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Yamato was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She and her sister
ship Musashi were the largest battleships ever constructed, weighing 65,000
tons and armed with 460 mm main guns.
Design work began in 1934 and after modifications it was accepted in
March 1937 for a 68,000 ton vessel. She was built at a specially prepared
dock at Kure naval dockyards from November 4, 1937. She was launched on
August 8, 1940 and commissioned on December 16, 1941. There were intended to
be four ships of this class, but the Shinano was converted to an aircraft
carrier during construction (sunk 1944) and the un-named Warship Number 111
was scrapped in 1943 when around 30% complete. The proposed super Yamato
class, with 508 mm guns, was abandoned.
She was the flagship of Isoroku Yamamoto from February 12, 1942. Replaced
as flagship by the Musashi she spent much of 1943 in harbor at Truk. The
anti-aircraft defences were greatly increased in 1943 at Kure but as she
returned to Truk on December 25, 1943 she was badly damaged by a torpedo
from USS Skate and was not fully repaired until April 1944. She returned to
the conflict and joined the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Philippine
Sea (June) and the Battles of Leyte Gulf and Samar Gulf (October), during
which she first fired her main guns. She returned home in November and her
AA was again upgraded over the winter. Attacked in the Inland Sea on March
19, 1945 by carrier aircraft from Task Force 58 attacking Kure she suffered
little damage.
Her final mission was as part of operation "Ten-Go" following the
invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945. She and her escorts were sent to
attack the US troops on the west of the island, the Yamato was to beach
herself between Hagushi and Yontan and fight until she was destroyed. The
battleship was only given enough fuel to reach Okinawa. On April 6 the
Yamato, a cruiser and eight destroyers left port at Tokuyama, they were
sighted on April 7 as they exited the Inland Sea southwards. The US Navy
launched around 400 aircraft to intercept the taskforce and they engaged the
ships from mid-afternoon. The navy assembled a force of six battleships and
almost thirty escorts to intercept if the air-strikes did not succeed. The
Yamato took up to twenty bomb or torpedo hits before, at about 1420 hrs, she
capsized to port and sank, still some 300 km from Okinawa. Around 2,475 of
her crew were lost and 269 survived. Of her escorts four were sunk and five
were disabled and forced to return to Japan. US losses were ten aircraft and
twelve aircrew.
The wreckage lies in around 300 m of water and has been surveyed in 1985
and in 1999.
For further reading, Yoshida Mitsuru (the only surviving bridge officer)
wrote a detailed description of the ship's final voyage entitled Requiem for
Battleship Yamato
Specifications
- Displacement: 65,027 tonnes (empty, including 21,266 tonnes of armour);
72,800 tonnes (estimated, full load)
- Length: 256 m (water-line)
- Beam: 36 m
- Draft: 11 m (maximum)
- Crew: 2,750
- Armament (1941): 9 of 480 mm guns in 3 turrets; 12 of 155 mm guns; 12
of 12.7 mm guns; 24 of 25 mm AA guns; 8 of 13 mm AA guns. By 1945 the 155
mm and 13 mm guns had been removed and the AA defences had been boosted to
146 of 25 mm guns.
- Power: Kanpon steam turbines, 150,000 shp (estimated)
- Speed: 27 knots
- Endurance: 11,500 km at 16 knots (a knot being about 1.1 mph)
- Armour: 600mm on front of turrets, 409 mm side armour, 198 mm armoured
deck.
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