Kaga 1942
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | Kaga | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1942 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | aircraft carrier, dreadnought | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Scuttled | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | Empire of Japan | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Imperial Japanese Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War II | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | North Pacific Ocean | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Position | 30.3842, -179.2839 | Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0) |
About the wreck
Kaga (Japanese: 加賀; named after the ancient Kaga Province) was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Originally intended to be one of two Tosa-class battleships, Kaga was converted under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty to an aircraft carrier as the replacement for the battlecruiser Amagi, which had been irreparably damaged during the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Kaga was rebuilt in 1933–1935, increasing her top speed, improving her exhaust systems, and adapting her flight decks to accommodate more modern, heavier aircraft.
The ship figured prominently in the development of the IJN's carrier striking force doctrine, which grouped carriers together to give greater mass and concentration to their air power. A revolutionary strategic concept at the time, the employment of the doctrine was crucial in enabling Japan to attain its initial strategic goals during the first six months of the Pacific War.
Kaga's aircraft first supported Japanese troops in China during the Shanghai Incident of 1932 and participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s.
Diving & visiting
In May 1999, the Nauticos Corporation, in partnership with the US Navy, discovered some wreckage from Kaga. They employed the research vessel Melville during a survey of a fleet exercise area with the US Navy's recently modified SEAMAP acoustic imaging system. A follow-on search by USNS Sumner in September 1999 located the wreckage and took photos of it. The wreckage included a 50-foot (15 m) long section of hangar bulkhead, two 25 mm anti-aircraft gun tubs, and a landing light array. The artifacts were at a depth of 17,000 feet (5,200 m).
On 18 October 2019, the wreck of Kaga was located by the Director of Undersea Operations for Vulcan Inc. Rob Kraft, David W.
Location
- Recorded position: 30.3842, -179.2839 (Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: North Pacific Ocean
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga (revision 1380749964), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck survey”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- Japanese aircraft carrier Sōryū 1942 · 28 km
- Akagi 1942 · 61 km
Other wrecks of the World War II
- U-434 1941
- USS Arizona (BB-39) 1941
- USS Hopewell 1941
- Vasilefs Georgios 1941
- Zara 1941
- Akagi 1942
- Aviere 1942
- Diana 1942
- Giovanni delle Bande Nere 1942
- HMAS Nestor 1942
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
Browse more: Open ocean wrecks · North Pacific Ocean · Second World War