testament to Geddes' great artistic skill.
@@Trebuchet48 Most of his photos come from public sources, often national archives, which do not have the best labeling to being with and are sometimes labeled wrongly.
Automatic translation. Japan's Tsuburaya Productions, famous for Ultraman, is renowned for its special effects technology, and even during the war, they used special effects to create newsreel footage After the defeat of the war, when they were questioned about the source of these images I said, "These are special effects images, not real images. GHQ did not believe him.
Lambea also sports a pair of triple turrets in the same spot as Akagi's original double turrets in 2205 which was a nice touch. And her CO being who he is, she used them quite extensively.
@@teknonaught She also appears in the Voyage of the Celestial Ark movie, and the 2205 series. Her skipper, who I am not naming, actually commanded a Andromeda class (carrier variant) in 2202.
Akagi and her crew were very interesting. I'd advise anyone who has the chance to look into them to do so. random funfact: Akagi at the time was known in the Japanese Navy as having the best cooks in the whole fleet (though that title is somewhat contested with Houshou and Yamato) and in a twist of irony (or poetry ) her sinker: USS Enterprise was regarded in the US navy as having the best cooks in the fleet (at least in the pre/early war period).
@@Maddog3060 hell, another fun fact: both Akagi and Kaga were horrid working environments due to design deficiencies, but the discipline on Akagi was much higher then compared to the abysmil performance of Kaga because Akagi's men had the good chef and Kaga's didn't.
I'm not gonna lie, this is my favorite warship of all time. The speed, capacity, and size of her at her time, even today, is a fantastic example of carrier conversion work.
The multiple flight deck level thing may seem like a mistake, but the IJN was on to something, a problem that would later be solved with the angled flight deck, allowing the simultaneous launch and recovery of aircraft we see on modern nuclear-powered supercarriers.
The British originated the idea with HMS Furious. Given the close cooperation between the RN and IJN, that was unquestionably the inspiration. As for it being a good idea, as plane weights and speeds increased, it proved unworkable (like the flight deck catapults on US carriers) and all multideck carriers operated as monodecks by the end of the Thirties
Technically an angled deck can launch and recover at the same time, but you often see them using the foredeck as a parking area during recovery operations. Large strikes often need to land around the same time, so they park them forward or to the side to rearm and refuel, only putting planes that need maintenance down below in the hangar. One tactic the Japanese mastered before the US was the deck-load launch, spotting about half their planes at the rear of the deck and launching them quickly in conjunction with a similarly-spotted twin carrier, then melding the two partial-groups into one strike on the way to the target. That is why Pearl Harbor was "two strikes" but not of the same planes, and when the second strike was launched there were no planes left to form a third strike (aside from a few fighters held back for CAP).
@@colbeausabre8842 Probably inspired by a London bus. I reckon with a bit of a ramp on the upper one to give clearance and some way of assisting launch (like catapults) they could have been spotted in the hangar and rolled out to the lower front deck for takeoff.
So Drach uploads the 5 minute guide to the Akagi on the 80th anniversary of the most significant 5 minutes in naval history. Was this deliberate or an extraordinary coincidence?
Drach mentioned the idea in his video on Midway with Parshall, but said in wargaming it came up with multiple different outcomes. th-cam.com/video/jVhHKPvfL5k/w-d-xo.html
I've watched a lot of videos of this battle and this is the first time I can recall seeing that single shot at 7:15 showing the three carriers on fire while doing evasive turns. Not sure where you dug that up, but that one shot perfectly summarizes the battle of Midway, good job!
It's an incredibly evocative image and one that definitely sums up what happened at Midway, the Kidō Butai was effectively executed in a single stroke.
I have read that the triple flight deck arrangement was considered for the Lexingtons as well. Consider it pure luck that the Lexingtons ended up built as they were. The USN was so short of money that three-decked Lexingtons may not have been rebuilt as Akagi was, and entered the war in that obsolete configuration.
The Lexingtons did get a small refit in the '30s that altered the shape of the bows. Most USN money was going into rebuilding the battleships and building new cruisers and carriers then.
@@gregorywright4918 Lexington's forward flight deck was squared up in 37. I don't think Sara had it's forward deck squared up until early 42. The last of the old BBs to be rebuilt were the New Mexicos in 1930-31. The Tennessees and Colorados received minimal updates, until damage from December 7th offered an excuse to rebuild some of them. Yorktown, Enterprise and Wasp were built with money from an industrial recovery program, as they required all new steel, all new machinery, and the work was contracted to private yards. That money would probably have not been available to modernize existing ships in Navy Yards, because modernizations would not require as much new material, so would not do as much to get industry moving again.
All the fault of Furious, Glorious & Courageous, whose designs were published by both Jane and the successor to Brassey before they were ready to re-commission. Multiple flight decks seemed the sensible way to go, the way of the future. i mean, the Royal navy was doing it....
@@cat-tj1xk Yet said obsolete ships - barring the Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah - came back. Still worth a nat 10 but the non-sunk ships had rolled a nat 10 of their own for a damage save.
Rolled a 12 and reached 15 with the bonuses and met the DC for a success. But it was not overwhelming because, while they scored hits on all their enemy's ogres, their dragons were in another lair and subsequently awoke from the tumult.
It's an ironically funny thing that as you look more and more at the Pacific War you realise more and more how much of a tactical and strategic failure the attack on Pearl actually was. When you start you think "look at all those ships and planes they sunk or knocked out!". As you get more familiar with things you realise most of those ships and planes were repaired or replaced, and or didn't or wouldn't have made much difference either way, none of the major/vital infrastructure of Pearl was damaged or destroyed, the Lexington class Carriers who were the primary targets weren't present, and the timing of the attack only managed to add salt what wounds the US had sustained that galvanised their fury.
