General History: IJN Hiryu - Last Standing at Midway

The Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu, the last survivor at Midway, is the topic of today's video. A modified variant of the preceding Soryu design, Hiryu was a medium sized carrier that served well. Even if it was a short service life, in the end.
She was the last of the Japanese carriers standing at Midway, and it was her planes that would cripple USS Yorktown. Before being sunk, in turn, the next day.
Edsall: • A Destroyer that stood...
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[@alephalon7849]

Hiryuu really lived up to the Japanese interpretation of the cherry blossom, living a brief but brilliant existence like their idealization of the samurai.

[@percievalcrawford1555]

Even in the face of overwhelming odds and gravely wounded, Hiryuu remained defiant to the end like the dragons of her namesake.

[@metaknight115]

Amazing video. Hiryu is an extremely underrated carrier when compared to IJN carriers like Zuikaku, Akagi, and Kaga. She was the only carrier that did anything at Midway other than being there and being sunk. At least she gets more attention that Soryu. I've only seen a single KZbin video on that ship.

[@MW-eb1qh]

That wasn't due to anything but circumstances. It's not like it was in any way superior to the other 3 present. Faster than Kaga and Akagi sure but carried fewer planes and was more lightly armored. Actually, Japan's best overall carriers all things considered, were Zuikaku and Shokaku. At least from what I've read.

[@zachdillenger5468]

@@MW-eb1qh well it was mainly due to Hiryuu's Captian was ACTUALLY good at his position, the Japanese in WW2 promoted based on politics and seniority vs who is best for the position

[@timengineman2nd714]

@@zachdillenger5468 Hence a Battleship Admiral being in charge of the Kido Butai (Nagumo)

[@vincentcondron588]

Your videos are getting much better I can only say keep up with your great work

[@metaknight115]

Here are some ideas for videos: Perhaps one on fellow IJN carrier Zuikaku would be nice. Alongside being the best aircraft carrier in the world until the arrival of USS Essex, she served in the very first carrier vs carrier battle where she famously sank USS Lexington alongside her sistership. She sank HMS Hermes and helped to sink HMS Dorsetshire and Cornwall in the Indian ocean raid, and sank USS Hornet alongside her sistership. By the end of her career, she was the last aircraft carrier to have attacked Pearl Harbor. IJN Yamato could also used a video, being the largest and most powerful battleship ever made. She was the largest battleship both in size and displacement, and had the biggest guns, some of the most accurate guns, and the thickest armor. She had a pretty good fire control, and was extremely maneuverable. Be careful about her participation at the battle off Samar, as it's extremely difficult due US records forming a commonly excepted story only for Japanese records to disprove much of said story, leading to a lot of confused information. Long story short, Yamato sank Gambier Bay and not Chikuma, as proven by both Japanese records and photographs of Gambier Bay under fire from white undyed shells corresponding with Yamato and not green dyed shells corresponding with CHikuma, Yamato landed the three main battery hits on USS Johnston that caused her to split in two and not IJN Kongo, and Yamato was only forced out of the battle for 20 minutes by Hoel and Heerman's torpedoes, and not permanently A video on USS Washington would also be pretty cool. Sistership of USS North Carolina, she sank the Japanese battleship/battlecruiser Kirishima during the battle of Guadalcanal, the same engagement where she crippled the heavy cruiser Atago and sank the destroyer Ayanami. From point blank range, she scored a 20% hit rate, scoring 20 main battery hits out of 99 fired. She never saw glory afterwards, only seeing carrier escorting and shore bombardment, but that alone puts her up with the great, as it was a miracle of a US battleship saw anything more than bombardment and escorting duties, let alone sinking an important enemy capital ship. USS Massachusetts could use some love, as she's rather underrated when compared to the four Iowas and Texas despite actually doing her job and sinking an enemy battleship. Jean Bart was incomplete, but still fully battleworthy and firing her main armament of four 15-inch at Big Mammie ships during the battle of Casablanca, where she was sunk by USS Massachusetts in port (abeit, she was soon raised and sunk again by USS Ranger). Alongside that, Massachusetts sank a light cruiser, four destroyers, three troop ships, a cargo ship, and a floating drydock, the most number of ships sunk by a single ship in a single engagement. She also fired the first and last US 16-inch shells of WW2. Finally, HMS Norfolk is surprisingly underrated, given her contributing to both Bismarck and Scharnhorst's sinking. The County class heavy cruiser engaged Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, which famously caused Bismarck to accidentally disable her fire control radar. She stalked Bismarck after the sinking of Hood alongside Suffolk and Prince of Wales, with the three ships opening fire on Bismarck. She shelled Bismarck alongside Rodney, KGV, and Dorsetshire, and launched torpedoes at Bismarck, though none hit. She then participated in the sinking of Scharnhorst, where she disabled Scharnhorst's fire control radar.

[@RayyMusik]

Norfolk was a County class cruiser.

[@metaknight115]

@@RayyMusik Sorry

[@bkjeong4302]

While Zuikaku really, really needs her own video (she was Enterprise’s archenemy after all), to argue she was THE best carrier in the world is…she’s up there but so are the Yorktowns. It’s honestly too close to call. The Washington video would be nice, as would a DoY video, but besides that none of the WWII-era battleships really did anything nearly significantly enough to merit videos. Their stories boil down to “this thing was built, did some things that failed to justify her existence, and then got sunk/scrapped/turned into a museum ship.” So no Yamato video (even if she got more done at Samar than traditionally assumed) or Massachusetts video (or Iowa video/KGV video/etc). Massachusetts in particular is massively overblown, since she fired on an incomplete and stationary target and STILL failed to put Jean Bart down (Ranger had to sink her, as you pointed out, but that was because Massachusetts never sank Jean Bart in the first place despite having the massive advantage of being complete)

[@BobSmith-dk8nw]

What I heard was that the reason for the Island being on the Starboard side - was that most pilots when veering away from something - would instinctively veer to the left. Of the six carriers to hit Pearl Harbor, _Shokaku_ and _Zuikaku_ (side lined because of the Coral Sea fight) were not at Midway, survived until much later in the war and were instrumental in the Solomon Islands Carrier Battles where _Hornet_ and _Ryūjō_ were sunk. Both _Hornet_ and _Yorktown_ would have survived the attacks on them by carrier aircraft had they not been sunk by other Japanese ships. .

