Zuikaku

Zuikaku ("Auspicious Crane") was the second carrier of the Shōkaku class, commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy in September 1941. With her sister Shōkaku she formed the Fifth Carrier Division and took part in the Pearl Harbor strike and the Indian Ocean raid. Modern and fast, the two sisters were the newest large carriers afloat when the war began, and their air groups were among the best trained in the navy. In the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942 her aircraft helped cripple USS Lexington, but the two days of fighting bled her air group white: more than half of the planes she brought south were lost, together with many of her trained aircrews. The hull itself escaped without a bomb hit, yet a carrier without its air group could not fight, and rebuilding it took months. The Japanese navy chose not to wait: Zuikaku, like her damaged sister, was left behind when the striking force sailed for Midway, and Japan's four carriers met the Americans with two of their six fleet carriers missing.