Thanks for watching. Anatomy of Yamato Combined with Yamato, about 4,242 Japanese sailors gave their lives for the emperor on 7 April. The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including sailors, soldiers and civilians. Yamato (, lit. Two eyewitness accounts of Yamato's last battle. While still a token of national pride, the sinking of Yamato also symbolized the sad end of the once invincible Imperial Japanese Navy. 1400 hour Three bombs explode port amidships, five minutes later a torpedo hits her starboard side amidships. YAMATO turns hard to port. Meanwhile, about 34 Hellcats and Corsairs and 22 Helldivers and Avengers worked over some of the other Japanese destroyers. Thank you to all the brave men and women of the US armed forces! The aft secondary battery fire control, secondary gun turret and the air search radar are knocked out. A Corsair from ESSEX drops a 1000-lb GP bomb that hits the superstructure in the port bow area. Yahagi lost 446 of about 1,000 crewmen. The element of surprise was gone for the Japanese. Yahagi lost 446; Asashimo lost 330; the seven destroyers, 391 officers and men. Then it was supposed to beach itself, run aground, and use the ship as a makeshift fort. She didn't even make it close to Okinawa. Asashimo went down with all 330 hands. Her main guns were designed to attack at an unprecedented distance of 25 miles, well beyond the range of American battleships. The Yomiuri Shimbun, one of several private companies sponsoring the search, reported that the wreck lay about 180 miles southwest of Kagoshima on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, in more than 1,100 feet of water. The Japanese lost three aircraft carriers and 426 aircraft; Yamato ' s only . The 40 mm Bofors, with radar guidance and proximity fuses, were marginally effective in shooting down attacking planes. The Imperial Japanese Navy ceases to exist as a fighting force. YAMATO and YAHAGI open fire, increase speed to 24 knots and commence a series of sharp evasive maneuvers. Yamato was hit with three more torpedoes. Three Japanese destroyers are nearby (80-G-413914). By early 1945, the Japanese Empire was shrinking daily and the war had reached its home shores. At 1322, an Essex Corsair hit Yamato in the port bow with a 1,000-pound general-purpose bomb. At this point, the Japanese task forces location had been picked up by American PBM flying boats, which kept the American fleet apprised of the Japaneses position and direction. 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. Finally some detail1st attack vb82 loses a helldiver (my uncleensign jack Carl fuller and chas. The Fleet Commander, Vice Admiral Ito, orders the mission cancelled and directs the remaining ships to pick up as many survivors as possible. On 19 March 1945 Yamato came under heavy attack when American carrier aircraft from Enterprise, Yorktown and Intrepid raided the major naval base of Kure where she was docked. Another 110 planes appeared ready for the kill. Thanks for your presentation of this event! You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. TG 58.4 had just finished refueling and would arrive just in time. He gave the go-ahead for the strike but ordered the battlewagons to proceed in the event the Japanese fleet got through the airstrike. Yamato was still more than 300 nautical miles from Okinawa when she went down. Additionally, 1,178 people were wounded. Posted August 23, 2013. this photo from 1941 shows the construction details of the Yamato's rear aircraft deck, side 6-inch guns that were replaced by AA guns later in the war, as well as the aft superstructure and main turret #3. With the steering locked to port and the ship doomed, Admiral Ito at 1402 hours ordered the crew to abandon ship. Itos chief of staff, Rear Admiral Nobuei Morishita, was the senior survivor of Yamato. 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. They withheld the news from the public. 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. USS Iowa Class Battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, This slowed Yamato down to 10 knots and made her a sitting duck. Ito was posthumously promoted to full admiral. According to Morison, there were only 23 officers and 246 enlisted sailors who survived, which doesnt exactly match, but is close. H-044-3: Operation Heaven Number One (Ten-ichi-go)the Death of Yamato, 7 April 1945. In the 1980s, shipwreck hunters found the Yamato 180 miles (290 kilometers) southwest of Kyushu, one of the main islands of Japan. One Avenger is shot down. YAMATO stops zigzagging and increases speed to 24 knots. The fighter issued a contact report at 0832. The Avengers drop three torpedoes. How many US planes were lost sinking the Yamato? 