There's an interesting "what if" raised by several writers on the subject. The 1,000 bomb and the subsequent inferno was indeed serious, but the complication that truly doomed the ship was a near miss astern that disabled her steering gear.
I think the biggest issue would have remained - the loss of her battle hardened aviators, that would have crippled her effectiveness as a weapon regardless of if she had gone down here.
This carrier looks like someone planted posts on the deck of a ship, then put the flight deck on top of it... which is probably what they did, being a conversion. In comparison, the Lexingtons look much better finished and less of jury rigged affaire (speaking purely about look and feel)
The real impressive thing is that despite being a conversion and a highly experimental one at that, Akagi was able to operate as a full-function fleet carrier right up to its destruction. A lot of carriers of similar age to her were functionally useless or being second-lined due to inability to operate the latest aircraft in viable numbers, but not Akagi. A real testament to what engineers can achieve.
@@genericpersonx333 Pretty much all the battlecruiser conversions could say the same. The Lexingtons and the Courageous class trio were all quite capable early-war carriers. The early non-capital conversions and purpose builds suffered from size issues, it took a lot longer to figure out how to make a functional light carrier than a fleet carrier.
I suppose the scuttle put out the fires before they did real structural damage and the area around midway had very little traffic in the decades following ww2 as it became less and less important
Yokosuka Japan is a very interesting - and historic place. I was stationed on a ship "home-ported" there in the 1980's - USS Blue Ridge (the ship being still home ported there). The Japanese pronounce the place's name with such a fleeting bit of the "U" in Yokosuka - that consequently, most Americans there don't even pronounce the "u". "Yokosuka" comes out as something that would rhyme with "Alaska" (phonetically "Yokoska") even with the fleeting bit of "u" that IS pronounced by the Japanese there.
It's because the "s" and "k" sounds before and after the "u" are non-voiced consonant sounds, meaning they're produced only by mouth and tongue shapes without using the vocal cords. In Japanese, when there's a vowel between two non-voiced consonant sounds or at the end of a word with a non-voiced consonant right before it, it can be shortened or left out of the pronunciation of the word entirely. That's why you get "YoKOska" instead of "YokoSUka."
@@WALTERBROADDUS he could just simply limit the number of specific photos to avoid that, if someone can make a video of a chibi NJ dancing on actual NJ then I don’t see how drach couldn’t use some imagery for an educational video
All that hard work, all the money, all the history, gone in a flash as one determined pilot, Dick Best, flying one rugged little plane, an SBD dive bomber, dropped one bomb dead center on the flight deck, which penetrated below, exploding among parked planes, loose bombs and torpedos, and fuel lines, causing an uncontrollable inferno.
Akagi: We shall hit Midway and lure out the American carriers. (At Pearl Harbour) Yorktown: Sisters it’s hunting season. Enterprise: Fox Season. Yorktown: Rabbit Season. Hornet: Squirrel. Yorktown and Enterprise: Damnit Hornet.
@@Big_E_Soul_Fragment If Hornet’s air group didn’t derp off. Then chances are the Cranes would have been mauled to. If the still derp off then that was dodging a bullet.
@@contentsdiffer5958 I choose to believe that you're lying out of my own sheer jealousy due to the fact that I've still not got them after 100 attempts with 1000 more likely to go
Her surviving crew did not fare well. In a desperate bid to prevent any news of its catastrophic defeat from getting out, the IJM ordered all survivors distributed amongst the fleet. They were subsequently denied any leave and their mail was strictly censored. Few survived the war. The wounded were isolated in great secrecy while being treated. The rest of the world of course knew about their defeat right away. But these measures were strictly for domestic purposes. Even the Army was not officially told of the defeat for close to a year.
Drydock question. During the recent Midway anniversary video it was mentioned that one Japanese admiral had called for ending offensives ahead of midway and committing fully to defending the perimeter they had at that time. Had this admiral somehow managed to win favor with Admiral Yamamoto, how do you see the pacific war progressing at that point?
Switching to a defensive posture would mean surrendering the initiative for no reason, so it was never gonna happen. But if it did, it would probably still result in a decisive Midway-style American victory as the US would launch a concentrated offensive against some fraction of the now spread out Japanese navy. Or if the US was proportionally too weak to launch an offensive, it would just mean a lull for another 6-12 months until the Essex Class comes online and then the Japanese navy would be destroyed. A defensively minded Pacific War is entirely in the American interest, as it buys time for the war mobilization to kick in.
As it was, what would the Japanese have done after Midway, even if they had taken the atoll? Staging a hit and run attack on Hawaii was one thing, but staging a full scale invasion there would have been extremely difficult and very hard to sustain logistically. Midway, itself, would have been difficult to support without a large permanent fleet and then how would that fleet be supplied, not to mention being protected from submarine attack? The Japanese needed to destroy the USN carriers and then concentrate on building up their fleet and air arm to defend their perimeter while the Americans recovered. Another speculative question is what would have happened in the Solomons if the Japanese still had six fleet carriers? Would the Guadalcanal campaign have even been launched?
@@lawrencewestby9229 taking Midway is not hard. Holding it is. You're talkin about a place has no High Ground or Jungle. No natural water source. Limited defense Force. As for Guadalcanal? If the Allies lose Midway? Hard to pull off Guadalcanal at all.
