Kaga

Kaga began life as a battleship hull and was converted into an aircraft carrier under the Washington Naval Treaty, becoming one of the largest carriers in the Imperial Japanese Navy with a hangar capacity of some ninety aircraft. She took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the conquest of Rabaul, and the raid into the Indian Ocean. On the morning of 4 June 1942 her deck was crowded with aircraft landing, refuelling and rearming when American dive bombers arrived almost unopposed: four or more bombs struck in quick succession, turning her hangars into a furnace and knocking out her flight deck. Kaga burned through the afternoon, drifted without power, and exploded and sank that evening — the first Japanese fleet carrier lost at Midway. With her went nearly all of her embarked aircrews, veterans trained over two years that the Imperial Navy could never replace. Her drifting, burning hull refused to sink for hours, and destroyers spent the afternoon taking off survivors before she rolled over and went down by the stern.