The aircraft carrier depict in the margin of the stamp sheet of Dominica is given as the SORYU, she is on fire and depict her most probably when she was lost in the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942.
Built as an aircraft carrier by the Kure Navy Yard at Kure for the Imperial Japanese Navy.
20 November 1934 keel laid down.
23 December 1935 launched under the name SORYU (means Blue Dragon.)
Displacement 15.900 tons standard, 19.800 tons full load, dim. 227.5 x 21.30 x 7.60m. (draught)
Powered by geared steam turbines 152.000 hp, four shafts, speed 34.5 knots.
Armament : 6 – 127mm guns, and 14 – 25mm AA guns.
Carried 63 planes when built.
Crew 1.100.
29 December 1937 completed.
She was a fast carrier, but her hull was of a light structure, and her armour was sacrificed in favour of aircraft capacity.
She participated in the Sino-Japanese War, her air group was send ashore to support the Japanese Army in China in 1938.
She was a unit in the Striking Force that attacked Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941.
From her deck two waves of aircraft were launched, the first wave targeted the USS NEVADA, TENNESSEE and WEST VIRGINIA with armour piercing bombs, and UTAH, HELENA, CALIFORNIA and RALEIGH with torpedoes, and the grounded airplanes at Barbers Point.
Her second wave attacked CALIFORNIA, RALEIGH, KANEOHE and Navy installations.
From 21 December till 23 December 1941 she launched air strikes against Wake Island.
January 1942 she supported the invasion of the Palau Islands, and the Battle of Ambon, Dutch East Indies from 30 January till 3 February 1942.
19 February the SORYU launched air strikes against Darwin, Australia.
27 February 1942 she took part in the Battle of the Java Sea, in which most of the Allied ships were destroyed under which Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman’s flagship DE RUYTER, and opened the Dutch East Indies for Japanese occupation.
01 March 1942 the SORYU did help with the sinking of the US navy tanker PECOS (7.383 ton) at Tjilatjap, the PECOS got on board about 300 survivors of the seaplane tender USS LANGLEY, which was sunk on 27 February.
About two thirds of her complement were lost.
April 1942 took part in the attacks on the air-base at Ceylon and also launched air strikes against HMS CORNWALL and DORSETSHIRE. One 9 April she helped to sink the aircraft carrier HMS HERMES and her escorting Australian destroyer HMAS VAMPIRE.
After the Doolittle Raid on 19 April 1942 she pursued the American carriers USS HORNET and ENTERPRISE without success.
In June 1942 was she one of the four aircraft carriers under command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s First Carrier Striking Force in the BATTLE OF MIDWAY from 3 – 6 June 1942.
At that time she did have on board 21 Mitsubishi A6M “Zero” fighters, 21 Aichi D3A “Val” dive bombers and 21 Nakajima B5N “Kate” torpedo bombers.
4 June she launched one wave of planes against the American base on Midway Island.
At 10.25 am when preparing a second strike against the American carrier group, she was attacked by 13 SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the American carrier USS YORKTOWN.
She received three direct hits from 1.000 lbs. bombs, one penetrated to the lower hangar deck, and the other two exploded in the upper hangar deck. The hangars contained armed and fuelled planes in preparation for take off for the next strike, resulting in secondary explosions. Within a very short time the fires on the ship were out of control.
10.45 She was dead in the water, and the order was given to abandon the vessel, the crew was taken off by the destroyers ISOKAZE and HAMAKAZE.
She was sighted that day by the American submarine NAUTILUS (SS-168) when on fire; she fired three torpedoes at her between 13.59 and 14.05, of which at least one was a hit.
19.30 She sank after the ISOKAZE fired some torpedoes at her, taken with her 711 crew under which Captain Yanagimoto, who chose to remain on board.
Dominica 1995 in margin of the sheet.
Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_a ... 8Dry%C5%AB and some other web-sites.
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