@@WALTERBROADDUS Not it isn't. It's worthless in terms of neutralizing any US bases "Well," you say, "the Japanese could use Midway as an advance base and establish air supremacy over Hawaii from there." There are two problems with this. First, Midway makes a miserable advance base. It is about the size of a postage stamp, has no fresh water, is possessed of only a relatively small harbor, and has room for but one small airfield. At best it could operate an air contingent of about 90-100 aircraft. In other words, there was absolutely no chance of using Midway as the sort of major logistics center (a la Truk or Rabaul) for further operations down the Hawaiian chain. Midway was, at best, an outpost. Second, Midway is too far from Hawaii. Even if the Japanese had been able to install an airgroup at Midway, and keep it supplied, it had no chance of exerting a powerful influence on Hawaii, since it is nearly 1,300 miles from Oahu. During the Solomons campaign, the Japanese (who had the longest-ranged fighter in the Pacific in the A6M5 Zero) found it nearly impossible to exert air power from Rabaul to Guadalcanal, which was 650 miles away. By itself, then, Midway was useless as an advance base. If Hawaii's airpower was to be reduced, and Oahu taken, then the Japanese would have to do it using carrier-borne airpower and seaborne troops -- a virtual impossibility for all the reasons just discussed" www.combinedfleet.com/pearlops.htm
Langley, Argus, Hermes, Joffre, Houshou, Graf Zepplin, are my favorite carriers, Joffre being the least known of most carriers, even Unryuu is more known
Joffre's offset flight deck (making room for an unusually large island) was certainly an interesting feature. A pity she wasn't completed to see whether this had any advantages or disadvantages in practice.
Admiral: Who been eating all of my baxuite?! Akagi: ...... *hiding a bucket of bauxite behind her back, not chewing the one already inside of her mouth*
@@JuanJoseMárquez-b5j kantai collection. kc's akagi has the infamy of eating up your resources due to a bug in the game at the beggining and she being the first fleet carrier you get
@@estebangrafeuille9111 So it was a bug then. And here I thought it was related to some historical preferences where her real life counterpart (IJN Akagi) could be notorious to consume as much fuel and resources per one mission
Japan was a formidable fighting force, and hopefully will again take her place among the democracies of the world. It would be interesting to know if the signalman in the opening credits is still alive, or what became of him.
@@zap265 I'm not complaining, it just seems odd that a famous ship like this took so long. I'm pretty sure Drach covered IJN Light carriers before Akagi and Kaga.
I am guessing the timing of this release was very deliberate, given today's date, the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway... ...HMS Splendidly Done, indeed!
My father served on the Little Rock cruiser in 1962. It would be cool if I could show him your video and tell him I asked for it. Thanks... either way. 😀
A Real and Ture Example of the Early Challenges Design Staffs encountered. Show Casing the need Early in the Naval Air for refitting and major design changes.
I find it highly Ironic that had Akagi kept her orginal triple deck design, she may have gotten off her strike group on the US carriers intime. Waiting for the Midway strike group to land had cost precious time.
If you mean the stern of Akagi's flight deck, it did have a bit of a downturn. Unlike US carriers, they never parked planes on this section of the deck. The idea was to provide a slight uphill section to slow planes down after landing. I think this is mentioned in one section of "Shattered Sword".
The middle part of the deck is higher than fore and aft, which was part of original design to help planes decelerate when land on aft while accelerating when taking off on forward. The rebuild did not smooth it all out, and added an extension on the rear to catch planes coming in too low.
Never forget indeed, but you know for sure there are still americans and bongs that still spew vitrol and hatred for japanese and german sailors even 80 years on
Wow. I noticed the time when I watched this video: June 6 10:20am, at about the time the Dauntlesses pushed over on their dives 80 years ago. ( I know it's local time, but still.)
I would love to go diving on these wrecks. It should be possible to dive on 3 or 4 of these carriers and I believe them to be on fairly shallow water, not much more than 30 metres if I'm right.
Er, the wreck of the Akagi was discovered at a depth of 5280 meters. Presumably the other Midway wrecks lie at about the same depth. Needless to say, you ain't gonna scuba dive to them.
Q and A are you still planning on doing the bombers which flew from the Essex class? Are you planning to do a similar series on HMS Furious or another long service ship?
How about pre dreadnaught Zrinyi? My grandfather was a member of the (USN) crew that served on her in Split for a year. I would like to know more about her.
Any idea why the Akagi lost 4 guns (from the twin turrets) during her Refit while the Kaga just added them in Barbettes by the other 6 guns (3 to a side became 5 to a side)?
Learning more about the heavily stymied Germany carrier program during WW2, I wondered if the Japanese in another universe provided even an escort carrier to the Kriegsmarine how much it would have affected the war (probably not much)
The downturned funnel used a water-injection system to cool the stack gasses, which might be the white vapor you see. I suspect the smaller vertical funnel was only used for max-speed evolutions.
Wasn’t it 4/10 carriers that got destroyed? The US lost Hornet (I always get Coral Sea and Midway mixed up) Most of the major naval battles seemed to be Allied victories, though to be fair, the US could’ve just made more carriers so...
Coral Sea-Shoho and Lexington. Midway-Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu and Yorktown. Eastern Solomons-Ryujo Santa Cruz-Hornet. Philippine Sea-Shokaku, Taiho and Hiyo. Cape Engano-Zuikaku, Chiyoda, Chitose and Zuiho.
Glauber.........It *does* take a while to build a fleet of 20+ Essex class carriers. The losses at Coral Sea, Midway, and Santa Cruz were extremely important. After losing Lexington, Yorktown, Hornet, and Wasp and with Saratoga in and out of port for repairs , at one time the U.S. had essentially one operational carrier available.
