#39: IJN Shokaku: The Pearl Harbor Carrier That Fought to the End
IJN Shokaku launched strikes against Pearl Harbor, participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought at the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz, and survived them all, only to be sunk by the submarine USS Cavalla during the Battle of the Philippine Sea on June 19, 1944. She absorbed three torpedoes that detonated aviation fuel vapors, creating an inferno that killed over 1,200 of her crew.
Shokaku and her sister Zuikaku were Japan's most capable fleet carriers, able to embark over 70 aircraft with a top speed of 34 knots. At the Coral Sea in May 1942, Shokaku took three bomb hits that wrecked her flight deck but survived, her damage-control crews earning a reputation as the best in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her air group was among the most experienced in the Pacific, and her combat record spanned virtually every major carrier engagement of the war, making her one of the hardest-working carriers in naval history.
