The Day 300 Japanese Aircraft Attacked — and Barely Reached the American Carriers

The aircraft carrier Shinano died 17 hours into her maiden voyage. Built on the hull of a Yamato-class battleship, 72,000 tons, armoured to stop 1,000-pound bombs and kept so secret the United States did not know she existed, she left Yokosuka at 6:00 p.m. on November 28, 1944. At about 3:15 the next morning, the submarine USS Archerfish, waiting south of Tokyo Bay, put four torpedoes into her. She never launched a single aircraft. This documentary traces how American submarines came to be waiting at the exits of Japan's home waters: the failed Mark 14 torpedo and the fishing-net test at Frenchman Bay, the exploder fixes of 1943, the Gato- and Balao-class fleet boats and SJ radar, the Palawan Passage ambush by Darter and Dace, the sinking of the battleship Kongo, and the six-hour chase and seven-hour death of the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine. Built from patrol reports, loss tables and postwar records, not the legends. Subscribe for the definitive history of the United States in the Second World War — new documentaries every few days. #WW2 #WorldWarII #PacificWar #USNavy #WWIIHistory #Shinano #USSArcherfish #SubmarineWarfare #YamatoClass #MilitaryHistory #USAInWW2