Why is Zuikaku angry? From what Hornet is saying, she is better than Akagi and Kaga.
Yes, Zuikaku might be the most distinguished carrier of the IJN but that's only because she was lucky enough to survive while all of her senpais were picked off. I imagine that this hits a bit of a sore nerve on her part.
Kaga and Akagi are their seniors, Souryuu is Hiryuu's Half sibling
I won't be surprised if Hornet gets angry if either of them calls her elder sisters and senior carriers weak
Given that both Yorktown and especially Enterprise exhibited truly Top Tier Shonen Protagonist Fighting Spirit, surviving hits that destroyed on paper better ships (yes, Yorktown sank, but had it not been for a literal stab in the back by a lucky sub, she would have been towed back home and no doubt repaired and put back on the battle line by war's end), I would imagine Hornet's response to such a thing would be either abject confusion, or uproarious laughter and the pathetic attempt at trying to get a rise out of her.
Hey you try anything funny to KC Hornet, I'll call the Siren to rip the space and reality so I can call some acquaintances to "Owari-Da" and "Kochi-Dayo" both of you!
Yes, Zuikaku might be the most distinguished carrier of the IJN but that's only because she was lucky enough to survive while all of her senpais were picked off. I imagine that this hits a bit of a sore nerve on her part.
Shoukaku and Zuikaku were "lucky enough" to survive because they were better-designed carriers that wouldn't spontaneously combust if a bomb fell anywhere near them. (It's one of those oddities in cultural value I guess that Shoukaku is "unlucky" because she survived multiple hits, while Enterprise is a "lucky" ship because she took a lickin' and kept on tickin'.)
Akagi and Kaga may have had the more experienced pilots thanks to the boneheaded Japanese doctrine of never moving their pilots around for any reason, even if it meant keeping all their eggs in a single deathtrap seabird grill, but they were by far the worst-designed fleet carriers the Japanese had even after taking off the deck guns, triple deck, adding an island, and not directing ultra-hot exhaust directly along the crew quarters to fricassee the crew. A combination of being a conversion, having poor damage control to start with, bad protocols for handling fuel, an unwillingness to allow sailors to act on independent initiative even when it means having to find a (possibly dead) officer to ask permission to put out a fire destroying the ship on pain of corporal punishment, and lack of standardized damage control protocols all lead to some really shameful displays by the Japanese at Midway.
Akagi, Kaga and Souryuu were taken out in one wave of attacks (whose torpedo bombers utterly failed to do anything, at that, thanks to dud torpedoes), with Akagi destroyed by a single bomb, and being left burning all day with the Japanese unable to put her out. Kaga and Souryuu took four and three bombs from a wave that all focused on her, but still went down and much quicker.
Yorktown, conversely, was hit but repaired up to operational status, at which point the Japanese thought that it must be a new carrier because of course any carrier that was hit and caught fire would sink just like their own tinderbox carriers, right? Yorktown was hit again, repaired and back in action again, hit a third time that was enough to cause major flooding and was being towed back when i-19 managed to use the debris shed off Yorktown as cover to get in and sink Yorktown by torpedo because all four of the Japanese carriers together couldn't take Yorktown down.
NWSiaCB said: ...bad protocols for handling fuel, an unwillingness to allow sailors to act on independent initiative even when it means having to find a (possibly dead) officer to ask permission to put out a fire destroying the ship on pain of corporal punishment, and lack of standardized damage control protocols..
You're seriously telling me a Japanese carrier burned down because no one had been given the order to put out the fire?
You're seriously telling me a Japanese carrier burned down because no one had been given the order to put out the fire?
When you are drilled only to do one thing in the chain of things than happen, and the guys the need to do the other part of the chain are dead....things don't happen on Japanese ships. American training was to give everyone at least basic knowledge of the safety equipment and enough room in doctrine to allow them to think for themselves. Many ships were saved by someone who did something brave (or stupid but it worked) that stopped a fire, or flooded a magazine, or drained the fuel lines. The Japanese just didn't get the cross training. Taiho probably could have been saved if their damage control personnel were knowledgeable about what they were doing. They actually did try to wing it to save the ship, but make a few critical, and fatal errors in judgement that got the ship destroyed. And that was late in the war, when they started to adjust.
Kirishima had flooding issues, and counterflooding issues. The damage control officer was doing what he was trained to do, but not seeing the whole picture. The counterflooding to level the ship was making the ship lower in the water...and the water was getting in via other holes punched in the ship. Resulting in the need to counterflood again....and this kept going until she was too far gone to save. Because they didn't (or couldn't) patch the holes first.
Shoukaku and Zuikaku were "lucky enough" to survive because they were better-designed carriers that wouldn't spontaneously combust if a bomb fell anywhere near them. (It's one of those oddities in cultural value I guess that Shoukaku is "unlucky" because she survived multiple hits, while Enterprise is a "lucky" ship because she took a lickin' and kept on tickin'.)
I believe Shokaku is considered "unlucky" because she often is compared to her sister, who survived longer and rarely got hit. Enterprise is "lucky" because only she survived out of all 3 sisters. I would say Enterprise is luckiest unlucky ship for how many times she had to go back to dock.
And yes, I would agree shokaku-class is the best carrier Japan ever built(not consider the modern Kaga ofc) and maybe the best inter-war carrier ever built without considering any refit.
When you are drilled only to do one thing in the chain of things than happen, and the guys the need to do the other part of the chain are dead....things don't happen on Japanese ships. American training was to give everyone at least basic knowledge of the safety equipment and enough room in doctrine to allow them to think for themselves. Many ships were saved by someone who did something brave (or stupid but it worked) that stopped a fire, or flooded a magazine, or drained the fuel lines. The Japanese just didn't get the cross training. Taiho probably could have been saved if their damage control personnel were knowledgeable about what they were doing. They actually did try to wing it to save the ship, but make a few critical, and fatal errors in judgement that got the ship destroyed. And that was late in the war, when they started to adjust.
Kirishima had flooding issues, and counterflooding issues. The damage control officer was doing what he was trained to do, but not seeing the whole picture. The counterflooding to level the ship was making the ship lower in the water...and the water was getting in via other holes punched in the ship. Resulting in the need to counterflood again....and this kept going until she was too far gone to save. Because they didn't (or couldn't) patch the holes first.
Honestly, that sounds pretty similar to what happens now in animé studios. Artists, writers, programmers, promoters... they never communicate with each other, and there's no editor; the result is usually something that looks cool, but feels disjointed and like they're making it up as they go along... which they are. They're basically working like six blind men encountering an elephant for the first time.
.... I would say Enterprise is luckiest unlucky ship for how many times she had to go back to dock...
Enterprise luckiness is just like Hibiki/Verniy luckiness, she avoided devastating battle by docking at right time (and she just like Enty, sole survivor among the sisters )
Hiryuu...Also, Shoukaku and Zuikaku were so strong......The line is part of Hornet's dialog in the game's libraryThe red, blue and green ones.Can you help me with the support, Hiryuu-san?But the latter 3... they were weak, weren't they?WE'LL CRUSH YOU...!STEP OUTSIDE...!As you wish.L-Listen, Zuikaku. Onee-chan thinks we shouldn't be fighting each other...
Leave a comment