Online Encyclopedia
Japanese battleship Yamato
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| Career |
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| Ordered: | March 1937 |
| Laid down: | November 4 1937 |
| Launched: | August 8 1940 |
| Commissioned: | December 16 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | |
| Fate: | sunk April 7 1945 |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 72,800 tonnes |
| Dimensions: | 256m x 36m x 11m |
| Propulsion: | = 27kts (50km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | |
| Armament: | 9-18.1in, 12-6.1in, |
| Aircraft: | |
The IJN Yamato (大和) was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She and her sister ship Musashi were the largest battleships ever constructed, weighing 65,027 tons and armed with 18.1in (460mm) main guns.
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Construction
Design work began in 1934 and after modifications the design was accepted in March 1937 for a 68,000 ton vessel. She was built at a specially prepared dock at Kure naval dockyards beginning on the November 4, 1937. She was launched on August 8, 1940 and commissioned on December 16, 1941. It was intended to build 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 roughly 30% complete. Plans for a super Yamato class, with 20in (508mm) guns, were abandoned.
The class was designed to be superior to Missouri-class battleships in all respects. 18.1in (460mm) main guns were selected over 16in (400mm) main guns because the width of the Panama Canal would make it impossible for the U.S. Navy to construct a battleship with same caliber guns without severe design restrictions or an inadequate defensive arrangement. To further confuse enemies, her main guns were officially named as 16-inch and civilians were never notified of their completion. Their budgets were also scattered among various projects so that huge total costs would not be immediately noticeable.
Combat
She was the flagship of Isoroku Yamamoto from 12 February 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 25 December 1943 she was badly damaged by a torpedo from USS Skate and was not fully repaired until April 1944. Two of the 6.1in (155mm) turrets were removed and AA gun platforms replaced them. 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. She was attacked in the Inland Sea on March 19 1945 by carrier aircraft from Task Force 58 as they attacked Kure. She suffered little damage during the engagement.
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 fleet supporting the US troops landing on the west of the island. The Yamato was to beach herself between Hagushi and Yontan and fight as a shore battery until she was destroyed. Since this was from the start intended to be a suicide mission, the battleship was supposed to be given only enough fuel for a one-way trip to Okinawa. However, the crews at the fuel depot at Tokuyama defied orders and courageously supplied the task force with much more. On 6 April Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi and eight destroyers left port at Tokuyama. They were sighted on 7 April as they exited the Inland Sea southwards. The US Navy launched around 400 aircraft to intercept the taskforce and the planes engaged the ships starting in the mid-afternoon. The navy assembled a force of six battleships and almost thirty escorts to intercept the fleet if the air-strikes did not succeed. The Yamato took up to twenty bomb or torpedo hits before, at about 14:20, her magazines detonated. She capsized to port and sank, still some 200km 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 300m of water and has been surveyed in 1985 and 1999.
Further reading
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. Others include The Battleship Yamato by Janusz Skulski, a highly detailed book on every aspect of the ship and Russell Spurr's A Glorious Way To Die.
Specifications
- Displacement: 65,027 tonnes (empty, including 21,266 tonnes of armour); 72,800 tonnes (estimated, full load)
- Length: 256m (water-line)
- Beam: 36m
- Draft: 11m (maximum)
- Crew: 2,750
- Armament (1941): 9-18.1in (460mm) guns (3x3); 12-6.1in (155mm) guns (4x3); 12-12.7mm guns (6x2); 24-25mm AA guns; 8-13mm AA guns. By 1945 six of the 6.1in and all 13mm guns had been removed and the AA defences had been boosted to 146-25mm guns.
- Power: 12 Kanpon boilers, driving 4 steam turbines, 150,000shp (110MW) (estimated) = 27kts (50km/h)
- Endurance: 11,500km at 16kts (30km/h)
- Armour: 650mm on front of turrets, 409mm side armour, 198mm armoured deck.
Fiction
In a futuristic anime television and movie series titled Space Battleship Yamato, humanity salvages the wreck of the battleship Yamato from the evaporated ocean floor and refits it as a spaceship which saves the Earth and its people from toxic radiation which is ravaging the planet.