page_title: Philippine Sea order of battle
section_title: "A" Force
hierarchical_section_title: Philippine Sea order of battle / Japanese order of battle / "A" Force
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of Japanese heavy cruiser Myōkō, 1931. Русский: Японский тяжёлый крейсер «Мёко», 1931 год.
context_page_description: The Battle of the Philippine Sea was fought 19-20 June 1944 in the waters west of the Mariana Islands by elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet and of the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet. The battle exacted a terrible toll from the Japanese naval air arm, costing them most of their few remaining experienced pilots. The Combined Fleet was no longer capable of serious offensive operations after this engagement. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison characterized it this way:
  This was the greatest carrier battle of the war. The forces engaged were three to four times those in preceding actions like Midway, and victory was so complete that the Japanese could never again engage on such a scale. ... above all the skill, initiative, and intrepid courage of the young aviators made this day one of the high points in the history of the American spirit.
  Since the Japanese assumed the tactical offensive, their forces are listed first.
  Japanese forces
  Combat ships: 3 fleet carriers, 2 old fleet carriers, 4 light carriers, 2 new battleships, 3 old battleships, 7 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 34 destroyers, 6 oilers, 7 1st-class submarines, 17 2nd-class submarines
context_section_description: Vice Admiral Ozawa
  Carrier Division 1 (Vice Admiral Ozawa):
  3 fleet carriers
  Taihō (sunk 19 June by submarine)
  Shōkaku (sunk 19 June by submarine)
  Zuikaku
  Air Unit
  79 Mitsubishi A6M "Zeke" fighters
  70 Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bombers
    7 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers
  51 Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo bombers
  Cruiser Division 5 (Rear Admiral Shintaro Hashimoto):
  2 heavy cruisers: Myōkō, Haguro
  Screen (Rear Admiral Susumu Kimura in Yahagi):
  1 light cruiser: Yahagi
  9 destroyers
  1 Asashio class (6 x 5 in. main battery): Asagumo
  3 Kagerō class (6 x 5 in. main battery): Isokaze, Tanikaze (sunk 9 June by submarine), Urakaze
  4 Akizuki class (8 x 3.9 in. main battery): Akizuki, Hatsuzuki, Wakatsuki, Shimotsuki
  1 Mutsuki class (4 x 4.7 in. main battery): Minazuki (sunk 6 June by submarine)
caption: Heavy cruiser Myōkō
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.10.12", "Image DateTime": "2019:08:05 16:52:06", "Image ExifOffset": "136", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "256", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "97", "Thumbnail BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail PhotometricInterpretation": "6", "Thumbnail SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "286", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3965", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "612"}