7:56 - And, unlike many other shipwrecks of the Pacific War, is likely to stay in good condition for a while, it being rather difficult for illegal scrappers to scavenge a wreck from waters 18,000 feet deep.
![ทุกครั้งที่หลับตา (Lucid Dream) - AYLA's [ Official MV ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4i1OBAQyv58/mqdefault.jpg)
Pinned post for Q&A :)
Why IJN didn't developed triple gun turrets for their battleships before the Yamato sisters?
Why would the Japanese leave crew aboard when they are about to scuttle her.
@@Aelxi 3rd gun adds complexity to a complex system. More displacement, people, power lifts, etc. Etc.
@@ligh7foo7 the order to abandon ship had already been given. Anyone still aboard was trapped below deck.
@@BlaBla-pf8mf once again this comes up. Ships are not tanks. And the rules of design and weapons do not carry over.
“Sino-Japanese War: late 1930s Edition”
This is why this is one of my favourite channels
Drach is awesome
I would of said the 2nd Sino-Japanese war but that was better.
Known in China and perhaps most of Asia as the Japanese Fascist Invasion, which was quite bloody indeed. Japan was also on the offensive side versus the Qing Dynasty and the Russian, but those wars mostly inflicted casualties and dmg on the military aspects.
The Drach snark is God-level at times
The very striking aerial photo at @7:07 of AKAGI, KAGA, and SORYU all burning after the 1020 attack is, in fact, one of a series of battle dioramas created for LIFE magazine by Norman Bel Geddes during the war, based on eyewitness accounts and photographs. For a long time, I had thought this was a bonafide photo taken by an American aviator. A testament to Geddes' great artistic skill.
I was just going to post about this. Very talented guy.
I sure wish Drach would put captions on the pictures!
@@Trebuchet48 Most of his photos come from public sources, often national archives, which do not have the best labeling to being with and are sometimes labeled wrongly.
Wow. I had to go back and look at it a second time to see it. And I could only tell by looking at the nearest smoke plume!
He was also the father of actress Barbara Bel Geddes, who played Miss Ellie, the matriarch of the Ewing family in "Dallas".
Automatic translation.
Japan's Tsuburaya Productions, famous for Ultraman, is renowned for its special effects technology, and even during the war, they used special effects to create newsreel footage
After the defeat of the war, when they were questioned about the source of these images
I said, "These are special effects images, not real images.
GHQ did not believe him.
Akagi the ship with the most interesting and imposing smokestack i have ever witnessed. Looks so futuristic
Ever seen the Kaga?
@@joshwindle1022 That was my thought, too. "How long can we make 'em?"
Looks more steampunk then futuristic 2 me.
The triple-flight deck and down-trunked funnel really give her more of a spaceship look, like something from Homeworld.
@@dcbadger2 Check space battleship Yamato, in that anime there are Multi deck carriers that looks like Akagi lol
Akagi and Kaga were also major inspitations for the tri-deck-carriers of the anime Space Battleship Yamato. ^^
Lambea also sports a pair of triple turrets in the same spot as Akagi's original double turrets in 2205 which was a nice touch.
And her CO being who he is, she used them quite extensively.
The episode where they were featured is one of my favourite part of 2199, i've replayed it so many times.
@@teknonaught Yeah, that was the fighter battle in the Rainbow Nebula was it?
@@teknonaught She also appears in the Voyage of the Celestial Ark movie, and the 2205 series.
Her skipper, who I am not naming, actually commanded a Andromeda class (carrier variant) in 2202.
@@LtCWest aka 'Midway in space, but Japan wins this time" XD
Akagi and her crew were very interesting. I'd advise anyone who has the chance to look into them to do so.
random funfact: Akagi at the time was known in the Japanese Navy as having the best cooks in the whole fleet (though that title is somewhat contested with Houshou and Yamato) and in a twist of irony (or poetry ) her sinker: USS Enterprise was regarded in the US navy as having the best cooks in the fleet (at least in the pre/early war period).
So it was more a cooking contest than a battle between aircraft carriers. And Akagi got roasted by the critics.
@@mattguellec pretty much
It just goes to show that feeding your troops properly gives them more motivation than giving them flavored sawdust masquerading as rations.
@@Maddog3060 hell, another fun fact: both Akagi and Kaga were horrid working environments due to design deficiencies, but the discipline on Akagi was much higher then compared to the abysmil performance of Kaga because Akagi's men had the good chef and Kaga's didn't.
two kitchen staff enter, one kitchen staff leaves
I'm not gonna lie, this is my favorite warship of all time.
The speed, capacity, and size of her at her time, even today, is a fantastic example of carrier conversion work.
The multiple flight deck level thing may seem like a mistake, but the IJN was on to something, a problem that would later be solved with the angled flight deck, allowing the simultaneous launch and recovery of aircraft we see on modern nuclear-powered supercarriers.
The British originated the idea with HMS Furious. Given the close cooperation between the RN and IJN, that was unquestionably the inspiration.
As for it being a good idea, as plane weights and speeds increased, it proved unworkable (like the flight deck catapults on US carriers) and all multideck carriers operated as monodecks by the end of the Thirties
Technically an angled deck can launch and recover at the same time, but you often see them using the foredeck as a parking area during recovery operations. Large strikes often need to land around the same time, so they park them forward or to the side to rearm and refuel, only putting planes that need maintenance down below in the hangar.
