YAMATO, despite hits by two bombs and one torpedo, maintains flank speed. Sieber was officially credited with two bomb hits on the Yamato and received the Navy Cross for his part in helping sink the huge ship that day. Read Next: The Ultimate Gunfighters! Her nine 18.1-inch guns firing Sanshikidan beehive shells, twenty-four 127-mm. Constructed from 1937 1940 and formally commissioned in late 1941, Yamato served as the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto throughout 1942, first sailing as part of the Combined Fleet during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. The light cruiser Yahagi was the first hit, less than fifteen minutes after the firing began. Lieutenant J.G. Ten minutes later, two more torpedoes strike her port side. In addition, sick sailors and also the oldest sailors were sent to shore. Musashi and her sister ship, Yamato, were by a wide margin the largest battleships ever built. Both Rear Admiral Komura and Captain Hara survived. The commander in chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Soemu Toyoda, resolved to send what was left of his force out in a blaze of glory. The result was arguably the largest suicide mission in history. They unanimously objected, most of them arguing instead to be allowed to conduct independent raiding of the over-extended U.S. supply lines. 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. Both the U.S. Fifth Fleet commander, Admiral Spruance, and Vice Admiral Mitscher (commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force, TF 58), who had access to the Ultra communications intelligence and were expecting the sortie, immediately reacted to the submarine reports. After a dozen torpedo hits, even the Yamato's TG 58.1 and 58.3 were quickly on station. Some of the Japanese survivors reported that U.S. fighter aircraft strafed Japanese survivors floating in the water. 74, although many begged to stay. She takes on a heavy list to port and her speed drops to 18 knots. When the U.S. invaded Okinawa on April 1, 1945, the Japanese had no naval answer to the invasion force. By 1420, the main deck was vertical and, at 1430, Yamato had rolled over and just gone under when the No.1 forward magazine detonated in a massive explosion that killed almost all of Yamatos crew who had survived to that point and raised a pall of smoke that could be seen for 100 miles. Eggheads on this subject get "lost in the sauce" going over tables, charts, and math formulas done by researchers after the war shooting rounds into armor plate captured from Japan and Germany,. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. Over the next days, additional messages were intercepted and decrypted by Fleet Radio Unit Pacific (FRUPAC) and also OP-20-G in Washington that provided increasingly detailed information on the operations timing and made specific mention of Yamato on 5 April. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ These were 50 aircraft from Essex and Bataan. 3s upper powder magazine. The aircraft are lost behind the clouds. After all, she was the With the steering locked to port and the ship doomed, Admiral Ito at 1402 hours ordered the crew to abandon ship. The destroyers were an assortment of different classes (what was left in operation, since the Japanese would lose 120 destroyers during the war), but all were armed with powerful Type 93 Long Lance 24-inch torpedoes. A Curtiss Helldiver bomber like the one seen at right How many Japanese submarines were lost in ww2? In 1945 Carrier Air Group 17 consisted of VF-17, VBF-17, VB-17, and VT-17. The Americans bloody island-hopping campaign, which had begun in the southern Solomon Islands in 1942, had grown as the Americans swept across the Gilberts, the Solomons, and, after the battles in Leyte Gulf and the Philippine Sea, were on the cusp of Japan herself. They also mounted numerous smaller guns to . By this point, Yamato was firing main-battery beehive shells set to detonate after one second (about 3,000 yards) from the ship, which U.S. aircraft just blew through. The extremely large number of antiaircraft guns, added during a refit, were meant to keep the ship afloat in the face of American airpower until it could close within striking range of enemy. Of the Japanese destroyers, Asashimo was sunk with all hands (about 330) and Hamakaze sank with a loss of 100 crewmen and 45 wounded (257 were rescued). Deyo had just received a cheery send-off from his immediate boss: "We hope you will bring back a nice fish for breakfast." 7. 1 magazine causing a huge explosion with a mushroom smoke cloud that was visible for 100 miles away. YAMATO opens fire with her two forward main turrets and AA guns. The sky is still overcast and visibility is poor. John Carter, was in a perfect position to watch what unfolded. burning just prior to disappearing beneath the waves. AA guns and one hundred fifty-two 25-mm AA guns all open fire. A heartfelt salute from myself, a navy vet in the 70s! She was blasted by 12 bombs and six more torpedos. Captain Hara on Yahagi reported that the large formations of aircraft circled around the task force just outside anti-aircraft range for a number of minutes, some in clockwise rotation and some in counter-clockwise rotation, as strike leaders organized strikes on particular targets free of interference from Japanese fighters. Two immense catapultsas tall as six-story buildings when raisedlaunched the planes, and an equally enormous crane lifted them from the water upon their return to the ship. The attack of hundreds of US air force against Japan made Japan's biggest battleship Yamato sink. During the night, this plan morphed into sending six new battleships detached from TF 58 into blocking position. The explosion was heard over 120 miles away. However, in order to keep up with Yamato, these forays