What Was The Fate of The Shinano? | Japan’s Ten-Day Supercarrier

The modern supercarriers of the US Navy. More than 80,000 tons of moving American foreign policy. Each one of these incredible ships carries more firepower than most nations on Earth and are thus the ultimate expression of US military might. It is said that whenever there has been a crisis anywhere in the world in the last 80 years, the first question the sitting US President has asked is, “Where is the nearest carrier?” The first true supercarrier was the USS Kitty Hawk CV-63 commissioned into US service on April 29th 1961 at a time when a large number of World War II-era carriers were still serving in the fleet. During the later stages of the war there was one carrier in service, albeit briefly, that in terms of scale at least could be considered a direct forerunner to the revolutionary 1961 ship. In this episode we are going to look at the background, conception and ultimately the fate of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Shinano, World War II’s ill-fated supercarrier.

0:00 Introduction
2:03 The End of an Era
10:27 The Third Yamato
16:09 Transfer to Kure

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🎶🎶 All music from CO.AG

Narrated by: Will Earl
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins
Edited by: James Wade & Kieran Kennerley

History Should Never Be Forgotten...

[aragornthemagician]

The "Shitty Kitty", nickname of Kitty Hawk, was NOT the 1st Supercarrier. That was CV-59, the USS Forrestal. She was the lead ship of a 4 ship class and was commissioned 10/1/55. The Kitty Hawk, CV-63, was the lead of a 3 ship class and actually had a 4th modified as the JFK, CV-67. If your wondering why 9 numbers between CV-59 to CV-67 for 8 ships? CVN-65, The Mighty USS Enterprise.

[thomascampbell]

When the captain of the Archerfish reported the attack to navy officials they refused to believe that such a carrier existed. It wasn't until after the war and examination of Japanese records that the sub was credited with sinking more tonnage in one day than most other subs sank during the whole war.

[robertguttman]

A good case can be made that the first of the so-called "Super-Carriers" was actually the USS Forrestal (CV-59). Completed in 1955, the 78, 000-ton USS Forrestal was the first new U.S. Navy carrier to be designed after WW-II, the first to be designed with an angled flight deck, and the first to be designed specifically to operate modern jet aircraft.

[Crashed]

The 60, 000 ton CV-59, USS Forrestal. was the US first supercarrier 7 years before the Kitty Hawk.

[EpicJoshua]

I read somewhere that Abe ordered all civillians to the flight deck, but he actually said "all hands to the flight deck". His mistake saved many lives as the crew had not been trained on evacuation drills and Shinano had 2 hallways instead of 1, so this allowed many people who were still unfamiliar with Shinano to make it up to the flight deck.

[russdority]

I spent a day at sea on board the Archerfish when she visited Sydney in 1964.

[wayneseamans]

My father-in-law was an EM2 in Archer-fish when they sank Shinano.

[murraystewartj]

Just yesterday I caught a video by Battleship New Jersey. Apparently the USS Kitty Hawk is now under tow to meet her fate at the ship breakers' yard. End of an era.

[tomdolan]

Actually the Navy laid down its first super carrier during the Truman adminstration, the United States. Truman's first Secretary of Defense convinced Truman to cancel it in favor of a huge nuclear armed bomber force for the AirForce. With the Korean War carriers proved the tactical value of having sovereign US airfields deployable to international hotspots. The Navy thus began construction through the late 50s of four super carriers...Forrestal, Ranger, Saratoga and Independence. At the end of the 50s the first nuclear carrier Enterprise was funded along with two conventional super carriers Constellation and Kitty Hawk. Further funding was found to build two more in the early sixties America and John F Kennedy. There were three Midway class 45, 000 ton battle carriers built at the end of WW2 which were heavily modernized to operate larger jet air craft also.

[Svensk]

I remember this. When the sub captain reported that he had sunk a carrier, at first he wasn't believed. Fortunately, one of his men had saved the drawings that were made through the periscope.

[redtomcat]

I knew of this ship but never heard the complete story. The details were enlightening. The captain of it did all he could. He was a victim of poor intelligence and timid leadership.

[tcofield]

This wasn’t the first time poor damage control resulted in the destruction of a Japanese carrier. I’m talking about the Tiaho. This was really the best IJN carrier of the war and debatably the best all around carrier built before the USS Midway. She was sunk by one torpedo although that wasn’t really the cause of her demise. Poor damage control efforts meant that aerosolized gas was vented into the ship turning her into a bomb. Eventually she exploded leading to her rapid sinking.

[robertcolbourne]

Kitty Hawk ???? Uss Forrestal was the first supercarrier .

[mikemullen]

The sub was the Archer-fish, but the hyphen seems to have been usually dropped. I understand the crew was proud of it, claiming it was the only hyphenated name in the fleet. As a kid, I saw Sigmund Bobczynski, Enright's XO, often, as he was a friend of the family. Great guy.

[leonidaslantz]

Excellent shooting Archerfish and CPT Enright. Excellent video and information 👌.

[nikonmark]

I served onboard the Supercarrier USS Independence, CV-62 from 10/74 through 5/78 and worked in the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department, Production Control. AZ2 Mark Stephan

[davidspolansky]

Perhaps 35 years ago, my wife, Elaine answered a local newspaper ad for a typist to transcribe the handwritten notes of a WWII submarine captain. It turned out to be Capt. Enright, a wonderful man who has since passed on. RIP, Joe.

[sirgeremiah]

There's an excellent book about this that I read several years ago. I don't recall the title, but it's worth a search for those who want to get more detail about how events transpired on both the Shinano and the Archerfish.

[jeffestrada]

Great documentary very clear presentation and voice! No stupid music straight to the point.
Thank you 👍

[whyjnot]

I see the humor in comparing a battleship conversion to the evolution of cruisers that are carriers. Raw size really is the only thing Shinano has in common.

To be more serious, it is nice to see someone talking about Shinano, even people who know a fair bit about Yamato & Musashi forget about, or simply do not even know about Shinano.