IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVAL AIRCRAFT CARRIER RYUHO 1944

Ryuho was a Japanese light aircraft carrier, the keel of which was laid in April 1933, launched in November of the same year, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in March 1934. The ship was 216 meters long, 19.5 meters wide, and had a full displacement of 16,700 tons. The maximum speed of the aircraft carrier Ryuho was 26 knots, and its main armament was 31-36 airplanes. Ryuho originally entered service with the Japanese Navy as a submarine base ship called Taigei, but was designed to be quickly converted to an aircraft carrier if necessary. Actions in this direction were undertaken in December 1941, and from November 1942 Ryuho entered service as an aircraft carrier. She was baptized in combat, still as a submarine base ship, during the fighting in China in 1938. A more important battle during World War II in which Ryuho took part was the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, which, however, survived with only slight damage. Severely damaged in March 1945, it was not renovated until the end of the war, and by 1947 it was completely scrapped.