were short-lived. As a Minnesota teenager when the war started,. At 2144, the submarine issued a detailed contact report with an accurate force disposition. Agroup of five low-flying Avengers (VT-17) from HORNET (CV-12) start a torpedo run from the port, bearing 70 degrees. At 1107, Yamatos Type 13 air search radar detected a large aircraft formation inbound at the radars maximum range of 63 nautical miles, and noted the aircraft formation was splitting into two groups. Jocko Clark, embarked on Hornet (CV-12), included Hancock (CV-19), Bennington (CV-20), Belleau Wood (CVL-24) and San Jacinto (CVL-30). He considered it a waste of good men and ships. Of the 3,332 crew members aboard the Yamato, only 276 survived the sinking. Yamato lies on the floor of the East China Sea, 200 miles north of Okinawa, blown apart by one of the most massive explosions ever to occur at sea. Instead, military leaders decided to build a secret weapon that could engage many enemy ships at once. Smoke rises from the vicinity of the mainmast and a bomb explodes in the same area. Yamato (), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, she was lead ship of the Yamato class. What sank the Yamato? The Americans lose 10 aircraft and 12 crewmen. [5] Shortly afterward, a second strike of 100 aircraft attacked Yamato and her remaining escorts. But even as Deyo was deploying his force, Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, the commander of Task Force 58 (TF 58), acting completely on his own without orders from Spruance, launched a massive airstrike using all eight of his carriers to attempt to strike a deathblow. Her secondary armament . You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. Yamato The Japanese also spot the HACKLEBACK trailing the Attack Force. Updated on July 03, 2019. In viewing cite, this the first time I have seen any mention of the carrier Langley. The carriers were among seven ships that went down in the Battle of Midway, a major air and . And it was never more apparent than during the Battle of Okinawa. [27] While navigating the Bungo Strait, Yamato and her escorts were spotted by the American submarines Threadfin and Hackleback, both of which notified Task Force 58 of Yamatos position. Japanese lookouts spotted the American air armada at 1232 hours and soon opened fire with Yamatos 18-inch guns firing San Shiki anti-aircraft shells that were wildly inaccurate. Sources include: NHHC Dictionary of American Fighting Ships (DANFS) for U.S. ships and combinedfleet.com for Japanese ships. YAMATO stops zigzagging and increases speed to 24 knots. USS Iowa Class Battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, This slowed Yamato down to 10 knots and made her a sitting duck. [1] When the 1st Battleship Division was deactivated once again on 10 February, Yamato was reassigned to the 1st Carrier Division. The first attack wave retires. Lieutenant J.G. The big carriers got all the credit. Yamato produced the mushroom cloud seen here shortly before she sank. At 14:23, having taken 10 torpedo and 7 bomb hits, Yamatos forward ammunition magazines detonated. YAMATO is hit by two AP bombs. Thanks!!! The others kept coming. They lost their best battleship, a cruiser, and four destroyers along with nearly 4,200 sailors. 10 aircraft Yamato was still more than 300 nautical miles from Okinawa when she went down. Torpedoes dropped from their bellies, slashing through the water toward Yamato. The Attack Force changes course due south to 180 degrees. Senior U.S. Navy commanders in the Pacific, including Admiral Raymond Spruance, Commander U.S. Fifth Fleet, knew what the battleship Yamatos mission was before almost anyone on Yamato did. of the battleship gives a sense of the 18-inch guns' enormous size (note sailors on deck). Turret #1 can also be seen upfront. The sinking of the Yamato on April 7 conclusively signaled the end of the "all-big-gun" battleship era of naval warfare. He gave the go-ahead for the strike but ordered the battlewagons to proceed in the event the Japanese fleet got through the airstrike. Only 10. XIV: Victory in the Pacific by Samuel Eliot Morison, Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1969; Japanese Destroyer Captain by Tameichi Hara, New York: Ballantine Books, 1961; Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II by John Prados, New York: Random House, 1995. One Avenger is shot down but her barrage is largely ineffective because each AA battery fires independently without coordination. By this time, there wasnt much left of the Japanese navy that was still operational, and fuel was in critically short supply. Had Yamato ever encountered an Allied battleship group, she could have floated safely out of range, while destroying each ship in turn. most likely to cause flooding and eventual sinking. The Attack Force changes course to 100 degrees. The element of surprise was gone for the Japanese. Both ships cease firing. The escorts cannot defend the flagship either. this one exploding off Yamato's port bow, it was their air-launched torpedoes This image Anatomy of Yamato One of the surviving destroyers did not have a bow. Hancock for some reason launched her 53-plane strike late, and it never found Yamato in the murk, reducing the overall first strike to 227 aircraft. She was blasted by 15 bomb hits and eight torpedoes. The Yamato group cranked up speed to 25 knots. She continues to throw up a screen of desperate flak fire. It would not be enough. My dads name is Ronald R. LeFebvre (Ding). Captain Aruga lashed himself to the binnacle to do the same. Yamato was hit with three more torpedoes. Pearl harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941,hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. 2 gun mount. Now I know a little bit. 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