1 magazine explodes and sends up a cloud of smoke seen 100 miles away. most likely to cause flooding and eventual sinking. Note the fire in one of the The force would transit to Okinawa on 7 April (with only a few hours of minimal. YAMATOs No. 7. Ito and Captain Aruga went down with the ship. 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. The FIST of the FLEET where it began during WWII. Damage Control counter-floods both starboard engine and boiler rooms and almost entirely corrects the list. SUZUTSUKI takes a 500-lb GP bomb hit to starboard, abreast her No. . The Yahagi was too tempting a target for the hundreds of attacking aircraft. Support Veteran Journalism . 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.. World War II would see the aircraft carrier emerge as the key to naval supremacy, supplanting the battleship. She quickly shipped 2,235 tons of water, but the list was soon corrected with effective counter-flooding. At 2144, the submarine issued a detailed contact report with an accurate force disposition. The ship captains were then assembled on Yahagi and briefed. Shinano () was an aircraft carrier built by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II, the largest such built up to that time. Her waterline armor belt was 16 inches thick. Though many Japanese naval leaders considered Operation Ten-Go to be a waste of their remaining resources, it moved forward on April 6, 1945. 1). There are many stories about the sinking of the Japanese battleship Yamato. ), named after an ancient Japanese province, was one of two Yamato-class battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy, beginning in the late 1930s. [1] When the 1st Battleship Division was deactivated once again on 10 February, Yamato was reassigned to the 1st Carrier Division. sent to engage Yamato made it into position above her and soon began to Though incredibly powerful, Yamato suffered from a relatively low top speed as its engines were . This time, all attacks concentrated on the battleship. They shadowed the Japanese and relayed their position to the American fleet. The Yamato group cranked up speed to 25 knots. This would be carried out in conjunction with a mass aerial kamikaze attack by over 350 airplanes ( Kikusui No. One of the torpedo planes took a hit in the wing, pulled up in flames, then plunged into the sea. Rather than targeting specific vessels, Stump ordered his air group to attempt to cripple as many Japanese ships as possible. At 1302, Yamatos remaining air search radar detected a second inbound wave. Lieutenant J.G. Barrett products are used by civilians, sport shooters, law enforcement agencies, the United States military, and more than 75 State Department-approved countries around the world. 1300 hour YAMATO changes course to 180 degrees, due South. They had already lost the battles of the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, and Iwo Jima. 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. In total, 97 combatants were killed and 122 wounded. 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. Yamato carried only enough fuel to reach Okinawa, as the fuel stocks available were insufficient to provide enough fuel to reach Okinawa and return. Deployment: In the fall of 1941,. My father, Donald Lennox, Sr. was an Avenger pilot on the San Jacinto whose torpedo is credited for striking the Asashimo. The Mariners were subordinate to Patrol Bombing Squadron 21 (VPB-21), operating from the tender Chandeleur (AV-10), which had arrived at Kerama Rettoon 28 March. Her auxiliary rudder is jammed in position hard port. At 1210, destroyer Asashimo, lagging behind the force, reported that she was under air attack, and radio transmissions from her ceased. Fourteen F4U Chance-Vought Corsairs from BUNKER HILL strafe and rocket YAMATO but cause only minor damage. Below are some of those stories and some links to other web sites with more stories about the ship and its final day, April 7, 1945. Thirty-four Hellcats, 22 Helldivers and one Corsair attack YAMATOs escorts. Vice Admiral Ito and YAMATOs skipper Captain Aruga and 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen are lost. This photograph was taken in December 1941, shortly USS Iowa Class Battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, This slowed Yamato down to 10 knots and made her a sitting duck. Yamato maneuvers while under attack by U.S. Navy carrier planes north of Okinawa, 7 April 1945, maneuvering evasively at a brisk 15 to 20 knots. I was in a ASW squadron that still had many veterans serving and flying. The aircraft are lost behind the clouds. It would not be enough. The others kept coming. An attack of 36 Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes against the heavily protected USS Hornet with her escorts took down over 20 Japanese planes. All Rights Reserved. YAMATO increases speed to 22 knots. 