page_title: Shōkaku-class aircraft carrier
section_title: Battle of Leyte Gulf
hierarchical_section_title: Shōkaku-class aircraft carrier / Careers / Battle of Leyte Gulf
context_page_description: The Shōkaku-class were a class of two aircraft carriers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the late 1930s. Completed shortly before the start of the Pacific War in 1941, the Shōkaku and Zuikaku were called "arguably the best aircraft carriers in the world" when built. With the exception of the Battle of Midway, they participated in every major naval action of the Pacific War, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Indian Ocean Raid, the Battle of the Coral Sea, and the Guadalcanal Campaign.
  Their inexperienced air groups were relegated to airfield attacks during the attack on Pearl Harbor, but they later sank two of the four fleet carriers lost by the United States Navy during the war in addition to one elderly British light carrier. The sister ships returned to Japan after the Battle of the Coral Sea, one to repair damage and the other to replace aircraft lost during the battle, so neither ship participated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. After the catastrophic losses of four carriers during that battle, they formed the bulk of the IJN's carrier force for the rest of the war.
context_section_description: In October 1944, Zuikaku was the flagship of Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's decoy Northern Force in Operation Shō-Gō 1, the Japanese counterattack against the Allied landings on Leyte. At this time, the ship had 28 A6M5 Zero fighters, 16 A6M2 Zero fighter-bombers, 7 D4Y reconnaissance aircraft and 15 B6Ns. On the morning of 24 October, she launched 10 fighters, 11 fighter-bombers, 6 torpedo bombers, and 2 reconnaissance aircraft as her contribution to the airstrike intended to attract the attention of the American carriers away from the other task groups that were to destroy the landing forces. This accomplished little else as the Japanese aircraft failed to penetrate past the defending fighters; the survivors landed at airfields on Luzon. The Americans were preoccupied dealing with the other Japanese naval forces and defending themselves from air attacks and finally found the Northern Force late that afternoon, but Admiral William Halsey, Jr., commander of Task Force 38, decided that it was too late in the day to mount an effective strike. He turned all of his ships north to position himself for an attack.
  The American carriers launched an airstrike shortly after dawn; Zuikaku was struck by three bombs and one torpedo that started fires in both hangars, damaged one propeller shaft, and gave her a 29.5° list to port. Fifteen minutes later, the fires were extinguished and the list was reduced to 6° by counterflooding. She was mostly ignored by the second wave of attacking aircraft, but was a focus of the third wave that hit her with six more torpedoes and four bombs. The bombs started fires in the hangars, the torpedoes caused major flooding that increased her list, and the order to abandon ship was issued before Zuikaku sank by the stern. Lost with the ship were 49 officers and 794 crewmen, but 47 officers and 815 crewmen were rescued by her escorting destroyers.
caption: Zuikaku's crew salute as the flag is lowered before abandoning ship
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