Wreck of HIJMS Sōryū (蒼龍)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, navy, shipwreck, aircraft carrier

HIJMS Sōryū was the lead ship of her class of Aircraft Carriers designed by the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed from the keel-up as a Carrier in a break with previous IJN Carriers which were converted from Battleships, Seaplane Tenders or commercial vessel hulls. Laid down in November 1934 and commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy in December 1937, the Sōryū caused a major stir in the Western world when she hit 35 knots during her speed trials, making her by far the fastest Aircraft Carrier in the world.

Spending the first years of her service life engaged in training with fast carrier task forces, the Sōryū was assigned to the 1st Air Fleet as the Flagship of Carrier Division 2 in April 1941. After a brief overhaul and upgrade period in September 1941 to prepare her for the coming conflict, the Sōryū put to sea from Yokosuka and arrived at Hitokappu Bay in the Kuriles in November 1941 to join with the other vessels of the Pearl Harbor Strike force. After a brief stopover and final planning session, the Sōryū and the Pearl Harbor Strike Force put to sea on November 27th under strict radio silence. Putting her aircraft aloft at dawn on December 7th, 1941, the Sōryū played her part in the opening battle of the Second World War between Japan and America by sending two waves of aircraft to attack the US Fleet and shore installations on Oahu. Retiring Westward with the rest of the Japanese force during the afternoon of December 7th having achieved total success, the Sōryū steamed for Japan but was diverted on December 16th along with her sistership HIJMS Hiryū (飛龍) to launch airstrikes on Wake Island, which she did from December 21st through the 23rd before continuing onward to Japan where she and her crew received a hero's welcome.

After a brief period of resupply and refit, the Sōryū was assigned to the Southern Carrier Force and departed Kure on January 8th, 1942 bound for combat. During the next four months, the Sōryū operated with Invasion forces in the Palau and Philippine Islands and launched air raids on both Java and Darwin Australia before breaking out into the Indian Ocean on April 3rd to hunt down the British Far Eastern Fleet. In two separate attacks, the Sōryū's airwing shared credit in the sinking of the British Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire, the Destroyer HMS Vampire and Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes, effectively ending any British naval power in the Far East for several years. After moving East to Indochina, the Sōryū was hastily dispatched to hunt down the American Carriers responsible for launching the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, but finding no trace of the Americans she returned to Japan in late April for voyage repairs and to begin training for her next mission in Hawaiian waters; the Invasion of Midway.

Standing out of Hashirajima on May 27th as part of an large Japanese Naval Armada consisting of three other Fleet Carriers, eleven Battleships, thirteen Cruisers, forty five Destroyers and other auxiliaries, the Sōryū and the Carrier Striking Force reached their launch point and at dawn on June 4th, 1942 and sent their first strike aloft to attack Midway Atoll. As the first airstrike made its attack on Midway, the Sōryū's crew received word that American defenses which were already alerted to danger and had been considerably upgraded since the Japanese recon of the island only months prior. As a result, many of the Japanese bombers fell victim to the AA defenses and damage to the American base was minimal. The subpar damage reports prompted Admiral Nagumo to order all Carriers to rearm remaining torpedo and dive bombers on the Carriers with bombs for another strike at Midway.

Aboard Sōryū, crewmen raced to offload torpedoes and reload bombs onto the planes spotted on deck and in her hangar, all of which were either fully fueled or being fueled for their missions. The frantic pace of the work meant no care was taken to properly store the considerable amount of weaponry now on deck, and the arrival of American B-17's and TBD Devastator's at 0830hrs only worsened the situation as the Sōryū and the rest of the fleet began making violent evasive maneuvers to avoid the B-17's bombs and onrushing torpedo bombers. Though American attacks continued in waves for over an hour, no ships were damaged and the majority of the aircraft were chased off or shot down by highly experienced Japanese pilots providing air cover. With the threat of American aircraft winding down shortly before 1000hrs as the last B-17s withdrew, the Sōryū returned to her base course and prepared to send her second airstrike aloft.

The Sōryū completed her turn and her crew prepared her decks to launch aircraft when lookouts spotted the first of thirteen American SBD dive-bombers coming straight down onto the ship. With almost no warning of the attack, the Sōryū's crew was all but powerless to stop plane after plane from releasing its bombload onto the carrier. The first of three 500lb bombs struck the Sōryū directly on her forward elevator, punching through the platform and exploding among several fully fueled and armed planes. The second and third 500lb bombs landed abreast of the aft elevator with one exploding in the upper hangar and the other tearing into the lower hangar before detonating, both among mission-ready aircraft. Within minutes, several large fires began rapidly spreading throughout both ends of the Sōryū, fed by ample amounts of gasoline pouring out of damaged aircraft. Damage control teams quickly moved to combat the fires in the Sōryū's hangars as her Captain brought her broadside to the wind to help contain the spread of the flames, but as many of her crew got into position within her upper and lower hangars the Sōryū was rocked by several large explosions from gas vapors and torpedo warheads. Most of the crew in the hangars did not survive the series of explosions which ripped through the ship, and by 1040hrs the engineering crew abandoned their station bringing the Sōryū to a stop, heavily aflame. With the fires below and on deck out of control and getting worse, the Sōryū was ordered abandoned at 1045hrs and set adrift.

Wracked by numerous explosions and burning from stem to Stern, the Sōryū remained defiantly afloat through the day on June 4th as the Battle of Midway raged. As the Japanese Fleet withdrew to reorganize, the drifting hulk of the Sōryū was ordered scuttled at 1900hrs. The Destroyer HIJMS Isokaze (磯風) was dispatched to the task, but after quickly determining she was too dangerous to board and scuttle with charges, she sent three torpedoes into the Veteran Carrier at 1913hrs which sent her to the bottom Stern-first at this location three minutes later on June 4th, 1942. 711 of her crew including her Captain went down with the ship. Owing largely to the loss of life in her hangar decks, the loss of Sōryū's crew was the highest loss of life among the Japanese Carrier force during the Battle of Midway.

www.combinedfleet.com/soryu.htm