Comments by "Bk Jeong" (@bkjeong4302) on "The Last Japanese Fleet Carriers - Unryu/Ikoma Class" video.

  1. This really goes to show that Japan ran out of pilots long before they ran out of aircraft carriers. They planned to build a lot of carriers and got partway through it without actually having the pilots to fly off of them.
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  2. Armour is NOT a key feature of carriers in the Pacific (or most situations really). The British went with heavy armour due to expecting a very different set of situations.
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  3.  @ariancontreras4358  By that point they had long since run out of well-trained pilots (which happened during the Guadalcanal campaign). As I said-they ran out of pilots before they ran out of aircraft carriers.
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  4.  @roho10011  fuel was always a limiting factor for the Japanese-it was one of the big reasons they wanted to expand in the first place.
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  5.  @dogcarman  I suspect this was the reason Japan resorted to a small number of elite pilots in the first place. They couldn’t come up with a better pilot training regimen that would actually be feasible.
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  6.  @roho10011  Did Japan have enough fuel to actually implement a proper pilot rotation system in the first place?
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  7.  @gleamingcolt  Because the Italian 15” had insane muzzle velocity that gave it range and penetration rivalling the American 16”/50 and Japanese 18” guns. Though the range was a moot point because at 30,000+ yards no WWII-era fire control system (not even that of the Iowas combined with radar) could hit reliably enough for effective gunnery.
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  8.  @MattLovesArchie  Given Japan was out of pilots? Not really if much use.
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  9. Probably the first multirole strike fighter in the world. Unfortunately for the Japanese, they had already run out of pilots by the time it had become a thing, so the thing was useless anyways in spite of being one of the most advanced prop aircraft of WWII.
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  10. The Shokakus took as long as the Yamatos to build. That’s why.
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  11. Alternatively: the USSR gets their hands on these. Now they have a carrier fleet.
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  12. Basically a slightly bigger Yamato with 6 20” guns instead of 9 18” guns.
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  13. Given that the super-Yamatos were planned at the same time as the Yamatos, and never laid down…
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  14. Kurita was right to retreat given hindsight, since he was too late to actually attack the American troops and supplies (due to them having been already landed…)
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  15.  @gregorywright4918  given that the Shokakus took about as long from keel laying to entering service as Yamato….
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  16. They physically couldn’t have built that many carriers even if they cancelled the Yamatos, unless they magically get more drydocks or slipways to build them in. At most you’re getting another two carriers by PH. And no, they can’t get around this by building the carriers faster, because Shokaku and Zuikaku already took about as long to build and put into service as Yamato and Musashi.
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  17.  @drazenbicanic3590  You’re completely ignoring one thing: having all that material is useless if you don’t have enough drydocks to actually build stuff in. I literally explained this in my previous comment. The problem Japanese shipbuilding faced wasn’t a lack of materials, but a lack of infrastructure, something that was always a problem since long before the war. Not building the two Yamatos might give you enough material for 4 extra aircraft carriers, but it only gives you two extra drydocks of sufficient size to build those aircraft carriers in, so you only get two more carriers regardless of how much material you have. And before you say “but why not just use other drydocks?” Those were already being used to build other ships (including Zuikaku and her older sister-the class was the SHOKAKU class, not the Zuikaku class) when the Yamatos were being built. So if you don’t build the Yamatos, you only get the two drydocks that are now not going to be used to build them to work with.
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  18.  @drazenbicanic3590  Where are you going to get the fuel needed for a proper pilot training regime (keep in mind, lack of oil thanks to the American embargo placed upon Japan for their war crimes was a big reason why Japan went to war against the US in the first place!)? Also, you’re backtracking. You said they could have built another four carriers if they didn’t build the Yamatos and I pointed out that this was impossible because they didn’t have enough infrastructure to build that many in that timeframe.
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  19. The problem is that the Super-Yamatos actually had less effective firepower than the Yamatos. They would have had twin 20” turrets in place of triple 18”, making them that much less likely to hit something given a similar level of accuracy, making them outright inferior (especially since the 18” was already more than enough to penetrate literally all belt or deck armour ever put on a ship, similarly to the 16”/50 or the Italian 15”)
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  20.  @zeedub8560  Oh God, the original Shokakus were bad enough to deal with. Let’s hope they don’t build 21st century versions.
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  21. First strike fighter in history. That said, given the lack of pilots, it couldn’t have done much.
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  22. Already done years ago
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