One tactic the Japanese mastered before the US was the deck-load launch, spotting about half their planes at the rear of the deck and launching them quickly in conjunction with a similarly-spotted twin carrier, then melding the two partial-groups into one strike on the way to the target. That is why Pearl Harbor was "two strikes" but not of the same planes, and when the second strike was launched there were no planes left to form a third strike (aside from a few fighters held back for CAP).
@@colbeausabre8842 Probably inspired by a London bus. I reckon with a bit of a ramp on the upper one to give clearance and some way of assisting launch (like catapults) they could have been spotted in the hangar and rolled out to the lower front deck for takeoff.
So Drach uploads the 5 minute guide to the Akagi on the 80th anniversary of the most significant 5 minutes in naval history.
Was this deliberate or an extraordinary coincidence?
I am certain, given Drach's utter disregard for pre-1920 Admiral Beatty, that it was well and truly planned!
There are no accidents -Master Oogway 😁🐢
That near night time encounter with Warspite would make an interesting alternative history episode
was thinking the same thing
Drach mentioned the idea in his video on Midway with Parshall, but said in wargaming it came up with multiple different outcomes.
th-cam.com/video/jVhHKPvfL5k/w-d-xo.html
I've watched a lot of videos of this battle and this is the first time I can recall seeing that single shot at 7:15 showing the three carriers on fire while doing evasive turns. Not sure where you dug that up, but that one shot perfectly summarizes the battle of Midway, good job!
That's actually a picture of a very detailed diorama!
@@daxtr5 Thank you for explaining it. I was really confused as to why I’d never seen it, either.
They were diorama's made for Life Magazine for the battle for it's readers.
It's an incredibly evocative image and one that definitely sums up what happened at Midway, the Kidō Butai was effectively executed in a single stroke.
I have read that the triple flight deck arrangement was considered for the Lexingtons as well. Consider it pure luck that the Lexingtons ended up built as they were. The USN was so short of money that three-decked Lexingtons may not have been rebuilt as Akagi was, and entered the war in that obsolete configuration.
Yikes! I'm glad they didn't!
The Lexingtons did get a small refit in the '30s that altered the shape of the bows. Most USN money was going into rebuilding the battleships and building new cruisers and carriers then.
@@gregorywright4918 Lexington's forward flight deck was squared up in 37. I don't think Sara had it's forward deck squared up until early 42. The last of the old BBs to be rebuilt were the New Mexicos in 1930-31. The Tennessees and Colorados received minimal updates, until damage from December 7th offered an excuse to rebuild some of them. Yorktown, Enterprise and Wasp were built with money from an industrial recovery program, as they required all new steel, all new machinery, and the work was contracted to private yards. That money would probably have not been available to modernize existing ships in Navy Yards, because modernizations would not require as much new material, so would not do as much to get industry moving again.
All the fault of Furious, Glorious & Courageous, whose designs were published by both Jane and the successor to Brassey before they were ready to re-commission. Multiple flight decks seemed the sensible way to go, the way of the future. i mean, the Royal navy was doing it....
Can’t believe it’s been 80 years since the world last saw her in her complete un-wrecked state…
I can believe it
I certainly can believe it
80 years today!
A life time for many, some may say
I mean I can.
Also to be noted: Akagi was the largest ship in the IJN fleet before the two Yamato's were commissioned
*Akagi rolls Nat 20 on Pearl Harbor*
*Akagi rolls Nat 01 on Midway*
Marcy: Nat 20 baby.
more like a nat 10 on pearl harbour, all they did was sink obsolete ships
@@cat-tj1xk Yet said obsolete ships - barring the Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah - came back. Still worth a nat 10 but the non-sunk ships had rolled a nat 10 of their own for a damage save.
Rolled a 12 and reached 15 with the bonuses and met the DC for a success. But it was not overwhelming because, while they scored hits on all their enemy's ogres, their dragons were in another lair and subsequently awoke from the tumult.
It's an ironically funny thing that as you look more and more at the Pacific War you realise more and more how much of a tactical and strategic failure the attack on Pearl actually was.
When you start you think "look at all those ships and planes they sunk or knocked out!".
As you get more familiar with things you realise most of those ships and planes were repaired or replaced, and or didn't or wouldn't have made much difference either way, none of the major/vital infrastructure of Pearl was damaged or destroyed, the Lexington class Carriers who were the primary targets weren't present, and the timing of the attack only managed to add salt what wounds the US had sustained that galvanised their fury.
My beloved shipfu!
U r cultured 😊
Ahhhh the flashbacks of the fox mines.
Akagi guide, loving it! ❤
The Queen of the Kido Butai. 👑
RIP Your Highness.
Lovely👌 loving all these japanese ships coming out recently, thankyou
Awesome. One of my favorite IJN ships
Akagi: I am pride of IJN and no one can stop me
Richard Best: Observe
There's an interesting "what if" raised by several writers on the subject. The 1,000 bomb and the subsequent inferno was indeed serious, but the complication that truly doomed the ship was a near miss astern that disabled her steering gear.
I think the biggest issue would have remained - the loss of her battle hardened aviators, that would have crippled her effectiveness as a weapon regardless of if she had gone down here.
Precise as always, Drach. Always enjoy your vids first thing in the morning here in the states. (raises a cup of coffee in salute)
thanks on making a video of my favourite aircraft carrier.
I'm astonished the Akagi managed to wait this long...
Lovely early carrier. I really enjoy the innovative IJN.
What was innovative about it? Multi decks? Casemate guns? Both on HMS Furious before Akagi launched
@@colbeausabre8842 lol, calm down limey
Despite her grisly demise, it at least gave rise to one of history's greatest duo/rivalry between her and Enty.
