IJN Hyūga - An Unlucky Ship With a Questionable Rebuild 

I've been fascinated by the IJN for the past 40 years, building the 700-scale waterline ships, reading books, and studying the fleet. It's incredible how Japan went from small wooden ships at the beginning of the Meiji Period to the super battleship Yamato in a span of 70 years!

Operation Kita, the transport run of the two battle carriers in February 1945, was arguably one of the last successful operations of the IJN. The two ships were loaded full of critical war materiel like rubber and aviation fuel and managed to avoid no less than 26 allied submarines on the way from Singapore to Japan without any loss. Allied submarine command was justifiably livid that despite ultra intercepts no ships were sunk. Since the carriers of Task Force 38/58 were not engaged at the time they were only engaged unsuccessfully by land based aircraft but still this run was quite the archivement for that stage of the war.

The current JMSDF Hyuga is a nicely done, flat deck, helicopter/destroyer.

As much as I love those old hybrids, I must admit Ise and Hyuga might've been put to better use as full-fledged battleships. The only upside to Ise and Hyuga in their BBAV configuration is having a single, coordinated scout group, plus a dozen or so spare aircraft for any fleet carriers. But the IJN was never going to be able to replace the planes and pilots that they were losing in each encounter with American aircraft. Shinano and Unryu were both sunk with more suicide weapons aboard than planes. Poor Katsuragi never even embarked a single plane, nor sailed from Japan's home waters.

One reason in support of its half carrier conversion: In the Japanese Navy, scout planes were supplied by float planes launched by Cruisers, rather than planes from their Carriers. As a result, there was always a shortage of scout planes and because they were flying off multiple cruisers, they were often poorly coordinated. This explains the generally poor Japanese scouting performance, particularly at Midway. That plus the time consuming recovery, refueling and relaunching these float plane scouts put their Cruisers in considerable and needless danger. The American equivalent was the SDB Dauntless and its successors that flew off its Carriers. The SDB stood for Scout/Dive Bombers. This also explains the massive radio sets on the SDBs for reporting during their scouting patrols. So, converting the otherwise old and arguably useless Ise and Hyuga to scout plane carriers made sense.

Interesting Fact: Ise and Hyuga conversion used 30% of the materials originally from Warship Number 111, the unfinished fourth ship of the Yamato-class.

Hyūga saved her luck for her supply run back to Japan from Singapore in 1945.

The IJN really should have stripped out one amidships turret and used the saved weight/space for enough machinery to push her to 27/28 knots during the 1930s rebuild. That way it would have been fast enough to escort Kaga.

Great video Skynea yes please do a video on battle-carriers. I love the idea of hybrid warships.

I find it interesting that despite being slightly larger than the Fuso class the Hyugas actually had LESS crew habitable floor space. Maybe it was the fact that between the 2nd smokestack and aft tripod mast there was one less deck.

her turret arrangement is weird, but in a very charming way.

You are failing to consider the Japanese experiences of WW2 in which their aircraft equipped cruisers played a role in their fleet operations, namely in taking over scouting from the carriers, allowing the carriers to concentrate on air defence and air attacks. These hydrid battleships were an extension of that practice, taken to a greater more aggressive level. Not sure it was something I would have done myself but clearly someone in the Japanese navy felt it was a good idea.

I really enjoy and appreciate you telling us about these old beautiful war horses.

It such a interesting, though ultimately ineffective, idea to combine a battleship and carrier. Theory sounds nice on paper, but practice is what decides how it will be used and be remembered. And this, Hyuga, was a clear example of that. I don't fault the designers too much, nor those who requested it, for wanting to make an older battleship more useful, plus it arguably could have saved time and effort compared to a full conversion into a carrier, but choosing to go part way in this case did this ship no favors. This is how I see it and not necessarily how the Japanese saw it bare in mind, but it probably would have been better to make her into a purpose built freighter. Remove one or two turrets, add a crane or two, and clear space inside for tanks, planes, spare parts, fuel or other war materials and send her on her way. Maybe even upgrade her so she can move faster in the water to avoid Submarine attacks. Though this is only a mere suggestion out of possible several that could have been made.

always interesting, well done.

I really enjoy your video's. They are very informative and interesting. I also like that they aren't long like the bigger channels. They have a tendency to go on and on . They are boring. Great job and keep them coming. 👏

And yet in WOWS, its a T6 terror.

You summed it up great in the beginning "fun in fiction". A battlecarrier is such a cool concept...If only they could have worked.

As a main carrier, it would indeed be pointless, but if you need to send a small number of ships to carry out some kind of a secondary mission and you kind of need them to have reconnaissance and possibly a handful of fighter, but you can't be bothered to send a proper carrier, because you know via intelligence that there's no proper enemy carriers in the area, then this would be a good option. It can support an amphibious landing and provide some entry-level air cover for a small fleet of a low strategic importance against a weak enemy.

