IJN SHINANO

Take the largest battleship hull (Yamato class) and add a steel reinforced flight deck and you have the largest aircraft ever built during WW II. Lesson learned the Japanese Navy realized after Midway that they needed to build more aircraft carriers and not battleships. The Shinano was to be a 3rd battleship of the Yamato class but was changed over to an aircraft carrier after Midway.

IJN Shinano was named after the Shinano province of Japan, this 71,890 ton super battleship (Yamato Class), now converted to the world’s largest aircraft carrier, set sail on her maiden voyage on November 28, 1944, escorted by three destroyers. Her career lasted only (15) day.

With a full-load displacement of 72,000 long tons (73,000 t), Shinano was the largest aircraft carrier ever built, a record she would hold until USS Forrestal with a displacement of 80,000 long tons (81,000 t)—was launched in 1954.

On her way to the safety of the Inland Sea to conduct her sea trials, she was spotted and sunk by the American submarine USS Archer-Fish commanded by Joseph F. Enright, USN.

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