I was thinking it was Enterprise vs Shokaku & Zuikaku...
@@gregorywright4918 1942 carrier battles were for the most part. Shokakus vs Yorktowns.
@@ph89787 Well at least it was post Midway. After Guadalcanal, it was everyone vs Enterprise.
I’m afraid not. That rivalry would be Enterprise and the Kaku twins, specifically Zuikaku
Azur lane references?
This carrier looks like someone planted posts on the deck of a ship, then put the flight deck on top of it... which is probably what they did, being a conversion.
In comparison, the Lexingtons look much better finished and less of jury rigged affaire (speaking purely about look and feel)
I think they're both beautiful in their own ways.
The real impressive thing is that despite being a conversion and a highly experimental one at that, Akagi was able to operate as a full-function fleet carrier right up to its destruction. A lot of carriers of similar age to her were functionally useless or being second-lined due to inability to operate the latest aircraft in viable numbers, but not Akagi. A real testament to what engineers can achieve.
@@genericpersonx333 Pretty much all the battlecruiser conversions could say the same. The Lexingtons and the Courageous class trio were all quite capable early-war carriers.
The early non-capital conversions and purpose builds suffered from size issues, it took a lot longer to figure out how to make a functional light carrier than a fleet carrier.
Very distinctive. No problem with recognition/identification here.
Along with Kaga, they are most beautiful ships I ever see
I suppose the scuttle put out the fires before they did real structural damage and the area around midway had very little traffic in the decades following ww2 as it became less and less important
Thanks for finally doing a vid on this awesome ship!
Good Olde Bauxite Queen herself.
My favorite ship from KanColle
*ALL HAIL THE BAUXITE QUEEN*
i can feel my bauxite reserves trembling
The Midway talk was superb!
Between her and Hiryu, both have to be the best looking Japanese carriers.
Yeah, I've always thought Akagi (post refit) looked great
I like all the pre ww2 IJN carriers, but Zuikaku is my favorite (both in design and career)
The three-deck Akagi is so awesome.
Kind of hints of being a sleek cruise ship.
It was used to create the Gamilian carriers in Space Battleship Yamato.
She and her crew had a good run. No doubt about it.
Thank you, Drachinifel.
Always interesting!
Poor Amagi.
A familiar story, well told
Most impressively done too.
Perfect timing for this ship.
Yokosuka Japan is a very interesting - and historic place. I was stationed on a ship "home-ported" there in the 1980's - USS Blue Ridge (the ship being still home ported there). The Japanese pronounce the place's name with such a fleeting bit of the "U" in Yokosuka - that consequently, most Americans there don't even pronounce the "u". "Yokosuka" comes out as something that would rhyme with "Alaska" (phonetically "Yokoska") even with the fleeting bit of "u" that IS pronounced by the Japanese there.
It's because the "s" and "k" sounds before and after the "u" are non-voiced consonant sounds, meaning they're produced only by mouth and tongue shapes without using the vocal cords. In Japanese, when there's a vowel between two non-voiced consonant sounds or at the end of a word with a non-voiced consonant right before it, it can be shortened or left out of the pronunciation of the word entirely. That's why you get "YoKOska" instead of "YokoSUka."
Quite an efficient ship, she was !
Very efficient at burning and sinking
@@colbeausabre8842 you could say that about Lexington, Yorktown and Hornet as well.
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
The red castle was an impressive vessel nonetheless.
good morning Akagi
Another great one!! Thanks
Any chance you can do a series showing pictures of wrecks on the bottom? Or a series on museum ships?
While that sounds simple, you get into copyright issues with the producers of those photos. They have channels too.
@@WALTERBROADDUS he could just simply limit the number of specific photos to avoid that, if someone can make a video of a chibi NJ dancing on actual NJ then I don’t see how drach couldn’t use some imagery for an educational video
@@d.olivergutierrez8690 he's still just a one-man operation working with 52 weeks in a year.
All that hard work, all the money, all the history, gone in a flash as one determined pilot, Dick Best, flying one rugged little plane, an SBD dive bomber, dropped one bomb dead center on the flight deck, which penetrated below, exploding among parked planes, loose bombs and torpedos, and fuel lines, causing an uncontrollable inferno.
Akagi: I fear no man but that THING
*Richard Best shows up*
Akagi: It scares me
Akagi: We shall hit Midway and lure out the American carriers.
(At Pearl Harbour)
Yorktown: Sisters it’s hunting season.
Enterprise: Fox Season.
Yorktown: Rabbit Season.
Hornet: Squirrel.
Yorktown and Enterprise: Damnit Hornet.
@@ph89787 Good thing the cranes didn't show up on the party
@@Big_E_Soul_Fragment If Hornet’s air group didn’t derp off. Then chances are the Cranes would have been mauled to. If the still derp off then that was dodging a bullet.
I'd be scared of him to!
Ah yes, Richard Dick, also known as the (Best) Dick.
Drach: makes a video about Akagi
Azur Lane players in the Fox Mines: *intense PTSD*
@@contentsdiffer5958 I choose to believe that you're lying out of my own sheer jealousy due to the fact that I've still not got them after 100 attempts with 1000 more likely to go
@@chadthundercock5641 I just got mine, and I've farmed for her for a few months
@@polomat14 Only just got Kaga after only 2 weeks. I feel like I should play the lottery
When your Best is enough!
OWARI DA Akagi your 6 months have expired
Azur Lane Akagi: "NO THE SKIPPER IS MINNNNNEEE"
a fitting one for today !
