Fuyuzuki suffered light damage from dud rockets, suffered 12 dead and 12 injured, and was repaired, but had her stern blown off by a mine after the August cease-fire. An astounding series of explosions onboard The 40 mm Bofors, with radar guidance and proximity fuses, were marginally effective in shooting down attacking planes. The Japanese admiral in charge of Operation Ten-Go, Vice-Admiral Seiichi It, disagreed with the plan which essentially was to sail into teeth of the American fleet without the benefit of any air cover and then beach on Okinawa and operate as a static defense in support of the island. They had already lost the battles of the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, and Iwo Jima. Three of the torpedoes hit in quick succession, and Yamato took on another 3,000 tons of water and a 7-degree list. All ships increase speed to 25 knots and commence a simultaneous turn. Had Yamato ever encountered an Allied battleship group, she could have floated safely out of range, while destroying each ship in turn. Mitscher ordered all four of his carrier task groups to proceed as soon as possible to launch positions northeast of Okinawa with the intent to destroy Yamato before it got anywhere near Okinawa. most likely to cause flooding and eventual sinking. World War II would see the aircraft carrier emerge as the key to naval supremacy, supplanting the battleship. At 1830, destroyer Isokaze sighted Threadfin on the surface. So, the admirals concocted what they termed, Operation Ten-Go (Operation Heaven One). Altogether more effective were Japan's aerial suicide weapons. Two other destroyers were heavily damaged, one, the Hamakaze later sank. At 0657, destroyer Asashimo, with Captain Kotaki, DESDIV 21, embarked, sent a signal that she was having engine trouble and began to fall behind. 4: Factual error; Musashi was sunk on Oct. 23, 1944 in the Sibuyan Sea. Ito's last order was to cancel the operation and have the remaining destroyers rescue whoever they could before he joined the 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen who went down with Yamato. 1000 hour The Attack Force sights two large Martin Mariner PBM flying boats. But the mission was approved and the Japanese ships set sail for Okinawa. Embarking from Kure, Yamato was to beach herself near Okinawa, and act as an unsinkable gun-emplacementbombarding American forces on Okinawa with her 18.1-inch heavy-guns. In a separate attack, compani Survivor Stories Ito and Captain Aruga went down with the ship. About 1,620 survivors of Yamato, Yahagi, Hamakaze, Isokaze, and Kasumi were rescued by the surviving Japanese destroyers. The Attack Force changes course due south to 180 degrees. Musashi (? On 1 January 1945, Yamato, Haruna and Nagato were all transferred to the newly reactivated 1st Battleship Division; Yamato left drydock two days later. At 1234, Yamato opened fire with her two forward main battery turrets, lobbing sanshikidan shells at the U.S. aircraftto no effect. (They were right.) They withheld the news from the public. My dads name is Ronald R. LeFebvre (Ding). As luck would have it, he said, the big ship was turning to port, thereby exposing the full broadside expanse of, PO Box 1077 MURFREESBORO, Tennessee 37133 United States, P.O. At 1333, another 110 aircraft from TG 58.4 (Yorktown, Intrepid, and Langley), which had launched after the first wave of 280 aircraft, commenced their attack on Yamato. The second and third waves of the American attacks pummeled Yamato. About a year before he died he told us about this battle against the Yamato and that he was involved in the attack, but no details. Also, accounts differ as to whether he was a captain or rear admiral. . YAMATO increases speed to 22 knots. She continues to throw up a screen of desperate flak fire. At about 1237, U.S. aircraft commenced attack runs, with strafing and rockets from fighters (which quickly began decimating Japanese anti-aircraft gunners), and then bombs and torpedoes. A heartfelt salute from myself, a navy vet in the 70s! At this point, after just a few hours of battle, These behemoths were triple the tonnage of some other battleships of their day and each one had three turrets, with three huge 18.1 guns per turret. Her main guns were designed to attack at an unprecedented distance of 25 miles, well beyond the range of American battleships. The real story of the Yamato sinking March 06, 2008 On April 7, 1945, three southern boys were above the clouds north of Okinawa, 125 miles from the southernmost tip of the main Japanese islands searching for "the largest, heaviest and most powerful battleship ever constructed." The Hell Divers then plummeted straight down dropping armor-piercing bombs, clearing the way for the Avenger torpedo bombers that came in low and slow to try to put torpedoes on the target. 276 men are rescued including Rear Admiral Morishita Nobuei, Chief of Staff, Second Fleet (and former YAMATO skipper). Two more destroyers were lost: the Asashimo, which was raked by bomb hits as it was returning to Japan and sank killing its entire crew; and the Kasumi that was heavily damaged and later. Additionally, aircraft damaged most of the . VA-6B (1946) >. As luck would have it, he said, the big ship was turning to port, thereby exposing the full broadside expanse of her enormous hull to the converging torpedoes.. Her nine 18.1-inch guns firing Sanshikidan beehive shells, twenty-four 127-mm. The Yamato-class ships were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 long tons (74,000 t) fully loaded and armed with nine 46-centimetre (18.1 in) main guns. [1][5], At 12:32 on 7 April 1945, Yamato was attacked by a first wave of 280 aircraft from Task Force 58, taking three hits (two bombs, one torpedo). The ship captains were then assembled on Yahagi and briefed. They were also given the option of not participating, an option none of them took. YAMATO turns hard to port. The others kept coming. (The actual U.S. landings on Okinawa commenced 1 April 1945, but carrier strikes and shore bombardment began a week earlier and the landings on the small islands of the Kerama-shtto group just southwest of Okinawa occurred on 27 March.). (Although some accounts say that, according to the plan, the ships were only given enough fuel to reach Okinawa, they actually received as much fuel as was available to give. Breaking the news to the Emperor, a Japanese