“There is the steel we need,” said Nagano. “It will take two years in the repair yards to restore those ships to what they were. Then all we will we have is old Mutsu back again. I know there has been talk of converting that ship, and the Ise and Hyuga, to hybrid seaplane carriers, but they would all be too slow at only 23 knots to serve as a fleet scout ship. This is why we sent the Hawks back to their cages.”
Nagano was referring to the Taiyo Class, all with names relating to hawks. They were three Escort Carriers converted from ocean liners acquired by the navy before the war, and activated in Phase I of the Shadow Fleet program, but the Navy was not happy with them because of their slow speed. They served well enough in the first months of the war, mostly as invasion escorts. Now the Navy needed faster ships to dance on the high seas with the Americans, and so the Hawks were sent back to the dry docks to improve their propulsion systems. They began with four Kampon water tube boilers, and they would each get two more, hopefully improving power and speed from 21 knots to 30.
Nagano’s idea had a lot of merit. “Why not scrap Chikuma and Mutsu, and then build out more ships like the Tone? Better yet, why not build more of these fast hybrid carriers like Gozo and Mezu, only bigger, on a hull the size of Tone? Then it could carry both seaplanes as well as fighters.”
Nagano’s logic was sound, and his authority, supported enthusiastically by Yamamoto, would see the project come to life. It would be called the Okami Class, named for the Fox Kami that was a bit of a shapeshifter in Japanese Mythology, renowned for its stealth and far seeing abilities. What the Japanese would do is take those last two hulls that had been reserved for the Tone class, and build yet another hybrid design. It was much bigger and heavier than the Gozo class, at 15,000 tons. Okami and Kitsune were the first two conversions, and they could run at 34 knots, with a very long service range of 14,000 nautical miles. Like the Vicksburg, they would carry 24 planes, twice as many as the smaller Gozo Class that had trail blazed this hybrid concept.
The idea was further enhanced when designers decided that a special aircraft might be used to give the ships that long seeing vision that a scout ship would need. The Navy had issued a specification in early 1942 for a long range, high speed, single engine carrier based recon plane—and the need for speed was going to rule out any float plane design. Nakajima won the contract and the C6N Saiun was the prototype they delivered, and much earlier than in the old history because of the ships waiting for such a plane.
The Homare 24-Ru turbocharged engine was fine tune to develop better power at altitude, and the plane became a reality in January of 1943. The first models were being assigned to the scout carriers, and they soon demonstrated some remarkable abilities. Able to fly at 380 MPH, with a service ceiling of 35,240 feet and the astounding range of 2886 nautical miles due to its low mounted laminar flow wing housed fuel tanks. Named after the iridescent high altitude clouds it could reach, the Saiun would soon prove very useful on these smaller capacity carriers, allowing the larger fleet carriers to use all their dive bombers and torpedo planes in the strike role.
The designers were now wholly embracing the shapeshifting mindset themselves, particularly after what they had seen the Americans do with the Vicksburg Class. They already had a third Gozo Class scout carrier ready at Kobe, the Kiryu, armed with 12 fighters. It would now be joined by these two new Okami Class hybrid scouts.
This work, and the steel required to build all these ships, came at a price. The Unryu Class Fleet carrier project was not started in August of 1942 as it had been historically. Instead, the Japanese were opting for faster hybrid conversions, even if they could not carry as many planes. These ships would all appear at least a year earlier than the Unryu fleet carrier design, and given the pace of US production, sooner and smaller was deemed better than later and bigger.
“Even the fiercest serpent may be overcome by a swarm of ants,” said Yamamoto. “But if we build these hybrids, there must be enough of them to matter. Build four of these foxes instead of two.” The last two would be Tenko and Tama, to be available later in 1943.
So they were all building, in various stages of completion, some being rushed past the lengthy breaking in of sea trials and right into service. When completed, they would lengthen the register of Japanese ships considerably, adding fleet carriers Shinano and Shingen, which would be the largest carriers in the world when complete, with enough deck and hangar space to hold 96 planes. The Amagi hull conversions, Shirane and Mikasa, could each carry 84 planes; then Kii Class hull conversions, Kinryu and Ryujin, would bring another 48 plus 12 spares each. The smaller Tone hull conversions Okami, Kitsune, Tenko and Tama could carry 24 each, and the Gozo Class Kaya and Kiryu had 12. All together that would send up to 540 planes to sea, assuming the industry could produce them in time. It would double the striking power of the carrier squadrons, and help Japan maintain some edge in that category for the next six months. Some wings already existed, and work was now feverishly switching over from Army type production to carrier capable planes.
Then there was one last addition to the fleet spawned by the need to have destroyers with the carrier fleet at sea. Many of the existing classes were too short in range, so the plans for the super destroyer Shimakaze were expanded to build out a complete destroyer division. That ship was the only one of its class ever built in the old history, but here they would start with a full division of five: Shimakaze, Kitakaze, Hayakaze, Natsukaze, and Fuyukaze. Among the fastest ships in the world at 40 knots. They were much like the Russian Destroyer Leader Tashkent, or the French Le Fantasque, which still held the record at over 45 knots. They would steam 8000 nautical miles, and carry both the Type 93 Torpedo as well as depth charges, along with decent AA protection. In them, the fleet was getting a superb destroyer screen capable of engaging both enemy surface ships and submarines.
This was the shadow fleet, Phase II of the program now being rushed into production at all levels at Yamamoto’s urging, and fully approved by the Emperor. Even though it might appear that the Japanese would be able to keep pace with the Americans into 1943, the production effort had but one flaw. The carrying capacity of the hybrid ships was much lower than a purpose-built carrier designed from scratch. Even if it could join the war twice as fast, with would hit with half the punch.
When the fleet finally arrived at Rabaul on the 17th, both the stricken carriers docked and engineers swarmed aboard to make an assessment of the damage. Kaga had the most serious problems, and it would take at least 38 days to repair, even with an all-out effort. Soryu was expected to be back in service in 16 days, and the cruiser Maya in two weeks. Both Yamamoto and Ugaki were greatly relieved when they heard the news concerning Soryu.