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Posted by Lord Ball (U1767246) on Sunday, 11th December 2005
Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
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Yes, and not very succesfully.
Cheeers AA.
Link to this forum: Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
Am quoting from my ref. book here, so not my words. Fred But their monster guns were never trained on the enemy. Musashi bombed and torpedoed south of Luzon Island. Yamato the same on a one way kamikaze mission to Okinawa.
That help.
Fred
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Absolutely.
There are many important things to remember. Firstly the casualties involved 鈥 Less than one night of Bombing on Tokyo, certainly less than any assault on the home islands.
There has been comments that the Japanese government wasn鈥檛 prepared to defend the home islands, or defend it to the last, this isn鈥檛 true. The government was split on this, yet preparations were being made to make a massive defence 鈥 Causing the deaths of Hundreds of thousands of servicemen and Civilians.
I think the most poignant words come from the mouth of Emperor Hirohito 鈥 He himself acknowledged the powerful weapon the enemy now possessed as one of the main reasons for surrender.
There have been comments made about 鈥榮howing muscle鈥 to the Soviets, yet they were invited to the New Mexico tests, there is no evidence that supports the theory that the bombing was an exercise in showing the Soviets anything?
Lastly,. I think the dropping of the bomb, and our knowledge of what happens is the only thing that has prevented it being dropped in anger since.
Link to this forum: Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
I think the Yamato was part of the attack on Leyte Gulf in 1944 but turned away before any action.
Link to this forum: Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
Thanks. Where there any ships within the Allied Navies capable of taking her or her sister ship on in a ship to ship action or would a flotilla have had to have been assembled similiar to what happened with the Scharnhorst and Bismarck?
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Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?听
Lord Ball,
Yamato was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto from 12 February 1942 , replacing Nagato. She remained the flagship for 364 days, one day shy of a full year, until on February 11th, 1943 the flag was transferred to her one and only sister ship, the Musashi.
She spent much of rest 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 6.1 inch (155 mm) 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 anti-aircraft capability 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 1 April 1945. She was sent on a suicide mission to attack the US fleet supporting the US troops landing on the west of the island.
On 6 April Yamato and her escorts left port at Tokuyama. They were sighted on 7 April as they exited the Inland Sea southwards. The U.S. Navy launched around 400 aircraft to intercept the taskforce and the planes engaged the ships starting in the mid-afternoon.
Yamato took up to twenty bomb and torpedo hits before, at about 14:20, her magazines detonated. She capsized to port and sank, still some 200 km from Okinawa. Around 2,475 of her crew were lost and 269 survived.
The wreckage lies in around 300 m of water and has been surveyed in 1985 and 1999. Interestingly, the survey of the ship indicated that the Yamato was equiped with a bulbous bow which reduces wavemaking resistance at high speeds.
Her wreckage was only discovered I believe sometime in 1995 (AUGUST????, and there is a bit of mystery surrounding the wreckage.
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, in reply to message 6.
Posted by marduk-slayer of tiamat (U2258525) on Monday, 12th December 2005
Thanks. Where there any ships within the Allied Navies capable of taking her or her sister ship on in a ship to ship action or would a flotilla have had to have been assembled similiar to what happened with the Scharnhorst and Bismarck?听
in a straight out gun on gun broadside it would probably take any two battleships of any other navy to cripple or sink a yamato class ship-even ships such as the king george V would have come of worse mano-a-mano
Link to this forum: Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
Lord Ball,
. 鈥淲here there any ships within the Allied Navies capable of taking her or her sister ship on in a ship to ship action or would a flotilla have had to have been assembled similiar to what happened with the Scharnhorst and Bismarck?鈥
Any decent aircraft Carrier (Depending on what it鈥檚 compliment was)鈥
Although in a strictly big gun action, I think the Yamato class didn鈥檛 possess Radar, so some larger RN and USN battleships could have engaged in favourable conditions without the Yamato being able to do likewise.
In a straight shoot-out, it outgunned everything else out there, hence the title of 鈥楽uper Battleship鈥 being effectively made for the class.
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, in reply to message 9.
Posted by The Researcher Strikes Back (U2183402) on Tuesday, 13th December 2005
It had air and surface search radar installed in 1943. In 1944, this was upgraded to air search radar and surface search/gunnery control radar and at the same time it was also fitted with multiple E27 radar detectors copied from the German FuMB 1 Metox R.600.
Although in a strictly big gun action, I think the Yamato class didn鈥檛 possess Radar, so some larger RN and USN battleships could have engaged in favourable conditions without the Yamato being able to do likewise.
