Taiho was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II."Taiho" means "Great Phoenix".Built by Kawasaki, she was laid down on 10 July 1941 and launched almost two years later, on 7 April 1943, and was commissioned on 7 March 1944.
Taiho was the first Japanese aircraft carrier of a new design which incorporated a heavily armored flight deck and 2 hangar decks, making her analogous to the Royal Navy's Illustrious class. She was also the first Japanese carrier to incorporate a hurricane bow.
On 19 June 1944, she was flagship of Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's carrier force in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. As Taihō turned into the wind and launched an air strike, she was herself attacked by a spread of six torpedoes from the US submarine USS Albacore (SS-218)Template:WP Ships USS instances. One of the Taihō's strike pilots, Sakio Komatsu, had just taken off when he saw the torpedo wakes and deliberately dived his plane into the path of a torpedo; the weapon detonated short of its target, and four of the remaining five missed.The explosion of the torpedo that hit jammed the ship's forward aircraft elevator; its pit filled with gasoline, water, and fuel. However, no fire erupted, and the flight deck was unharmed.
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