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. These were 50 aircraft from Essex and Bataan. The force would transit to Okinawa on 7 April (with only a few hours of minimal air cover), to arrive in daylight hours in the U.S. transport area off southwestern Okinawa on 8 April. 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. Three of the torpedoes hit in quick succession, and Yamato took on another 3,000 tons of water and a 7-degree list. However, in order to keep up with Yamato, these forays were short-lived. Living Conditions. 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. Around 2:00pm all power was lost and permission was given to abandon ship. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ Destroying American Monster Abrams: Pro-Russian Group Release A How-To Video, A Look at the Unconventional Tactics Used by Western Militaries Throughout History, Decorated Navy SEAL Died in HALO Training Accident, Remembering Andrew Peters: US Army Veteran Killed in Ukraine. 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. Yahagi was a relatively small light cruiser (6,600 tons) completed in 1943 and intended for use as a destroyer flotilla leader. On 29 March, Yamato was ordered to take on fuel and ammunition, and loaded 1,170 shells for her nine 18.1-inch guns (in three triple turrets), 1,629 shells for her six 6.1-inch guns (in two triple turrets), 13,500 anti-aircraft shells, and 11.5 million rounds of machine-gun ammunition. ), U.S. submarines were already waiting for Yamato, with orders to report rather than attack, although with the force transiting at 22 knots and frequently zig-zagging, successful attack in all but the luckiest circumstances was unlikely. 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. Everyone of them, enlisted and officers, were a true gentleman. As Yamato and escorts were transiting the Bungo Strait between the Home Islands of Kyushu and Shikoku on 6 April 1945, submarine Threadfin (SS-410) sighted the force at about 1745 and issued a contact report in the clear that was intercepted by Yamato. seven torpedo hits within two hours of battle. When the U.S. invaded Okinawa on April 1, 1945, the Japanese had no naval answer to the invasion force. Laid down in May 1940 as the third of the Yamato-class battleships, Shinano ' s partially complete hull was ordered to be converted to an aircraft carrier following Japan's disastrous loss of four of its original six fleet carriers at the Battle of . (The Yamato force had a Nisei radio-intelligence operator. 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. At 1017, Yamato opened fire with several of her special main-battery anti-aircraft shells (sanshikidan or beehive shells, somewhat like a giant shotgun shell), at the Mariners, which was equally futile, although the Mariners ducked back in the clouds. A Curtiss Helldiver bomber like the one seen at right Japan started the war with 63 ocean-going submarines (i.e., not including midgets), and completed 111 during the war, for a total of 174. This great vessel had a . Both Rear Admiral Komura and Captain Hara survived. WORLD WAR II. The task force was spotted south of Kyushu by US submarines and aircraft, and on 7 April 1945 she was sunk by American carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers with the loss of most of her crew. He had friends wounded and killed, but the small carriers were never given credit for anything that happened. One of the largest battleships ever built, Yamato entered service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in December 1941. Also interviewed is an American dive-bomber pilot who took part in the attack. Aircrews were astonished at the size of the ship, which had seen very little naval action during the war. 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. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. began to flood. I joined the Navy in 1964. Have we no more ships?. My dads name is Ronald R. LeFebvre (Ding). most of the American pilots returned to their carriers, knowing The most powerful battleship in the world was no match for 390 U.S. carrier aircraft. Musashi and her sister ship, Yamato, were by a wide margin the largest battleships ever built. The age of the carrier was now confirmed. 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