American Valor Quarterly Issue 9 - Summer 2012 | Page 36
We had sunk the Zuikaku. Her sister ship,
the Shokaku, had been sunk in the Battle
of the Coral Sea. They were the two
largest operational carriers the Japanese
ever had. The Zuikaku was the last
Japanese aircraft carrier afloat that had
taken part in the raid on Pearl Harbor,
and assisting in her sinking was beyond
my wildest expectations.
The Zuikaku had been commissioned
on September 25, 1941, and was the
flagship of the Imperial Japanese
Navy as well as the flagship of
Admiral Ozawa. She displaced thirty
thousand tons and could carry eightyfour aircraft. Her antiaircraft guns
numbered sixteen 5-inch and ninetysix 20mm cannons.
We had a number of hits on the
carrier: 500-pound bombs from the
fighter planes, 2,000-pound bombs
from our dive-bombers, and several
torpedo hits from the torpedo
squadron. We lost one torpedo plane
and a crew of three. The Japanese lost
843 officers and men when she went
down. They and other countries were
learning the consequences of a sneak
attack on the United States.
Bill Davis would be awarded the Navy Cross—
second only to the Medal of Honor—for his
part in the sinking of the Zuikaku on October
25, 1944.
This article originally appeared in the Summer
2007 edition of World War II Chronicles,
the precursor publication to American Valor
Quarterly, and is adapted from William E.
Davis’ book, Sinking the Rising Sun: Dog
Fighting & Dive
Bombing in World
War II. It is available
from Zenith Press at
bookstores around the
countr y and at
www.zenithpress.com.
Exclusively for
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World War II Veterans Committee
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