Taiho sank stern first, taking with her 1,650 officers and men out of a complement of 2,150. As Ozawa left, another explosion occurred. Admiral Ozawa initially wanted to go down with Taiho as she sank, but his staff wanted him to survive, so he transferred to the heavy cruiser Haguro by destroyer, taking the Emperor's portrait. At 14:30, a tremendous explosion of gas vapors occurred forward, causing the armored flight deck to heave up, and the sides of the hangar deck blew out. But all the ventilation system did was spread the vapors throughout the ship, increasing the chances of them being set off. Eventually, Taiho's chief damage control officer decided to switch the ship's ventilation system on to help get rid of the fumes. In desperation, damage control teams smashed out the ship's portholes to try and rid the ship of the fumes. Soon, the vapors started to spread throughout the hangar decks. The torpedo hit damaged the forward elevator and ruptured aviation fuel tanks, allowing a dangerous amount of fuel vapors to collect in the forward elevator. ![]() ![]() Taiho was sunk on Jafter being struck by 1 torpedo from the submarine USS Albacore (SS-218). Taiho served as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. ![]() With a heavily armored hull and flight deck (a first for any Japanese carrier), Taiho represented a major departure in Japanese carrier design and was expected to not only survive multiple bomb, torpedo, or shell hits but also continue fighting effectively. Taiho was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
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