Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano

Shinano

Shinano underway during her sea trials in Tokyo Bay
History
Japan
Name	Shinano
Namesake	Shinano Province
Builder	Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
Laid down	4 May 1940
Launched	8 October 1944
Completed	19 November 1944 (for trials)
Fate	Sunk by the submarine USS Archerfish, 29 November 1944
General characteristics
Type	Aircraft carrier
Displacement	65,800 t (64,800 long tons) (standard)
Length	265.8 m (872 ft 2 in) (o/a)
Beam	36.3 m (119 ft 1 in)
Draught	10.3 m (33 ft 10 in)
Installed power	12 × water-tube boilers 150,000 shp (110,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × shafts; 4 × geared steam turbines
Speed	28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range	10,000 nmi (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement	2,400
Armament	8 × twin 12.7 cm (5 in) DP guns 35 × triple 2.5 cm (1 in) AA guns 12 × 28-barrel 12 cm (4.7 in) AA rocket launchers
Armor	Waterline belt: 160–400 mm (6.3–15.7 in) Flight deck: 75 mm (3 in)
Aircraft carried	47

Shinano (信濃) was an aircraft carrier built by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II, the largest such built up to that time. Laid down in May 1940 as the third of the Yamato-class battleships, Shinano's partially complete hull was ordered to be converted to an aircraft carrier following Japan's disastrous loss of four of its original six fleet carriers at the Battle of Midway in mid-1942. The advanced state of her construction prevented her conversion into a fleet carrier, so the IJN decided to convert her into a carrier that supported other carriers.

Her conversion was still not finished in November 1944 when she was ordered to sail from the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal to Kure Naval Base to complete fitting out and transfer a load of 50 Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket-propelled kamikaze flying bombs. She was sunk en route, 10 days after commissioning, on 29 November 1944, by four torpedoes from the U.S. Navy submarine Archerfish. Over a thousand sailors and civilians were rescued and 1,435 were lost, including her captain. She remains the largest ship ever sunk by a submarine.^[1]