Talk:Japanese aircraft carrier Shōkaku

How long was Shokaku out of action after Coral Sea?

Shokaku - most powerful carrier in the world?
I'm repeatedly removing the note about Shokaku being the most powerful carrier in the world at the start of World War II. Lexington and Saratoga were equal to or superior to Shokaku, and were built ten years earlier. Akagi and Kaga were slower, but were in other respects equal to or superior to Shokaku. Note that I'm not trying to add "superior to any other carrier" labels to any of the above ships. The situation is sufficiently muddy that calling any of these ships "best in the world" is POV. TomTheHand 18:58, 27 October 2005 (UTC)


 * whether or not it was the most powerful carrier in the world at the start of World War II it is hard to say (Enterprise was probably equal) however Lexington, Saratoga, Akagi and Kaga were all converted from battlecruisers or battleships and they were much slower and their range wasn't as good. Loosmark (talk) 01:15, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Lexington and Saratoga were as fast as or faster than Shōkaku, and had enough range to sail from San Francisco to Tokyo and back without refueling; the range difference isn't a significant point. TomTheHand (talk) 01:33, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * All the sources i've give the Shokakus as slightly faster. do you have any good source for the range? Loosmark (talk) 10:54, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * This source indicates that Saratoga reached 34.99 knots on her trials. I don't have the source at hand for Lexington's 34.82 knot trial speed.  Navsource.org notes that their design endurance was 10,000 nautical miles at 10 knots; Tokyo is about 4100 nautical miles from San Francisco, so I gave that as an example. TomTheHand (talk) 14:32, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Tokyo San Francisco is 4100 nautical miles however i think thats in straight line in practise you can't sail like that due operational factors, antisub zigzaging ,sea conditions etc. etc.

btw the second link you give indicates her speed was 33.25+ knots. Shokaku's speed was 34,2 knots according to.

Loosmark (talk) 14:51, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * So... in summary... they were capable of about the same speed, Lexington and Saratoga carried a larger air group, more armor, and more armament, had an insignificant disadvantage in range, and were completed ten years earlier, and so if you edit this article to state that Shokaku was the most powerful carrier in the world, I will remove it. TomTheHand (talk) 18:36, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * For one, Lexington and Saratoga carried 78 aircraft, while Shokaku and Zuikaku carried 84, and spotting planes made up some of their aircraft, while the Kakus devoted their entire group to attack aircraft. This is made less impressive by the fact that the Lexs were bigger than the Kakus, yet carried less aircraft since they were conversions and not purpose built designs. This is not even stating the aircraft the Kakus carried were all superior to any of the aircraft Lexington carried by the Kaku's commissioning (besides maybe the Dauntless).
 * The kaku's belt was slightly thinner than the Lexs, 6.5-inches vs 5-7-inches, but their deck was much thicker at 2.6-5.2-inches vs the Lex's 0.75-2-inch deck.
 * Pretty much every source I've seen states the Lexingtons as 32.5 knot carriers, while the Kakus could make 34.6 knots
 * It's simple, the Shokakus were simply better carriers then Lady Lex and Saratoga. If you doubt this, just remember which ships sank USS Lexington.
 * Shokaku class aircraft carriers (naval-encyclopedia.com)-source Micheal Harrens (talk) 00:40, 11 May 2024 (UTC)


 * more armor? i went to check:

belt Lexinton 127mm Shokaku 45mm with 165mm over magazines deck Lexington 55mm Shokaku 100mm with 130mm over the magazines. more armament? Lexington and Saragota were converted battlecruisers and such they carried those big twin 203mm LA guns which were completely useless for a carrier. for heavy AA they carried 12 (single) 127mm guns. Shokakus on the other hand had 16 (8 double) 127mm thus their armament seems better. Loosmark (talk) 19:03, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

25mm guns
When Shokaku was sunk, her 25mm guns were 70. "96 25mm guns" is her sistership Zuikaku's datum at the Battle of Cape Engano(1944). Byouyou 22:11, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Navy link is dead. 199.48.74.226 (talk) 21:02, 21 October 2019 (UTC)