stewninja

Exploring great cooking, exchanging interesting ideas, doing what comes to mind (sometimes even making sense)

[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.

[Brandon @LibOrNormal]

Combat vet pouring his heart into handmade American flags like this? 🇺🇸
Dude’s been through hell, rocking the scars, and still out here building beauty for the country he fought for. Respect.
Would you buy one?

[Aleksey The Great 🇷🇺🎖 @aleksthgrt]

A fascinating image from a Su-35S pilot 🇷🇺🫡🌅

[KnightCziwi⚔️ 🇵🇱 @KnightCziwi]

I speak polish 🇵🇱. What is your superpower? 🦸‍♂️

[That's Freaking Amazing @DesireToSee]

🥰🐕

[Echo 𝕏 @echodatruth]

🚨 China Is Turning America’s Silver Weapon Back on the Dollar 🚨

In this video, my cousin Asian Guy breaks down a story most people have never been taught. It starts with the 1934 Silver Purchase Act, why the United States weaponized silver in the first place, and how American banks inadvertently helped drain silver out of China. He walks through the economic devastation that followed, deflation, credit collapses, and mass business failures, and how China was ultimately forced into a historic currency reform in 1935 that reshaped its financial future. From there, he connects the past to the present, explaining today’s silver supply and demand realities, why industrial use like solar panels and electric vehicles is quietly tightening the market, and how BRICS nations are accelerating de-dollarization while central banks hoard gold. Finally, he ties it all together with current market dynamics and what these signals may be warning us about as silver once again becomes a geopolitical and monetary weapon.

[Trending Bitcoin @TrendingBitcoin]

Milton Friedman on government’s four major functions:

1) Ensure national defense
2) Protect citizens from “abuse and coercion by other citizens”
3) Define and uphold private property rights
4) Maintain a judicial system to adjudicate disputes and enforce rules

[Interesting AF @interesting_aIl]

Cursing has never sounded so elegant

[Uncommon Sense @Uncommonsince76]

“I’m sorry if one of your billionaire donors gets embarrassed for going to rape island, but many of them need to be behind bars.”

- Thomas Massie

[Michael McCarthy @punishablepress]

Gen Z in Nepal showing the world how it's done.

[Michael McGill 🏛 @mcgillmd921]

Good morning to everyone who knows that Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus were REAL people. 🫡🏛️

[The Driven Man @Thedrivenman]

Men,
These 3 things will change your life:

[Thought Odyssey @ThoughtTOX]

This bear fought in WW2.

He carried ammo, drank beer, and helped the Polish Army crush Nazis at the brutal battle of Monte Cassino.

He became a symbol of hope for generations to come.

Meet Wojtek—the soldier bear who beat Hitler’s army:

[Today in History @TodayinHistory]

Today in 1945, George Orwell published a devastating critique of Communism.

Animal Farm reveals why every communist revolution follows the same tragic pattern: liberation to corruption to oppression.

Here are 10 truths from Animal Farm Orwell warned us never to forget 🧵👇🏼

[Talk Church @churchtalkative]

Ex gang member from Chicago. I believe God is using him to warn us.

[🇺🇸 /RICK/ 🇺🇸 @Rickbarmore]

Before you move to the south! 🤣