IJN AIRCRAFT CARRIER UNRYU

Unryu (Japanese: Dragon of Clouds) was a Japanese aircraft carrier whose keel was laid in 1942, launched in September 1943, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1944. The ship was 226 meters long, 22 meters wide, and had a full displacement of 20,400 tons. The top speed of the aircraft carrier Unryu was around 34 knots, and its main armament consisted of 65 on-board planes. Unryu was the first of 16 planned aircraft carriers of the type to which he gave the name - Unryu. In fact, only three ships of this class entered service. Unryu, like its twin units, was based on the modified Hiryu aircraft carrier. The differences between the two types of ships were small and mainly related to the layout of the starting deck. The participation of aircraft carrier Unryu in World War II was symbolic and limited to a single voyage in December 1944, when it departed from the base at Kure and, accompanied by three destroyers, headed towards Manila. In the East China Sea, it was torpedoed by the USS Redfish submarine and sank on December 19, 1944 as a result of being hit by two torpedoes. The only commander of the ship was Kanale Konishi, which went down with his ship.