was an

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

unit of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

First Air Fleet The , also known as the ''Kidō Butai'' ("Mobile Force"), was a combined carrier battle group comprising most of the aircraft carriers and carrier air groups of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the first eight months of the Pacific War. A ...

. At the beginning of the Pacific Campaign of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Second Carrier Division consisted of the fleet carriers '' Sōryū'' and '' Hiryū''. Both carriers were sunk at the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of t ...

in June 1942 and were replaced by '' Jun'yō'' and '' Ryūjō''.

Organization (extract)

Commander

References

Bibliography

*''The Maru Special series'', (Japan) *''Ships of the World series'', , (Japan) 2 Units of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service Military units and formations established in 1934 Military units and formations disestablished in 1944 {{World-War-II-stub