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Lt. Comdr. Herman Kossler, captain of the American submarine Cavalla, watched the big Japanese carrier Shokaku steam a steady course into the southeast wind, raising large bow waves. It was 1100 19 June 1944; the three crack carriers Taiho, Zuikaku, and Shokaku were steaming in formation, having launched air strikes against the U.S. carrier fleet covering the invasion of the Marianas.
The destroyer Urakaze covered Shokaku's starboard side, but seemed unaware of Cavalla, while two cruisers were off her port bow. It was a submariner's dream. At 1118, after peeking with the periscope only three times, and at a range of 1,200 yards the Cavalla unleashed six torpedoes at the Shokaku's starboard side.
Postwar reports provide the barest details: "... struck by not more than three submarine torpedoes. One was close to the forward bomb magazines. Gasoline tanks were ruptured, and there was a fire of undetermined proportions. The fire was extinguished promptly, according to survivors, by closing all access to the spaces surrounding the gasoline tanks. Gasoline fumes, however, began to seep throughout the ship. Several hours later an enormous explosion caused her to disintegrate. It may have been her bomb magazines."
"Damage to the carrier, already severe, was compounded by the outbreak of fires which soon enveloped the entire ship. The situation soon became hopeless as the ship settled rapidly by the bow. Water quickly reached the flight deck and spilled through the open Number 1 elevator into the hanger. Thus stricken the Shokaku lost stability, turned over, and sank".
One of the longest-surviving of Japanese fleet carriers, Shokaku took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor and in the Battle of the Coral Sea, before being sunk by US submarine Cavalla on June 19, 1944, at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, although the precise details of her sinking remain a bit of a mystery.
Shokaku was one of the newest Japanese carriers at the time of Pearl Harbor, having been commissioned in August, 1941. Displacing 30,000 tons, carrying up to 80 airplanes, and able to make 34 knots, she was the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Her enhanced protection compared to contemporary Allied aircraft carriers enabled Shōkaku to survive serious battle damage during Coral Sea and Santa Cruz.
Shōkaku and her sister ship Zuikaku, forming the Japanese 5th Carrier Division. Her aircraft complement consisted of 15 Mitsubishi A6M fighters, 27 Aichi D3A dive bombers, and 27 Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers.
Sources: Public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
and pictures from my father's 1943 Naval Recognition Manual
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