Her surviving crew did not fare well. In a desperate bid to prevent any news of its catastrophic defeat from getting out, the IJM ordered all survivors distributed amongst the fleet. They were subsequently denied any leave and their mail was strictly censored. Few survived the war. The wounded were isolated in great secrecy while being treated. The rest of the world of course knew about their defeat right away. But these measures were strictly for domestic purposes. Even the Army was not officially told of the defeat for close to a year.
Sounds like Russia's Kyiv Occupation Force...
great video
3 flight decks sounds so awesome...
Great day to make this video
Wow, you jammed the Akagi into just 8 minutes, impressive
Drydock question. During the recent Midway anniversary video it was mentioned that one Japanese admiral had called for ending offensives ahead of midway and committing fully to defending the perimeter they had at that time. Had this admiral somehow managed to win favor with Admiral Yamamoto, how do you see the pacific war progressing at that point?
They had to eliminate the threat of future carrier attacks on Japan. The Doolittle raid lead to the Midway operation.
Switching to a defensive posture would mean surrendering the initiative for no reason, so it was never gonna happen. But if it did, it would probably still result in a decisive Midway-style American victory as the US would launch a concentrated offensive against some fraction of the now spread out Japanese navy. Or if the US was proportionally too weak to launch an offensive, it would just mean a lull for another 6-12 months until the Essex Class comes online and then the Japanese navy would be destroyed. A defensively minded Pacific War is entirely in the American interest, as it buys time for the war mobilization to kick in.
As it was, what would the Japanese have done after Midway, even if they had taken the atoll? Staging a hit and run attack on Hawaii was one thing, but staging a full scale invasion there would have been extremely difficult and very hard to sustain logistically. Midway, itself, would have been difficult to support without a large permanent fleet and then how would that fleet be supplied, not to mention being protected from submarine attack? The Japanese needed to destroy the USN carriers and then concentrate on building up their fleet and air arm to defend their perimeter while the Americans recovered.
Another speculative question is what would have happened in the Solomons if the Japanese still had six fleet carriers? Would the Guadalcanal campaign have even been launched?
@@lawrencewestby9229 taking Midway is not hard. Holding it is. You're talkin about a place has no High Ground or Jungle. No natural water source. Limited defense Force. As for Guadalcanal? If the Allies lose Midway? Hard to pull off Guadalcanal at all.
@@WALTERBROADDUS Not it isn't. It's worthless in terms of neutralizing any US bases
"Well," you say, "the Japanese could use Midway as an advance base and establish air supremacy over Hawaii from there." There are two problems with this. First, Midway makes a miserable advance base. It is about the size of a postage stamp, has no fresh water, is possessed of only a relatively small harbor, and has room for but one small airfield. At best it could operate an air contingent of about 90-100 aircraft. In other words, there was absolutely no chance of using Midway as the sort of major logistics center (a la Truk or Rabaul) for further operations down the Hawaiian chain. Midway was, at best, an outpost.
Second, Midway is too far from Hawaii. Even if the Japanese had been able to install an airgroup at Midway, and keep it supplied, it had no chance of exerting a powerful influence on Hawaii, since it is nearly 1,300 miles from Oahu. During the Solomons campaign, the Japanese (who had the longest-ranged fighter in the Pacific in the A6M5 Zero) found it nearly impossible to exert air power from Rabaul to Guadalcanal, which was 650 miles away. By itself, then, Midway was useless as an advance base. If Hawaii's airpower was to be reduced, and Oahu taken, then the Japanese would have to do it using carrier-borne airpower and seaborne troops -- a virtual impossibility for all the reasons just discussed"
www.combinedfleet.com/pearlops.htm
Huh. So that's where they got the inspiration for those Gamilon multi-deck space carriers for Space Battleship Yamato.
Thanks
Wow on the anniversary of Midway
Langley, Argus, Hermes, Joffre, Houshou, Graf Zepplin, are my favorite carriers,
Joffre being the least known of most carriers, even Unryuu is more known
Interesting category
Aircraft carrier Joffrey Baratheon.....
Joffre's offset flight deck (making room for an unusually large island) was certainly an interesting feature. A pity she wasn't completed to see whether this had any advantages or disadvantages in practice.
@@Aelxi
Oh fuck no.
Admiral: Who been eating all of my baxuite?!
Akagi: ...... *hiding a bucket of bauxite behind her back, not chewing the one already inside of her mouth*
kc akagi is one of my favourites
Azur lane?
@@JuanJoseMárquez-b5j kantai collection. kc's akagi has the infamy of eating up your resources due to a bug in the game at the beggining and she being the first fleet carrier you get
@@estebangrafeuille9111 yes, indeed.
@@estebangrafeuille9111
So it was a bug then.
And here I thought it was related to some historical preferences where her real life counterpart (IJN Akagi) could be notorious to consume as much fuel and resources per one mission
Japan was a formidable fighting force, and hopefully will again take her place among the democracies of the world.
It would be interesting to know if the signalman in the opening credits is still alive, or what became of him.
Guide 286, and we're just now getting to Akagi? I'm starting to wonder what other ships fell through the cracks.
Takes time, there are thousands of ships and boats
@@zap265 I'm not complaining, it just seems odd that a famous ship like this took so long. I'm pretty sure Drach covered IJN Light carriers before Akagi and Kaga.
@@LostShipMate it’s so there’s no favoritism or something like that,
Would be my guess
Only 52 weeks in a year..
I am guessing the timing of this release was very deliberate, given today's date, the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway...
...HMS Splendidly Done, indeed!
I always wondered about certain anime that involves space fleets why some of the ships have triple "decks" sticking out the front.