The biggest problem with the use of it's 4 oldest Battleships the 2 _Ises_ and 2 _Fusos_ was that they were to slow for a lot of the thing the Japanese wanted to do. What I believe - is that they should have formed a 4 ship division from these ships and used them where the could. The Carrier Conversions were stupid. To a degree - what they do seem to have done with these 4 ships - was keep them as a reserve force around the Home Islands. That does make some sense. For Leyte Gulf - all four of the old battleships should have been in the Southern Force - in one formation, under one command. It wouldn't have changed much - but the Japanese could have given a better account of themselves. With all the ships the Americans had there - from PT boats to Battleships - whatever the Japanese had sent - other than the Yamato's - was going to get slaughtered. The Carriers were enough of a diversion off Cape Engano - the two Ise's contributed nothing. All they had to do - was what they did - in drawing off Halsey's main force of Carriers. Having those two old battleships there did nothing. .

The twin turrets were used in larger count than triple turrets. The idea was it's harder to knock out 6 turrets vs 4. These ships were actually superior to the 14 inch gunned US standards. They could maintain higher speed than their American counterparts.

Things that failed in real life but turned out functional in pixel ship world.

Jumping into not very probable alt-history, I wonder whether an intact Ise and Hyuga sailing with Nishimura might have made the Battle of Surigao Strait a bit less one-sided.

I read some where that this class of BB were not popular with crew because of cramped living spaces.

Hyuga and Ise should have been made to accompany Yamato on her final suicide mission. They could have put Kamikaze planes on her to take off for their own one way trip to Okinawa.

If Ise went into a full carrier conversion, she would have been a fairly big carrier, but without major strike groups given the limited number of planes avalable and pilots to fly them.

Reminds me of the terrible rebuilds of the RN Tiger class.

You know a refit has not gone well when the badly losing side of a naval war still places the vessel in reserve.

The hybrid carriers where so unique.

It's actually quite interesting to see how and why these carrier hybrids were built. It is a rather useless endeavor or perhaps they may have been of some use if there were actually aircraft that could be launched, AND recovered.

that crow nest on top of the pagoda must have had an impressive view. is there where fire control was located?

Bring on the pagoda mast!!!

I love her in world of warships her guns are monterous. She best in tier 5

Mistakes always happen when you’re in a desperate situation with nothing thought thru properly.

A Battle Carrier is in theory - a good idea! But theory pales when put into practice! And there was a shortcoming in available aircraft after the turn of 1944 into 1945! As the Kamikaze strategy was adopted. This ship was a sad miscalculation.

25mm morale boosters. LOL

Question: where did these battleships store things like precious war materials?

A useless battleship rebuilt as a potentially useful hybrid. Taking that thing in its original config into a surface battle would have been another Fuso experience. Operating a scouting squadron, she at least had a chance to contribute.

Questionable? You're too kind.

So her shaft horse power is doubled but her speed is increased by one knot

They would've been better with four 14" triple turrets.

As "carriers", the Ise and Hyuga were slo-o-o-owww and could not land their fighting aircraft. As "battleships" Ise and Hyuga had as many main guns as a pre-Dreadnought and a huge area of vulnerability that was fortified with large quantities of flammable gasoline. They were sort of an aircraft ferry capable of defending itself from surface attack. Except they couldn't carry a lot of aircraft, had a very large crew, and were fuel hogs. Admittedly, the Fuso and Ise classes were of limited usefulness, much as were USN pre-Treaty "Standard" battleships.

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So it’s a trans-carrier.

Judy and Paul? I think you mean Suisei and Zuiun

In a yard sale recently i bought a DVD of 1979 Battle of Midway with Charlton Heston where a US Senator is holidaying on his power cruiser to the NW of Hawaii and a spotter plane from Nagumo's Pearl Harbour bound attack fleet sinks the boat for i vaguely remember some years ago there was a online debate wether a Senator did disappear on that Day of Infamy some said yes others said no does anybody know for sure.As Nagumo was hiding behind a N Westerly Weather Front to shield his fleet from Recce Planes a 50ft cruiser may get into difficulties????

My question is why keep sacrificeing the best of your nations men knowing your going to loss anyway. Would it not have been smarter and helped Japan out today more of they had seen what was ovous how many more amazing men and woman been around and what else would we have. Also we seen ships turned into floating forests. They could have easily dune this here but they choose to leave her exposed. As over the top as the Japanese where it's vary hard to imagine then not protecting what ships they had left. That said there must have been a side trying to end things in there government that decidee not to hide this ship and others.