Hiryū

Hiryū, a modified sister of Sōryū, belonged to the 2nd Carrier Division under Rear Admiral Yamaguchi Tamon, one of the boldest carrier leaders of the Imperial Navy. After the three elder carriers were crippled around midday on 4 June 1942, Hiryū fought on alone: her aircraft launched two strikes that afternoon, found USS Yorktown through her own fighter screen, and left the American carrier dead in the water. In return, American dive bombers from Enterprise tracked a straggling scout plane back to the fleet and found Hiryū near dusk, planting four bombs on her forward flight deck. Hiryū burned through the night, her engines stopped, and was scuttled by her own destroyers on the morning of 5 June; Yamaguchi chose to go down with his ship alongside her captain. Her sinking ended the last organised Japanese counterblow at Midway and with it the Mobile Force's campaign. Through the night her crew fought fires below decks, but the explosions had folded her elevator outright, and no amount of damage control could save her.