The aircraft carrier "Sino" is the largest aircraft carrier in the world, and the Japanese builders have high hopes for it.
For many Japanese soldiers, with his sinking, Japan's hopes of victory in World War II became dim.
After the First World War, battleships swept the world, and the world fell into a battleship mania, and battleships became predators for naval sailors around the world.
Among the shipyards in the United Kingdom, the first to be built was the intrepid, and in future battles, the Dreadnought would dictate the rules of the sea.
At the end of the 30s of the 20th century, Germany and Japan built three battleships, each with a displacement of more than 70000 tons. The Bismarck and Tirpitz were launched in August and November 1940, respectively, and the Musashi was launched in November 1940.
The guns of the main caliber 460 mm of the three battleships were capable of hitting targets at a distance of 40 km.
Such a large ship has never appeared in the history of the world's navies, and it is unlikely to appear again in the future. These predators will search for prey in the ocean.
However, in the Pearl Harbor incident, the Japanese fighter planes that took off from the aircraft carrier inflicted heavy damage on the US Pacific Fleet, which made the United States wake up and attach importance to the importance of aircraft carriers in sea supremacy.
The era of aircraft carriers soon appeared, aircraft carriers suspended the priority of developing battleships, a large number of battleships under construction were directly converted into aircraft carriers, and aircraft carriers soon became the main maritime strike force of the US and Japanese navies.
In June 1942, with the defeat of the Battle of Midway, Japan lost 4 heavy aircraft carriers, and in order to make up for the lack of aircraft carriers, "Sino" appeared on the list of Japanese aircraft carriers.
Sino "was only a half-finished battleship at this time, and it was about to become the largest aircraft carrier in the world.
The construction of "Sino" was carried out in strict secrecy. The Japanese built a fence around the shipyard. Anyone who appeared around the shipyard with a camera would be executed on the spot by the Japanese army. The workers were also transferred to live in the barracks and lived directly in the docks.
In June 1944, Japan lost two more aircraft carriers in the Battle of the Mariana Islands, and at this time, the commissioning date of the "Sino" had been postponed from January 1945 to November 1944, and the most urgent thing was to get into service as soon as possible.
However, the future carrier commander** (Toshio Abe) strongly discouraged the rush into service, insisting on adequate testing and training of the shipboard team ......But all this takes time, and time is clearly not enough.
The aircraft carrier could have been blown up to scrap metal before it even left the dry dock. For safety, ** was ordered to transfer the ship from Tokyo Bay to the Chur base, where it was tested and trained.
The "Sino" had to traverse 300 miles and travel 16 hours along the coast of Japan.
However, the captain ** had no illusions that the process of transfer of the aircraft carrier would be difficult and dangerous, and American planes had already bombed the Japanese islands, and a meeting with enemy submarines was not excluded yet.
Despite the assurances of the designers that the "Sino" would hardly sink, that even a couple of torpedo hits would not be fatal to it, and that the armored deck could withstand 500 kg of bombs, the sailors knew that any tin can could sink.
* A captain of the first rank with plenty of experience, he applied for three frigates for armed escort, chose a dark moonless night, and at the same time chose to drive at high speeds, wanting to rely on his excellent sailing skills to avoid enemy strikes.
On November 27, U.S. submarine commander Joseph Enright received a radio telegram saying that the Japanese would not bomb the coast for 48 hours. This means that for the next two days, "free hunting" will be possible.
On November 29, at approximately 21:00, the officer on duty on radar reported, "Sir, an object has been spotted. The distance is 12 miles and the bearing is 30 degrees. At first I thought it was an island, but it's moving, sir! ”
Joseph Enright thought to himself, "You're right. Only tankers can be so huge".
That's what we're targeting," Enright said.
Enright commanded the submarine to surface, chasing the "tankers" on the surface. When he discovers that the tanker is being escorted by three destroyers, Inlight realizes that the target is more valuable than the tanker.
* The submarine was spotted, so the order was given to go at full speed, and as a result, the aircraft carrier and the submarine began a race in which the submarine gradually fell behind because of its slower speed.
At 23:40, ** received a report that the main bearing propulsion shaft in the engine compartment had overheated, and in a few hours the engine would be scrapped, and the aircraft carrier would become a living target.
The captain ordered the speed to be reduced from 20 to 18 knots. As a result, the American submarine had a speed advantage, surpassing the "Sino", at which point the "Archer Fish" dived under water and disappeared from the Japanese radar.
Enright began to direct the maneuver of the submarine, taking up a position convenient for the attack.
The aircraft carrier did not fall behind, did not mess up in the slightest, and marched in a cunning anti-submarine "zigzag", the Americans understood the logic of the enemy's movement and ** the next trajectory of the "Sino".
At 3:00, the Japanese began another turn ......It turned out to be exactly along the course of the submarine at a distance of 60 yards.
Enright aimed at the bow of the aircraft carrier and fired six torpedoes, four of which hit her starboard side.
Urgent dive! "The submarine commander gave the order.
According to the calculations of the aircraft carrier's designers, a couple of torpedo wounds should not have been fatal, but ** said that the ships and crews were not well prepared, and this is fatal.
Sure enough, all the bad things happened.
There was a leak in the waterproof bulkhead of the aircraft carrier, which could not be repaired, the water pump did not work, the hand pump was clearly insufficient, and the sailors did not know how to operate it.
The aircraft carrier leaned more and more to starboard, and the crew fought for their lives for seven hours. At 10:18, ** gave the order to abandon ship, and the evacuation began.
At 10:57, the starboard side of the "Sino" was submerged, and the stern began to sink into the water.
In the end, the captain chose to die with the carrier.
On a cold November morning, the "Sino", a symbol of the defeat of the Japanese army, sank, and the hopes of victory for the Japanese Empire were dashed.
This ship, which was originally an impregnable sea fortress, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, before 1955, no aircraft carrier exceeded the tonnage of the "Sino".
"Sino" sank on its first combat voyage after only 17 hours without firing a single shot.
The crew of the submarine "Archer Fish" safely escaped the Japanese bombing and returned to base.
Interestingly, during the voyage, Commander Inline and other submarine officers tried to identify the ship they had sunk, but they were unable to find the name of the target, and the ship did not appear in the Navy directory, leaving them with a lot of regret.
It was only after the end of the war that Japanese documents revealed what kind of "monster" the "Archer Fish" sank.
The sinking of the USS Sino was the largest achievement of a single submarine during World War II, and the largest achievement of the U.S. Navy's submarine fleet to date. History