How the Japanese Carriers were so effective

[dexter]

 

[bananarepublic]

The title should be effectiveness of Japanese carriers in early times of war

 

[hasnainfirst]

Could be , but US airpower was overwhelming in ww2 , and that's what led to the destruction of Jap Fleet , even their strongest Battleship Yamato was lost due to an air raid ...

 

[bananarepublic]

Could be , but US airpower was overwhelming in ww2 , and that's what led to the destruction of Jap Fleet , even their strongest Battleship Yamato was lost due to an air raid ...

It was mainly because they lost a huge chunk of their carriers in the battle of midway while the US had the capability to replace their ships with two new one the Japanese did not have the available recourses to replace any lost ships.
This led to an eventual downfall of Japanese navy as with time their whole armament either was to less or obsolete while the US navy increased in size and newer technology Gabe them an edge over the Japanese in late periods of the pacific theater

 

[dexter]

It was mainly because they lost a huge chunk of their carriers in the battle of midway while the US had the capability to replace their ships with two new one the Japanese did not have the available recourses to replace any lost ships.
This led to an eventual downfall of Japanese navy as with time their whole armament either was to less or obsolete while the US navy increased in size and newer technology Gabe them an edge over the Japanese in late periods of the pacific theater

The lost of equipment wasn't the main problem although it was to some extent later in the war but lost of well-trained and experienced pilots in battle of Mid-way and Japan never recovered from that.
Battle of Philippines Sea was a clear example of despite many clear chances, the Japanese carrier fleet was unable to destroy a large chunk of US Navy carriers and aircrafts.

 

[Arulmozhi Varman]

The lost of equipment wasn't the main problem although it was to some extent later in the war but lost of well-trained and experienced pilots in battle of Mid-way and Japan never recovered from that.
Battle of Philippines Sea was a clear example of despite many clear chances, the Japanese carrier fleet was unable to destroy a large chunk of US Navy carriers and aircrafts.

He is right. Japan was under an embargo of almost all natural resources and it didnt find it easy to find steel or iron ores to replace warships destroyed. Americans didnt have that issue.

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

He is right. Japan was under an embargo of almost all natural resources and it didnt find it easy to find steel or iron ores to replace warships destroyed. Americans didnt have that issue.

Japan occupied China and Indonesia. Japan had no shortage of iron ore and crude oil.

 

[Nein]

Japan occupied China and Indonesia. Japan had no shortage of iron ore and crude oil.

Due to the Oil embargo that the Japanese had to conquer Indonesia.

It was too little too late for Japan to maxinise the potential of its resources.

Japan could have won the short term war against the USA but in the long run they were screwed.

On topic with its carriers the Japanese wasted all their resources on building useless battleships like the Yamato and Musashi.

The winning key for the Americans was airpower and supplementing of naval forces. With the money of the yamato they could have built more ships especially lighter destroyers and battlecruisers rather than some huge behemoth.

 

[Georg]

Could be , but US airpower was overwhelming in ww2 , and that's what led to the destruction of Jap Fleet , even their strongest Battleship Yamato was lost due to an air raid ...

the topic about Midways is not that easy....

what sunk the Japanese carrier at Midway was..

US code brakeing success
US pure luck
Japanese carrier doctrine
Japanese bad luck with operation K... a long range reccon with two airplans to see if US carrier are in Hawai ... just because a US ship was in the near of the meeting point with a submarine for refueling this operation was stoped...
The battle of the Coral Sea... were Japan lost only one small carrier but the Shokaku was heavly damaged and not able to join the attack on Midway and the other carrier was nearly stripped of all planes and trained pilots at the battel of the Coral Sea...

So they attacked Midway with 4 not 6 carrier as it was planed... huge disadvantage in number of avaible planes
They did not know that the US carrier were not in Hawai because of failed operation K
The doctrin of the Japanese carrier did not allow lunching attacks if the carrier is under attack, only fighter for defence are allowed to start and land... this ruined the time windows of the attacking carries to a some minutes joke to make any desissions
Bad luck that the US carrier were exactly in the spotting window of a recconission plane that start was hold up by technical problems for 30minutes.... plus no matter how good japanese carrier pilots were trained... Midway battle showed that they were totaly unable to id enemy ships correctly... the first spotting of the US carrier was id as destroyer with supply ship escort...how could a leader make correct dessicion on fail reports?

The worst part of all... the US exactly know that Yamamoto want to attack Midway... so they were prepared.

Pure luck for the US Navy... because of the japanese carrier doctrin not to luch a attack if under attack..all Japanese carrier were in the hanger filled with flight ready planes filled up with fuel ammo and torpedo and bombs.

As the dive bomber arrived the japanese carrier were striped of a organised air defence ...because the zerror fighter were hunting the returning US planes from the attack befor.. the attack also shows that the Flak defence of the japanese carrier was shit... the US needed only a few hits to sink three of the four carriers within minutes...

sometimes life is hard..one has all the luck

At that day Luck was only on US side

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Due to the Oil embargo that the Japanese had to conquer Indonesia.

Japan fully controlled Manchuria. Manchuria has a huge oilfield called Daqing oil field.

 

[Nein]

Japan fully controlled Manchuria. Manchuria has a huge oilfield called Daqing oil field.

Thirst for oil never ends the Japanese needed more and more to power up its industrial base and navy

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

It was mainly because they lost a huge chunk of their carriers in the battle of midway while the US had the capability to replace their ships with two new one the Japanese did not have the available recourses to replace any lost ships.
This led to an eventual downfall of Japanese navy as with time their whole armament either was to less or obsolete while the US navy increased in size and newer technology Gabe them an edge over the Japanese in late periods of the pacific theater

The Japanese strategy of massing aircraft carriers and attack planes was not a bad idea. Unfortunately every plan can have a weakness. In the middle of synchronizing a takeoff of a huge wave of attack bombers simultaneously from all four carriers a small band of US attack aircraft flew overhead and couldn't believe their luck.

With Japanese aircraft filled with bombs packed tightly on all four carriers waiting to take off it would only take a single hit on each one to cause a massive chain reaction disaster.

Sure enough that is pretty much what happened. Three carriers lost in 5 minutes.

With all their carriers sunk every pilot in the air had to ditch. They lost EVERY plane and a good portion of their most experienced pilots.

 

[055_destroyer]

Japanese aircraft carrier never been effective in war but its more of its enemy like US and UK not kick starting their carrier fleet early in the war.

Japan zero fighter being very agile but lack of armour and get shot down easily by just few burst of hits.

The Japanese strategy of massing aircraft carriers and attack planes was not a bad idea. Unfortunately every plan can have a weakness. In the middle of synchronizing a takeoff of a huge wave of attack bombers simultaneously from all four carriers a small band of US attack aircraft flew overhead and couldn't believe their luck.

With Japanese aircraft filled with bombs packed tightly on all four carriers waiting to take off it would only take a single hit on each one to cause a massive chain reaction disaster.

Sure enough that is pretty much what happened.

With all their carriers sunk every pilot in the air had to ditch. They lost EVERY plane and a good portion of their most experienced pilots.

The US already broke the code of Japanese and they knew the plan. Its already doomed from the first day of Midway for Japanese.

 

[aziqbal]

why did Japan sail all its carrier during the battle of mid day so close to each other? what a stupid thing to do

and the crack Japanese zero fighter aces never trained the next generation of carrier pilots, they had a institutionalised way of training and when they were killed the skills were never replaced