In a straight shoot-out, it outgunned everything else out there, hence the title of 鈥楽uper Battleship鈥 being effectively made for the class.
听
Link to this forum: Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
The Researcher Returns in Winter,
You're right, I was thinking of the Aircraft Carriers Soryu, Hiryu, Kaga and Akagi at Midway for some reason.......
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, in reply to message 11.
Posted by The Researcher Strikes Back (U2183402) on Tuesday, 13th December 2005
The Japanese got a lot of their ideas for radar from British radar captured at places like Singapore. Saved them a lot of time and effort.
What is interesting, however, is a statement by Vice-Admiral Ozawa about the First Battle of the Phillipine Sea:
"All ships were equipped with radar, but I was very doubtful whether or not our men had mastered the use of radar." and that aircraft were detected "not from radar but from interceptions of dispatches." (from INTERROGATION NAV NO. 3 USSBS NO. 32: THE BATTLE OF THE PHILIPPINE SEA, 19-20 JUNE 1944
The Researcher Returns in Winter,
You're right, I was thinking of the Aircraft Carriers Soryu, Hiryu, Kaga and Akagi at Midway for some reason.......听
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, in reply to message 12.
Posted by Turnwrest (U2188092) on Wednesday, 14th December 2005
Given their combination af speed and armour, an Iowa would have stood a good chance of "mission killing" a Yamato class, even if not of sinking one. They problem would have been that the USN had worked out a totally wrong zone of immunity, so the range (dictated by the faster ship, of course) would have been chosen inappropriately.
Yamato did fire on surface vessels in the Action off Samar phase of Leyte gulf - but never engaged any heavy-gun opponents.
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, in reply to message 13.
Posted by marduk-slayer of tiamat (U2258525) on Wednesday, 14th December 2005
the iowa clas would have been able to withdraw from the action, avoiding destruction, but its weaponry was, as was the case with every other allied battleship, insufficient if caught in a one-on-one broadside action
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Could KGV class have been capable against her?
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, in reply to message 15.
Posted by marduk-slayer of tiamat (U2258525) on Thursday, 15th December 2005
nope. the closest in terms of armor and armament were the iowa, bismark and whatever class ship hms rodney was, and they coulnt have cut it. in fleet action theyd have a half decent chance, probably
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How about HMS Vanguard of the proposed Lion-Class of battleships? Could they have sunk a Yamato?
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, in reply to message 15.
Posted by The Researcher Strikes Back (U2183402) on Saturday, 17th December 2005
There are some interesting comparisons here:
Could KGV class have been capable against her?听
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, in reply to message 17.
Posted by Grumpyfred (U2228930) on Saturday, 17th December 2005
Vanguards guns where from the Glorious class Battle Cruisers, converted to Aircraft Carriers at the end of the Great War. 15inch. The Lion Class would have carried 16inch.
Fred
Link to this forum: Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
There are some interesting comparisons here:
Could KGV class have been capable against her?听
听
Hi RRiW,
Biased towards to US battleships a wee bit?
Link to this forum: Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
, in reply to message 20.
Posted by The Researcher Strikes Back (U2183402) on Monday, 19th December 2005
The site is dedicated to the study of the Imperial Japanese Fleet. The two authors of the site, while American have a special interest in the Japanese Fleet. The main author, Jonathan Parshall, has written for the U.S. Naval War College Review and Naval Institute Proceedings on the subject. He was a member of the expedition that found the wreck of the Kaga. Others who have contributed to the site have similar credentials. He has two cats, Hiryu and Soryu, so he must be a fan.
As to the bias, I didn't see it myself.
There are some interesting comparisons here:
Could KGV class have been capable against her?听
听
Hi RRiW,
Biased towards to US battleships a wee bit?听
Link to this forum: Did the Yamato Class Battleship ever engage in a ship to ship action?
I thought quite a few could take her on, as in my reading fire control and getting the hits is more important than gun size.
So the Iowas for sure, the Vanguard, and maybe even the Rodney.
And the Bismarck was essentially 1918 thinking updated a bit, nothing special there at all.
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Wasn't Rodney plagued by engine trouble though?
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Probaby right there mate, and turret trouble at the beginning.
I suppose one of my theories is that a pretty modest ship, like the Vangaurd, could defeat a theoretically more powerful ship if it had brilliant fire control, stability and seakeeping. If I remember rightly the Vangaurd was such a ship, the benefits of lots of thought and experience of action put into her. And the benefit of a lot of testing between the wars too. Wheras a lot of other countries produced excellent ships, but without the benefit of detailed knowledge.
But I could be wrong!!!
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