The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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Kazutoshi Hando (Naval Historical Center# 73060)
| Tonnage | 38,200 tons standard displacement |
| Dimensions | 812'6" by 106'8" by 31'1 247.65m by 32.51m by 9.47m |
| Maximum
speed |
28 knots |
| Complement | 2016 |
| Aircraft | 815' (248.4m) flight deck 3 elevators 72 aircraft operational 90 aircraft total |
| Armament | 10 8"/50
Model 1 guns 8x2 5"/40 dual-purpose guns 15x2 25mm AA guns |
| Protection | 6" (152mm) belt inclined at 14 degrees 2" armor + 1.1" plating (51mm armor + 28mm plating) hangar deck 4" slopes from hangar deck to lower edge of belt 3" (76mm) torpedo holding bulkhead tapering to 0.6" (16mm) 4'11" (1.5m) torpedo bulges |
| Machinery |
4-shaft Kampon geared
turbines
(127,400 shp) 8 Kampon boilers |
| Bunkerage | 8208 tons fuel oil 175,000 gallons (660,000 liters) aviation gasoline |
| Range | 10,000 nautical miles (19,000km) at 16 knots |
The Kaga was
originally laid down as a battleship,
but under the terms of the Washingon
Naval Treaty, she was
completed in 1928 as an aircraft
carrier. Her
battleship origins were evident in her heavy armor and
armament. She was
similar to Akagi,
but not a true
sister ship. The Japanese originally intended to build a second Akagi using the hull of battle
cruiser Amagi, but
this was
wrecked in the 1923 Kanto earthquake. The Japanese substituted the
hull
of battleship Kaga
instead.
Because she was built from a battleship hull and retained her
battleship machinery, Kaga had
a
somewhat shorter, wider flight deck than Akagi and was a full five knots
slower.
Like Akagi, Kaga was originally a flush deck carrier with three stacked flight decks. She was modernized in 1934-1935 to have a single flight deck with an island, the lower flight decks becoming part of the hangar decks and increasing the aircraft capacity to 90. Unlike Akagi, Kaga retained all ten of her 8" guns, but the four originally located in twin turrets were moved to casemates under the flight deck alongside the other six 8" guns. She was given better machinery and her hull was lengthened, but this failed to increase her speed much. Her funnel arrangement was also improved.
Kaga was
part of the Pearl
Harbor Attack Force when war
broke
out in the Pacific. She was
scuttled after being set ablaze by dive
bombers during the battle of Midway,
4 June 1942. Although the lower hull was still intact and buoyant,
the
upper decks had been reduced to scrap by secondary explosions and
the
ship was judged beyond repair even if she could have been towed
back to
Japan.
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References
CombinedFleet.com (accessed 2007-12-20)
Gogin
(2010; accessed 2012-12-25)
Parshall
and Tully (2006)
Peattie (2001)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2012, 2016 by Kent G. Budge. Index
