Global InformationJapanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku information
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2022) |
 Zuikaku at Kobe on 25 September 1941 after commissioning
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Empire of Japan | |
| Name | Zuikaku |
| Builder | Kawasaki Shipyards |
| Laid down | 25 May 1938 |
| Launched | 27 November 1939 |
| Commissioned | 25 September 1941 |
| Stricken | 26 August 1945 |
| Fate | Sunk by air attack in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, 25 October 1944 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Class and type | Shōkaku-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement | 29,800 normal tons, 32,000 tons full load |
| Length | 257.5 m (844 ft 10 in) |
| Beam | 29 m (85 ft 4 in) |
| Draft | 8.9 m (29 ft 2 in) |
| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 34.5 knots (63.9 km/h) |
| Range | 7,581 mi (6,588 nmi) at 18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h) Fuel: 4100 tons |
| Complement | 1,660 |
| Armament |
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| Aircraft carried |
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Zuikaku (Japanese: 瑞鶴 "Auspicious Crane") was the second and last Shōkaku-class aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) shortly before the beginning of the Pacific War. Zuikaku was one of the most capable Japanese aircraft carriers of the entire war.
Her aircraft took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor that formally brought the United States into the war, destroying numerous land positions, and saw heavy and successful action throughout numerous battles during the Pacific War, starting with numerous assaults on allied land positions, and her participation in the Indian Ocean raid, where her dive bombers sank or helped to sink numerous major British warships. Zuikaku's torpedo bombers inflicted the fatal damage to the aircraft carrier USS Lexington at the battle of the Coral Sea, before she fought US carriers at the battle of the Eastern Solomans, and helped to sink the aircraft carrier USS Hornet at the battle of Santa Cruz. She was damaged by carrier attacks during the battle of the Philippine Sea, before being sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.[2]
Throughout her career, Zuikaku sank or helped to sink at least eleven ships, including the fleet carriers Lexington and Hornet, the light carriers HMS Hermes and USS Princeton, the cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire, the destroyers USS Sims, USS Meredith, and HMS Tenedos, the oil tanker USS Neosho, and the cargo ship SS Sagaing.
Zuikaku was one of six carriers to participate in the Pearl Harbor attack and was the last of the six to be sunk in the war (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, and Sōryū in the Battle of Midway; Shōkaku in the Battle of the Philippine Sea; and Zuikaku in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.)
- ^ Bōeichō Bōei Kenshūjo (1967), Senshi Sōsho Hawai Sakusen. Tokyo: Asagumo Shimbunsha, p. 344
- ^ Zuikaku @ Archived 18 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine www.history.navy.mil