Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-73.220.89.40-20150318192417/@comment-21356142-20160119182249

What is the name of this "best naval scholar in your country" also what country are you refering to? He is being quite misleading.

The Japanese, like every other nation with a carrier aside from the US, had a second hangar with which to carry these reserve craft in an assembled state, in addition to disassembled models for parts and service. To put it simply, the hangars of these carriers were built as part of the ships hull and were of rigid construction. This allowed for the ship to retain good seakeeping qualities and allowed for the hangars to be armoured which theoretically protected the aircraft.

US carriers however built a single large hangar superstructure placed unto the hull of the ship allowing for a much roomier hangar and flight deck space, but sacrificed seaworthiness and protection.

Now, damage being done to a US carriers blew outwards because the hangar was an extra construction on top of the hull. This had the advantage of limiting damage to the deck because the explosion did not collapse the deck, and damage to the hangar was easily repairable as it was a seperate structure from the deck. However this made the internals of the ship incredibly vulnerable, as we see where US carriers routinely had their machinery disabled during attacks.

Now the Japanese had their hangars integrated as part of the hull. This meant that bombs hitting the deck would project their force upwards, collapsing the deck and rendering it unusable. Damage to the hangar is also structural damage to the hull, making repairs more time intensive. However Japanese carriers had much better protected internal components and hull stability.

For her sortie in Midway, Hiryuu's air group was an even 21 Zeros, 21 D3A1s, and 21 B5N2s. If you can add, this amounts to 63. In addition 10 aircraft were carried in reserve.

The Air group for the Enterprise was originally 36 SBDs, 18F4Fs, 18 TBDs for a grand total of 72. Following refits this increased to 36 SBDs, 36 F4Fs, and 15 TBDs for a total of 87. And finally in 1944 her airgroup consisted of 20 Helldivers, 36 F6Fs, and 16 TBMs for a total back to 72. Her night battle group was 34 F6Fs and 21 TBMs for 55.

Also Akagi, Kaga, Hiryuu, and Souryuu were all afloat several hours after the damage as I mentioned. Ships typically do not sink unless their hull itself is compromised. Whether they were TCLs is another matter. Indeed, the only Japanese aircraft carrier the US sank with aircraft and was not scuttled by the Japanese was Zuikaku on her suicide run.

The US advantage in damage control was entirely due to training, every US sailor was drilled in damage control, whereas the Japanese only had dedicated Damage control crew, a practice they adopted from the British.

But all in all, I think historical evidence shows it best. Hiryuu, being the sole survivor at Midway and facing 3 enemy CVs managed to sink the Yorktown. During Santa Cruz, the IJN sank the USS Hornet with no loss of carriers. During the Phillipine Sea, all the Japanese losses in carriers were due to submarines rather then US carriers. And at Leyte the remains of the IJN carrier force was sent out as bait to allow the surface fleet to engage.