My father served on the Little Rock cruiser in 1962. It would be cool if I could show him your video and tell him I asked for it. Thanks... either way. 😀
A Real and Ture Example of the Early Challenges Design Staffs encountered. Show Casing the need Early in the Naval Air for refitting and major design changes.
The Lexington's had their bow redesigned...
I find it highly Ironic that had Akagi kept her orginal triple deck design, she may have gotten off her strike group on the US carriers intime. Waiting for the Midway strike group to land had cost precious time.
I never saw that photograph of the three carriers burning before today; something new.
That's a photograph of a Diorama.
That's "Yo-KO-ska", Drach. I was stationed there fron 1982-1987.
Ahh yes my beloved akagi
I am puzzled regarding the pitch of the flight deck. Is is an optical illussion or is the deck mostly level apart from the final bit?
If you mean the stern of Akagi's flight deck, it did have a bit of a downturn. Unlike US carriers, they never parked planes on this section of the deck. The idea was to provide a slight uphill section to slow planes down after landing. I think this is mentioned in one section of "Shattered Sword".
The middle part of the deck is higher than fore and aft, which was part of original design to help planes decelerate when land on aft while accelerating when taking off on forward. The rebuild did not smooth it all out, and added an extension on the rear to catch planes coming in too low.
Never forget the sailors that went down with these ships - whatever their nationality.
Not sure why they scuttled her with 267 crew still onboard.
Never forget indeed, but you know for sure there are still americans and bongs that still spew vitrol and hatred for japanese and german sailors even 80 years on
@@distantthunder12ck55 They were probably either already dead or trapped without any hope of rescue.
Wow. I noticed the time when I watched this video: June 6 10:20am, at about the time the Dauntlesses pushed over on their dives 80 years ago. ( I know it's local time, but still.)
I would love to go diving on these wrecks. It should be possible to dive on 3 or 4 of these carriers and I believe them to be on fairly shallow water, not much more than 30 metres if I'm right.
Er, the wreck of the Akagi was discovered at a depth of 5280 meters. Presumably the other Midway wrecks lie at about the same depth. Needless to say, you ain't gonna scuba dive to them.
@@jbepsilon Well you could, you just wouldn't be coming back up.
You may be thinking of the battleships sunk in the Gulf of Thailand, but the water off Midway is thousands of feet deep.
The only prewar carrier that you can dive on is USS Saratoga, she is at Bikini Atoll after being sunk in operation crossroads in 1946.
Can't wait for the Akagi to come in wows as a t8 premium probably costing 17000 dubs since people will want it.
Q and A are you still planning on doing the bombers which flew from the Essex class? Are you planning to do a similar series on HMS Furious or another long service ship?
How about pre dreadnaught Zrinyi?
My grandfather was a member of the (USN) crew that served on her in Split for a year.
I would like to know more about her.
Request an Episode on USS Savannah, CL42. Taking a FritzX in the magazines and walking away. Thank you.
Lovely fox.
Any idea why the Akagi lost 4 guns (from the twin turrets) during her Refit while the Kaga just added them in Barbettes by the other 6 guns (3 to a side became 5 to a side)?
Akagi and Johnston are my two favorite ships from World War II
My son and I have sunk this ship multiple times.
But we use P-38 Lightnings in Capcom’s interactive historical documentary “1943.”
I love sinking the enterprise too!
Interesting
Learning more about the heavily stymied Germany carrier program during WW2, I wondered if the Japanese in another universe provided even an escort carrier to the Kriegsmarine how much it would have affected the war (probably not much)
Looks like the research ship Nautilus has taken lots of pics of Akagi's wreck
Why is there a black cloud seen visible rising from the ship, whereas a white cloud / vapour is ejected along the funnel at 2:55?
Akagi originally had two funnels - a large one pointing downwards and a smaller vertical funnel behind it.
Perhaps "Blowing Tubes" , cleaning the Boiler tubes.
@@Kezardin
Thank you!
@@benwilson6145
Thank you!
The downturned funnel used a water-injection system to cool the stack gasses, which might be the white vapor you see. I suspect the smaller vertical funnel was only used for max-speed evolutions.
"Am I beautiful, commander?"
5:18 What are all those rolled up white things on the island? Mattresses? For what purpose?
Almost! They were the crew's hammocks, they were rolled up and placed at vulnerable points to protect personnel from shrapnel.
I actually have a small display model of that.
Wasn’t it 4/10 carriers that got destroyed? The US lost Hornet (I always get Coral Sea and Midway mixed up)
Most of the major naval battles seemed to be Allied victories, though to be fair, the US could’ve just made more carriers so...
At Midway it was Yorktown that was lost
Coral Sea-Shoho and Lexington.
Midway-Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu and Yorktown.
Eastern Solomons-Ryujo
Santa Cruz-Hornet.
Philippine Sea-Shokaku, Taiho and Hiyo.
Cape Engano-Zuikaku, Chiyoda, Chitose and Zuiho.
Glauber.........It *does* take a while to build a fleet of 20+ Essex class carriers. The losses at Coral Sea, Midway, and Santa Cruz were extremely important. After losing Lexington, Yorktown, Hornet, and Wasp and with Saratoga in and out of port for repairs , at one time the U.S. had essentially one operational carrier available.
@@spikespa5208 Release the Enterprise.
@@spikespa5208 Enterprise v Japan. Sounds like a fair fight!
7:56 - And, unlike many other shipwrecks of the Pacific War, is likely to stay in good condition for a while, it being rather difficult for illegal scrappers to scavenge a wreck from waters 18,000 feet deep.