Resized to 94% of original (view original)
kaga, akagi, zuikaku, shoukaku, souryuu, and 4 more (kantai collection and 1 more) drawn by y.ssanoha

Artist's commentary

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    史実艦娘

    中国语注意
    クロスロード作戦 核実験 1P
    威尔士亲王 Prince of Wales 2P
    日美航母的20CM炮 3P
    CV-4 突击者 4P
    伊和吕 5P

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    PantsuGrenade
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    Uploaded big version and migrated OMGkillitwithfire, Minimin and LucasHidemiKomori's translations.

    Comments from old version:

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    LucasHidemiKomori said:

    Looking on the bright side, Ranger-chan did managed to get two battle stars during operations on North Africa and Norway.

    MajorAmiruddin said:

    LucasHidemiKomori said:

    Looking on the bright side, Ranger-chan did managed to get two battle stars during operations on North Africa and Norway.

    And she was another Pre-war carrier to survive World War 2.

    NWSiaCB said:

    She was also sorta the United States Houshou. (Although not quite as crippled as Houshou was...) She's the first purpose-built carrier, but also a little underwhelming in her stats, (slower and smaller than later carriers,) so they put her up against the Germans as an anti-sub carrier.

    Tapper said:

    Having served aboard Ranger (CV-61), my heart goes out to this girl.

    Tk3997 said:

    NWSiaCB said:

    She was also sorta the United States Houshou. (Although not quite as crippled as Houshou was...) She's the first purpose-built carrier, but also a little underwhelming in her stats, (slower and smaller than later carriers,) so they put her up against the Germans as an anti-sub carrier.

    Eh not really IMO, Houshou was frankly experimental, she had almost no real tactical value which is why she was never used in combat even when Japan was desperate.

    A much closer match is Soryu of similiar early 30s vintage. She was similiar in weight and built under a similiar idea of getting many planes into a small hull at the expense of basically any protection whatsoever with an eye toward getting more ships squeezed into treaty limits. In Ranger's case they also gave up some speed for even more hanger and deck space. Ton per plane her and Wasp are probably about the most heavily loaded CVs ever built. In point of fact her operational air group was larger then any Japanese CV beside Shokaku. Her principle weakness was the total lack of protection used to buy this comparatively massive offensive power, she was even more of a trade off in this regard then any of the Japanese designs.

    Speed was not really the biggest issue, she made about 30 knots on trails and did similiar operationally, and that was enough for 95% of fleet operations. Wasp was actually slightly slower. The biggest issues were the glass jaw and also that by the outbreak of war her plane handling equipment (arresting gear and such) was becoming somewhat dated and given the various compromises in her design their wasn't much motivation to try and majorly refit her to operate the latest aircraft or improve her capabilities when the swarm of Essex CV and the Independence class CVL conversions were already well underway.

    Even so, she was still a full blown CV with considerable striking power so she wasn't used as an anti-submarine carrier. She was used in the Mediterranean 1942 covering landings and also operated with the Home Fleet for a good part of 1943 including a strike on Norway. By 1944 with so many modern CVs there was no real need for her anymore and she became a training ship.

    GweAnakJakarta

    Tapper said:

    Having served aboard Ranger (CV-61), my heart goes out to this girl.

    how old are you?

    1 Reply
    Naked Flame
    [hidden]

    The question mark by Akagi...
    Wasn't Akagi struck by the first wave of bombs and set ablaze? Makes sense that she'd never know what actually hit her and so wouldn't know any of the USN carriers.

    Also, I'm pretty certain that one of the submarines in the game sunk Yorktown, but I don't remember which.

    2 Reply
    AdventZero
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    Naked_Flame said:

    Also, I'm pretty certain that one of the submarines in the game sunk Yorktown, but I don't remember which.

    It was I-168/Imuya. Even then, Yorktown didn't sink immediately. It took her a few days before she flipped over despite the USN's best attempt to salvage her floating hulk. Can't say the same for Hammann, though. Broke in two from the first torpedo shot by Imuya.

    1 Reply
    Tk3997
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    Naked_Flame said:

    The question mark by Akagi...
    Wasn't Akagi struck by the first wave of bombs and set ablaze? Makes sense that she'd never know what actually hit her and so wouldn't know any of the USN carriers.

    Kaga was struck first, there was a mix up in and rather then the agreed plan of one squadron diving on each ship if multiple carrier were sighted everyone dove at Kaga as the nearest ship, only three planes at the tail end seeing the mistake aborted their dives and targeted Akagi. Of those three only one bomb hit her (though a near miss notably damaged her steering complicating any efforts to salvage her), that bomb started a fire which did end up consuming the ship but it took quite awhile and at first it seemed like it might be continued. The crew fought the fire for the rest of the day, long enough that Kaga and Soryu sank well before her. In the end the order was given to scuttle her at about the same time as the later damaged Hiryu, the destroyer assigned the later task botched it pretty epically though and so Hiryu lingered much longer then Akagi.

    1 Reply
    Brian2170
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    Tk3997 said:

    Kaga was struck first, there was a mix up in and rather then the agreed plan of one squadron diving on each ship if multiple carrier were sighted everyone dove at Kaga as the nearest ship, only three planes at the tail end seeing the mistake aborted their dives and targeted Akagi. Of those three only one bomb hit her (though a near miss notably damaged her steering complicating any efforts to salvage her), that bomb started a fire which did end up consuming the ship but it took quite awhile and at first it seemed like it might be continued. The crew fought the fire for the rest of the day, long enough that Kaga and Soryu sank well before her. In the end the order was given to scuttle her at about the same time as the later damaged Hiryu, the destroyer assigned the later task botched it pretty epically though and so Hiryu lingered much longer then Akagi.

    Hit count that I remember based on documentaries related to Midway.

    Kaga was hit by 4 bombs, with one hit blowing the island to nothingness. (Almost every SBD pilot in that attack went for Kaga.)

    Souryuu took 3 hits, all scored by Yorktown SBDs.

    Akagi: 3 of the SBD pilots (led by Dick Best) went for Akagi, and only Best scored a hit, right in the hangar bay of Akagi which was loaded with fuelled-up aircraft which included fully-armed torpedo bombers plus anti-ground ordnance.

    Hiryuu: Made a valiant last dodging effort, but was sunk by 4 bombs from SBDs sent by Enterprise and SB-3 (by the time they got back Yorktown took the crippling torpedo hits and the aircrews were diverted to Hornet and Enterprise.)

    2 Reply
    Souta Brise
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    PantsuGrenade said:

    Uploaded big version and migrated OMGkillitwithfire, Minimin and LucasHidemiKomori's translations.

    Comments from old version:

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    Too bad Jean Bart isn't here to be a character witness for Ranger since Ranger's dauntlesses finished what Massachusetts didn't in the Operation Torch.

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