Yamato and Musashi as carriers

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neil hilton
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Yamato and Musashi as carriers

Post by neil hilton »

I don't know if this has been done before, if so somebody please let me know.

Yamato and Musashi the largest battleships ever built, they cost an extraordinary amount to the Imperial Japanese military budget and did little other than rust and get sunk.
So what if they were designed and built as carriers instead of BBs? 3 Shinano class CVs. Yamato was commissioned 16/12/41 so she would have been available for the whole war except Perl Harbour. Musashi was commissioned 05/08/42 historically however if they had been built as CVs would they have been built quicker with the same level of funding? The greatest cost and hold up when building a BB is the armour plate and the big guns so if constructed as CVs maybe they could have been in service sooner.
So, hypothetically Imperial Japan begins WW2 with Yamato as a CV in the kido butai attack on Perl Harbour. And both Yamato and Musashi as CVs are available for Coral Sea and/or Midway.
How would this have changed the war in the Pacific?

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tameraire01
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Re: Yamato and Musashi as carriers

Post by tameraire01 »

Still sunk by the USN or the RN.
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Steve Crandell
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Re: Yamato and Musashi as carriers

Post by Steve Crandell »

The problem is finding the aircrews, with the IJN's very slow rate of training them. Late war they had carriers with very few competent pilots on them. More carriers might not help much.
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neil hilton
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Re: Yamato and Musashi as carriers

Post by neil hilton »

Late war yes, but just pre war and early war, ie pre Midway before the huge attrition rates kicked in they would have produced the air groups for the carriers while they were being built.
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alecsandros
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Re: Yamato and Musashi as carriers

Post by alecsandros »

neil hilton wrote:Late war yes, but just pre war and early war, ie pre Midway before the huge attrition rates kicked in they would have produced the air groups for the carriers while they were being built.
... It is a very interesting scenario,

Asuming Yamato could operate 100 warplanes, Coral Sea may be entirely different, with both Lexington and Saratoga sunk on site.

Even considering high attrition rates for their air crews, Yamato and Musashi could be used in the attacks on Midway. Having 2 extra heavy carriers at hand would be extremely valuable for Yamamoto, and their 200+ warplanes available immediately could cripple or sink Enterprise and HOrnet while Hyryu would attack Yorktown.

The war of the Pacific could be very different, at least in 1942.

They would probably force the USN to bring all carriers from the Atlantic (Wasp, Ranger) just to keep things even. THis would leave Malta convoys and Malta itself with less protection and with less chances of survival.
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tameraire01
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Re: Yamato and Musashi as carriers

Post by tameraire01 »

The implacables were completed in 42 but commissioned in 44 could we have them in say late 42 to combat the loss of the usn carriers in the atlantic?
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas. Joseph Stalin
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RF
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Re: Yamato and Musashi as carriers

Post by RF »

Steve Crandell wrote:The problem is finding the aircrews, with the IJN's very slow rate of training them. Late war they had carriers with very few competent pilots on them. More carriers might not help much.
I would very much agree with this conclusion.
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aurora
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Re: Yamato and Musashi as carriers

Post by aurora »

Shinano , named after the old province of Shinano, was an aircraft carrier built by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Initially laid down in May 1940 as the third of the Yamato-class battleships, Shinano '​s partially complete hull was converted to a supercarrier in 1942, midway through construction. Over the next two years, the ship was heavily modified and she became the largest aircraft carrier built up to that time.

Partially completed in November 1944, Shinano was sent from the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal to Kure Naval Base to complete fitting out and transfer a load of 50 Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket-propelled kamikaze flying bombs. En route to Kure, she was sunk on 29 November 1944, 10 days after commissioning, by four torpedoes from the American submarine Archerfish.

The ship carried an inexperienced crew, had serious design and construction flaws, and was not ready for combat. Over a thousand of her crew and passengers were rescued, but 1,435 sailors and civilians died, including her captain. Shinano remains the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine.
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