admiral was asked, what about the fleet? The admiral had to admit, the Japanese fleet had ceased to exist as a fighting formation. Yamato was still more than 300 nautical miles from Okinawa when she went down. Her remaining air search radar reports the approach of a second attack wave. Updated on July 03, 2019. The age of the battleship was over forever. As she came under attack on that April morning, the He gave the go-ahead for the strike but ordered the battlewagons to proceed in the event the Japanese fleet got through the airstrike. concentrate their torpedoes on just one of Yamato's sides, an approach Then radar reports the closing aircraft have turned towards the force. She ships about 3,000-tons of seawater. two Japanese aircraft carriers Deep sea explorers have found two Japanese aircraft carriers that were sunk in battle in World War Two. At 0840, the Japanese reported seven Hellcats orbiting around the force. The executive officer reported to Captain Aruga that the damage control officers were dead and that counter-flooding could no longer correct the list, and recommended the ship be abandoned. Behind the Scenes RecPak is a meal replacement for the outdoors that saves you weight, space and time in the most challenging environments, just add water. At 0823, a Hellcat fighter off Essex (CV-9) sighted Yamato, a contact that the battleship reported at 0832. Yamato would have appeared indestructible. The Imperial Japanese Navy's super-battleship Yamato, shown here during pre-commission running trials in the Bungo Strait between the Home Islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, 20 October 1941 (NH 73092). While YAHAGI jams their sighting messages, YAMATO receives a report from a Japanese scout plane that Task Force 58 has been located east of Okinawa, 250 nautical miles from the Attack Force. A Curtiss Helldiver bomber like the one seen at right 0800 hour The Attack Force is sighted by a searching Grumman F6F Hellcat from USS ESSEX (CV-9). I joined the Navy in 1964. [1], Operation Ten-Go was a deliberate suicide attack against American forces off Okinawa by Yamato and nine escorts, beginning on 6 April 1945. In viewing cite, this the first time I have seen any mention of the carrier Langley. Light cruiser YAHAGI, hit by 12 bombs and seven torpedoes sinks exactly one minute after the last bomb hits. Praesidus brings homage to the military watch tradition. Since Yamato could not get to the landing area before 8 April, there wasnt a big rush and Deyo convened a planning conference on his flagship Eldorado (AGC-11) at 1030 with plans to sortie TF 54 from the bombardment area at 1530. The destroyers were Destroyer Division (DESDIV) 17 (Isokaze, Hamakaze, Yukikaze), DESDIV 21 (Asashimo, Kasumi, Hatsushimo), and DESDIV 41 (Fuyuzuki, Suzutsuki). At 1430 on 7 April 1945, more than 300 nautical miles north of Okinawa, Yamato blows up after capsizing. She had suffered minor damage in the bridge area from a bomb hit by a Helldiver dive-bomber off Intrepid (CV-11) during U.S. carrier strikes on Kure and the Inland Sea on 19 March, but was fully fit for battle. Weighing 72,800 tons. Thirty-four Hellcats, 22 Helldivers and one Corsair attack YAMATOs escorts. USS Iowa Class Battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, This slowed Yamato down to 10 knots and made her a sitting duck. Flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, she was lead ship of the Yamato class. 2023 The SOFREP Media Group. One Avenger is shot down but her barrage is largely ineffective because each AA battery fires independently without coordination. One of her junior designers tells NOVA he was completely in the dark about the scale of the vessel that he was helping to create: I was building the biggest ship in the world, and I didnt even know it until after the war.. Executive Officer Nomura Jiro reports to Captain Aruga that his damage control officers are all dead and that counter-flooding can no longer correct the list. Japans secrecy was due to her inability to match U.S. naval power ship for ship. Destroyer SUZUTSUKI wreathed in black smoke, burns furiously. There are many stories about the sinking of the Japanese battleship Yamato. The desperate measure worked, but, with insufficient time to give warning, several hundred Yamato crewmen were drowned as a result, and the ship was slowed to 10 knots, which made her an easier target. He suggests the order to abandon ship be given. The fighters attacked first, strafing the anti-aircraft guns on the decks with machine guns and rockets. I stumbled on this article and I finally know a little about this battle. Combined with Yamato, about 4,242 Japanese sailors gave their lives for the emperor on 7 April. Yamato's injuries were fatal. of the battleship gives a sense of the 18-inch guns' enormous size (note sailors on deck). The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including sailors, soldiers and civilians. Yahagi was a relatively small light cruiser (6,600 tons) completed in 1943 and intended for use as a destroyer flotilla leader. By this point, the uncorrected list was passing 15 degrees to port, and alarms were warning of critical temperatures in the forward main battery magazines, with no working pumps to flood them. The largest battleships ever built were Yamato and Musashi of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Listing heavily to port, YAMATOs exposed hull is hit by several more torpedoes. A near miss on Hamakaze disabled her starboard shaft and then, at 1247, torpedo hits amidships blew her in half. Despite the destruction, the majesty of the ship is unmistakable, symbolized by a six-foot-wide chrysanthemum crest, icon of the Japanese imperial family, still gracing Yamatos prow like a figurehead. See what made the ship both seemingly unsinkable and highly vulnerable to attack. Half of the dead at . One of the final photographs of the supership shows her severely damaged hull Pearl harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941,hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Just after 1240 on 7 April, Yamato maneuvers frantically under the initial attackby USS Bennington (CV-20)and USS Hornet (CV-12) aircraft as a bomb explodes offher port side. Aruga would be posthumously promoted to vice admiral and Ito to full admiral. 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how many planes were lost sinking the yamato