[@Straswa]

Great vid, fascinating information on Hiryu.

[@kcstafford2784]

Im really liking your work thank you for no background music 🎉

[@scotfield3950]

Thank you!

[@timengineman2nd714]

I've wonder how much of the Japanese operations on Guadalcanal (including the airfield) were based on what they thought after this battle: 1) Lexington and a Yorktown class carrier sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea. (yes, they thought they got the Yorktown) 2) two more Yorktown class carriers sunk at Midway (namely all 3 of the class sunk) 3) Wasp and Ranger were in the Atlantic 4) Saratoga was still in drydock on the West Coast 5) Langley had been refitted as a Aircraft Transport and sunk. > Therefor the US Navy had no carriers in the Pacific and some small fleet carriers, one of which (Ranger) was basically unfit for Pacific operations, and the Wasp wasn't really all that great (much lightly built than then the Yorktowns due to the London Treaty Limits on total carrier tonnage) >> So our lack of carriers while we get both the Shokaku and the Zuikaku back into fully operational status isn't all that important... >>> Let's build "an unsinkable carrier" on Guadalcanal!

[@slyguythreeonetwonine3172]

I think you forgot about the Enterprise.

[@paulboger3101]

Has anyone read Shattered Sword? Fantastic book on Midway, a great read on the whole battle.

[@CLTmech]

Was an interesting read, and gave some insights to the overall timeline, and the Japanese operational doctrine, for the battle of Midway that walks through how some thing happened but didn't happen the way some have presented.

[@clmk28]

Great video!

[@MinhNguyen-cn8kx]

Fantastico hyriu... Respect from Vietnam.... Allahu akhbar

[@bkjeong4302]

When are you doing a Shokaku-class video? Or even a Shokakus vs. Yorktowns special?

[@hoppish088]

After the first strike on Yorktown, Adm Yamaguchi should have taken Hiryu back to Japan. She was a strategic asset, hard to replace and much needed. The outcome during the Guadacanal campaign might have been different.

[@tygrenvoltaris4782]

It would still be the same since yorktown would have survived. So worse case is that yorktown air group are most veterans and with its carrier okay means the japanese would have more nightmare. They could have won at guadalcanal had nagumo actually not whimper

[@paulboger3101]

I have always wondered why Hiryu was not ordered to recover all aircraft they could, and beat a hasty retreat to Japan. There it could have reorganised its air wing, and return to the fleet. If the Yorktown was lost to a submarine attack, things in the Pacific would have been interesting.

[@ericmichaud1273]

One thing: Kaga was not present during the Indian Ocean Raid. That was Shokaku and Zuikaku serving alongside Hiryu, Soryu and Akagi.

[@skyneahistory2306]

…that must have squeaked past the editing pass. Cut Kaga out now.

[@takashitamagawa5881]

The U.S. task forces lofted more than enough striking power to destroy all four Japanese carriers on the morning of June 4, 1942. But the two HORNET SBD squadrons went off on a flight to nowhere and contributed nothing. Even then, HIRYU might have been destroyed by the well directed YORKTOWN air group but one of its squadrons, Scouting 5, was held back from the morning attack at the last minute as a cautionary measure as the American leadership was not sure that all the Japanese carriers had been located. Lt. Cdr. Max Leslie, leading YORKTOWN's Bombing 3 which would destroy SORYU, was not even aware that Scouting 5 had been held back as he formed up for his attack. He knew he had two Japanese carriers below him. His radio call to Lt. Wally Short, commander of Scouting 5, to attack HIRYU went unanswered.

[@austinblack7991]

How did they miss her when they sank akagi kaga and soyru?

[@paulroberts971]

I believe she was off by herself and was missed during the initial attack.

[@Isolder74]

They missed Hiryu because the HORNET air group didn't go where Fletcher and Spruance ordered them to. Marc Mitcher(since he was an aviator and he was commanded by black shoes) felt he knew better and sent them west on a 'flight to nowhere.'

[@billotto602]

Did you ever do that video about Midway ?

[@factchecker9358]

So what happened to all the pilots and planes of these four aircraft carriers that were sunk?

[@hisdudeness8328]

A good portion of the strike planes were in the carriers being rearmed, so it’s safe to assume the majority of the pilots were on board when the carriers were hit. A lot of them likely went down with the ships.

[@stephennewton2223]

Having read Shattered Sword it seems that 110 or so pilots were lost in the battle. Well over half of these were lost in attacks of US ships and CAP fighters. That leaves 30 to 40 who went down with the ships. Not a devastating loss. Very comparable to the losses in the naval battles off Guadalcanal. Less than lost in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The meat grinder in the battles around Guadalcanal is where the devastating losses occurred. Hundreds of pilots and planes.

[@tsuaririndoku]

Hiryu: *Takes literally everything* Tit but a scratch” Enty: A SCRATCH!? Yorktown: Your flight decks are no longer functional Hiryu: No It isn’t Hornet: Even your ship is listing Hiryu: But I don’t sunk. Now come at me *TAKES EVEN MORE BEATING* Hiryu: *Stills afloat but no longer operational* Alright we call it a draw.