Shokaku & Zuikaku

[tiger claw]

notes i have on both Carries say that they held 84 aircraft not 72!
and 25mm AA are 36 not 42 and were upgraded after being damaged .To 70-25mm and then to 96 before being sunk.

from japanese warships by A.j watts/ian allan published 1966

[JohnK]

Doesn't mean it's true. Something you quickly learn once seriously doing military history research . Even something non-controversial (seeming) like number of AC carried by a Carrier.

Japanese CVs routinely carried fewer AC than their "rated" capacity.

Dunnigan lists Shokaku/Zuikaku with 72 planes each, in his recent "Victory at Sea" book.

[JohnK]

http://www.warships1.com/W-OOB/OOB_WWII_Pacific/

Has excellent detailed Pacific OOBs.

In the three CV battles that both Zuikaku and Shokaku participated during the UV period (Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons, and Santa Cruz) at no time did EITHER ship ever operate more than 72 aircraft (at Eastern Solomons.) In the other two battles, both ships only had 60-65 or so operating aircraft!

The 84 you saw (and I know I've seen that number other places) was probably the theoretical claim of the designer of the ship when construction started; however, Japanese CVs were poorly laid out for efficient operations, and Japanese carrier aircraft had odd folding wing arrangements and were hard to store, so IN PRACTICE (what really matters) the IJN found that they couldn't actually operate the "rated" number of AC on their carriers.

[tiger claw]

ok shokaku & zuikaku had 72 operational + 12 spare total 84
THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY Antony j.watts Brain g gordon
published 1971

[Ron Saueracker]

And I believe the spares were not totally assembled. Good going Tiger Klaw.