PJ

[Untold War Stories @UntoldWarFacts]

This is real footage of Zeros taking off from the deck of the Akagi.

For half a year, this single ship was the most successful aircraft carrier on Earth. Its planes struck Pearl Harbor, Darwin, and Ceylon, and it never lost.

Then, in a few minutes, she was doomed.

This is the story of the Akagi..
⠀
From Battlecruiser to Flagship
The Akagi, named after Mount Akagi in Japan, was not even meant to be a carrier. She was laid down as a massive battlecruiser, but a naval treaty in the 1920s halted her construction. Rather than scrap the enormous hull, Japan rebuilt her into an aircraft carrier, one of the largest in the world.
By 1941 she had become the flagship of the Kido Butai, the First Air Fleet. This was the most powerful concentration of naval air power on the planet, six aircraft carriers operating together as a single striking fist, something no other navy had ever done.
From her deck, Admiral Chuichi Nagumo commanded the whole force. When Japan decided to open the war with a knockout blow against the United States, it was the Akagi that led the way.

The Carrier That Led Japan's Offensive
On the morning of December 7 1941, the Akagi sat in the dark waters north of Hawaii, and launched her aircraft toward Pearl Harbor.
Her torpedo bombers helped tear apart the American battleship fleet as it lay at anchor. The man who led the entire air attack, Mitsuo Fuchida, flew from her deck. The Akagi was, quite literally, the ship from which America's war began.
And she was just getting started.
Over the next several months, the Akagi and her sister carriers went on a rampage across a third of the globe. In January they struck Rabaul. In February they fell upon the Australian city of Darwin, launching a devastating surprise raid that sank eight ships and became known as Australia's Pearl Harbor.
⠀
Across the Indian Ocean
Then they turned west, into the Indian Ocean.
In the spring of 1942 the Kido Butai swept toward Ceylon, hunting the British Eastern Fleet. Akagi's aircraft helped sink British warships, including the heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire, and sent the Royal Navy reeling out of the eastern Indian Ocean entirely.
In just half a year, the aircraft launched from that deck had struck Hawaii, the Dutch East Indies, Australia, and Ceylon. They had helped sink American, British, and Australian ships across thousands of miles of ocean.
The Akagi had not lost a single battle. She was the most successful and most feared aircraft carrier in the world, the flagship of a force that seemed unstoppable.
It would all end on one morning in June.

The Battle of Midway
In June 1942, the Akagi led the Kido Butai toward a tiny American outpost called Midway. The plan was to seize the island and destroy what was left of the American carrier fleet.
But the Americans had broken the Japanese codes. They knew the Akagi and her sisters were coming, and they were waiting.
On the morning of June 4, the battle turned into chaos. The Japanese carriers had just fought off waves of American attacks, and below the flight deck the Akagi's hangars were packed with aircraft being frantically rearmed and refueled, fuel lines and bombs lying everywhere.
It was the most dangerous possible moment to be caught. And at that exact moment, American dive bombers rolled in out of the sky, unseen until it was too late.
⠀
One Bomb
A lookout screamed a warning. Then the bombs fell.
The Akagi was struck by a single bomb from an American dive bomber, dropped by Lieutenant Richard Best, while near misses battered her hull and jammed her rudder. Just one direct hit. But it struck in the worst possible place, punching down into the hangar deck packed with armed, fueled aircraft.
The explosion set off a chain reaction. Fires roared through the ship, feeding on the fuel and detonating the bombs stacked among the planes. Within minutes the pride of the Japanese fleet was doomed, a spreading inferno no one could control. The flagship that had conquered half an ocean was mortally wounded by one well-aimed bomb.
Admiral Nagumo was forced to abandon his burning flagship and transfer his command to another ship. The Akagi was left blazing, unnavigable, circling helplessly.

The End of the Akagi
The Akagi burned all day and into the night. Unable to save her, and unwilling to let her fall into American hands, the Japanese ordered her own destroyers to sink her. In the early hours of June 5 1942, torpedoes from her escorts sent her to the bottom. She went down bow first. 267 of her crew died with her.
She did not go alone. All four Japanese carriers at Midway, every one of them a veteran of Pearl Harbor, were sunk in the same battle, taking with them their irreplaceable aircraft and elite crews. It was the turning point of the entire Pacific war. Japan would never recover the initiative.

For over 75 years, the Akagi lay lost in the dark. Then in 2019 her wreck was finally found, more than 17,000 feet down, and in 2023 a robot submarine descended to look upon her for the first time since she sank.
The most successful carrier in the world, resting in the deep, where a few fatal minutes sent her.

This was the story of the Akagi.

I post a story like this every single day. Most people never see them. Follow so you don't miss the next one.

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@FreddyLA7 Moose will kill you. Keep your distance

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@ScottPresler He looks like the Bevis and Butthead character

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@shaunvlog_ Trash panda

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@owenjonesjourno No. It’s the Muslims who rape white girls

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@FreddyLA7 Safe travels

[Shaun 🏴��󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇸 @shaunvlog_]

WOW what a night! We went to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox. In the middle of us here is Kevin and his mom, diehard Sox fans who talked us through everything baseball, Boston and the Red Sox. AMAZING!

[Clandestine @WarClandestine]

@FrankLuntz Sorry this didn’t go as you hoped.

Keep your chins up.

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

HOUSTON OMG

[Kelly @kellytx2]

Who else is loving Shaun’s visit to America?🇺🇸❤️

This Scottish lad is filled with pure joy over his discoveries of Texas BBQ, Buc-ee’s, Southern hospitality, and everything that makes America great. Zero complaints, all appreciation!🤠

It’s refreshing to watch him fall in love with our country. Makes you proud to be American!

Who else is following his adventures?

[The Rabbit Hole @TheRabbitHole]

Don’t worry about Elon becoming rich with his own money.

Worry about politicians becoming rich with your money.

[Green Beret Nap Time @GBNT1952]

@Amy_Siskind He directly hires over 180,000 people and has directly created about 100,000 millionaires.

What have you done that compares, you worthless bitch?

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@GerryAdamsSF Nobody cares what you say

[Fergus (Ferg) Power @FergusPower1]

🇮🇪YOU'LL NEVER BEAT THE IRISH🇮🇪

I just want to personally thank every account big & small worldwide that have shown OUR HOME & OUR PEOPLE such love & support.
You're all appreciated beyond any words ever written💚

True unity is what they fear the most🤝

God bless you all🙌🇮🇪

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@AntiWokeMemes Executioner

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

British people on X keep telling us they cannot speak freely.

That saying the truth about mass immigration and crime will get them arrested, fired, or labeled for life.

That is exactly why Japanese accounts have to say it out loud.

Your country is being fundamentally changed against the clear will of the native population.
Your children are paying the highest price.
Your police protect the perpetrators more than the victims.

We in Japan see it clearly.
And we are asking — how much more are you willing to lose before you decide that your children’s future matters more than being called names?

The window is closing. Fast.

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

@TheAtlantic @ClintSmithIII Hot garbage in a hot garbage publication written by a hot garbage "journalist."

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@EdwardJDavey Resign in shame

[PJ @Patrick20543397]

@youlooklikeamom Booty shot

[InfantryDort @infantrydort]

Envy has always hated merit because merit produces winners.

Credentialism was the compromise.

>If you cannot outperform the man, disqualify him.

>If you can’t build what he built, question his qualifications.

>If you can’t beat excellence, create a bureaucracy and demand excellence ask permission first.

That is the entire game.

Credentialism is an attempt to replace accomplishment with permission.