And it was never more apparent than during the Battle of Okinawa. I Served On An LST During This Period Of Time & Locations Mentioned In This Article , But I Still Like Too Hear Of The Actual Events That Took Part That Day In April 1945. At 1830, destroyer Isokaze sighted Threadfin on the surface. The U.S. 5th Fleet commander, Admiral Raymond Spruance, ordered Task Force 54, which consisted mostly of the battleships under Rear Admiral Morton Deyo, to move in and engage the Japanese task force. At 1000 hours he launched a total of 386 aircraft consisting of fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers. The engagement was an unmitigated disaster for the Japanese. Weighing 72,800 tons. She quickly shipped 2,235 tons of water, but the list was soon corrected with effective counter-flooding. One of the surviving destroyers did not have a bow. Jocko Clark, embarked on Hornet (CV-12), included Hancock (CV-19), Bennington (CV-20), Belleau Wood (CVL-24) and San Jacinto (CVL-30). Operation Ten-ichi-go was the Imperial Japanese Navys plan to react to the U.S. invasion of the island of Okinawa, which Japanese intelligence correctly determined would occur at the end of March 1945. This time, all attacks concentrated on the battleship. The 40 mm Bofors, with radar guidance and proximity fuses, were marginally effective in shooting down attacking planes. The carriers were among seven ships that went down in the Battle of Midway, a major air and . The first wave of the attack resulted in two bomb and one torpedo hits on the Yamato which had increased her speed to flank in an attempt to make her a harder target to hit. What sank the Yamato? 2023 The SOFREP Media Group. The most powerful battleship in the world was no match for 390 U.S. carrier aircraft. 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. Yamato had been fitted with multiple air and surface search radars, as well as radio-intercept capability. She ships about 3,000-tons of seawater. The sky is still overcast and visibility is poor. torpedoes such that they would penetrate Yamato below the waterline near Operation Ten-Go never should have happened. This would be carried out in conjunction with a mass aerial kamikaze attack by over 350 airplanes (Kikusui No. Fourteen F4U Chance-Vought Corsairs from BUNKER HILL strafe and rocket YAMATO but cause only minor damage. She was blasted by 15 bomb hits and eight torpedoes. TG 58.3, commanded by Rear Admiral Frederick Ted Sherman, embarked on Essex (CV-9), included Bunker Hill (CV-17), Bataan (CVL-24), and Cabot (CVL-28). 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. He suggests the order to abandon ship be given. *Lighting a path to truth* Former Navy JAG Worldwide U.S. Military Defense. The Americans lose 10 aircraft and 12 crewmen. Sources include: NHHC Dictionary of American Fighting Ships (DANFS) for U.S. ships and combinedfleet.com for Japanese ships. guns ever mounted at sea. They pounced on her like sharks in the water. She didn't even make it close to Okinawa. The pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Yamato was said to be the most powerful warship in history, but it was also beautiful, "like something in a tapestry.". The Americans lost a total of only 10 aircraft four Helldivers, three Avengers, and three Hellcats and 12 men. The visibility was highly variable, but often not very good due to cloud cover. The Japanese battleship Yamato in the late stages of construction alongside of a large fitting out pontoon at the Kure Naval Base, Japan, 20 September 1941.The aircraft carrier Hsh is visible at the extreme right.The store ship Mamiya is anchored in the center distance.Note Yamato's after 460mm main battery gun turret, and superfiring 155mm secondary battery gun turret. Ten minutes later, two more torpedoes strike her port side. YAMATO opens fire with her two forward main turrets and AA guns. Baka, essentially a piloted cruise missile, made its debut at Okinawa. 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. 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. Yahagi capsized and sank shortly after 1400. Stetsons crewmen reset their Mark 13 torpedoes running depth to 20 feet. Also interviewed is an American dive-bomber pilot who took part in the attack. Half of the dead at . Around 3,700-4,250 men from Yamato and her escort ships were dead. 1). At 1234, Yamato opened fire with her two forward main battery turrets, lobbing sanshikidan shells at the U.S. aircraftto no effect. Some of the Japanese survivors reported that U.S. fighter aircraft strafed Japanese survivors floating in the water. ), 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. Their solution was to bolt a shit load of 25mm open AA gun mounts where ever they could which left the sailor's firing them very exposed to enemy MG's. The USN would rake the hell out of just one side of a BB like Yamato and soften up the AAA for the torpedo planes and dive bombers to attack. USS Iowa Class Battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, This slowed Yamato down to 10 knots and made her a sitting duck. The Attack Force changes course to 100 degrees. They had already lost the battles of the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, and Iwo Jima. The second and third waves of the American attacks pummeled Yamato. Spruance was informed of it only after the aircraft had taken off. 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. The big carriers got all the credit. Meanwhile, the dead-in-the-water Yahagi had soaked up at least 12 bombs and seven torpedo hits before she finally capsized and sank at 1405. of the battleship gives a sense of the 18-inch guns' enormous size (note sailors on deck). They would launch the worlds largest battleship, the Yamato with its enormous 18-inch guns, one light cruiser, and eight destroyers against the enormous American fleet. Later that day, the battered destroyers ISOKAZE and KASUMI are scuttled and sink. Yamato's remains were located and examined in 1985 and again examined, more precisely, in 1999. 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. 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. U.S. aircrew claimed additional bomb and torpedo hits in this first wave, but these were mostly near misses. Yamato was lost Apr. World War II would see the aircraft carrier emerge as the key to naval supremacy, supplanting the battleship. Both Rear Admiral Komura and Captain Hara survived. Flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, she was lead ship of the Yamato class. The fire in the area ofher forward 6.1 inch turret can be clearly seen (L42-09.06.05). By early 1945, the Japanese Empire was shrinking daily and the war had reached its home shores. An astounding series of explosions onboard According to Morison, there were only 23 officers and 246 enlisted sailors who survived, which doesnt exactly match, but is close. The explosion was heard over 120 miles away. 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. You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. 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. 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. The attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago left a tangled mess of burning and shattered warships. Yamato'sFinal Voyage Her nine 18.1-inch guns firing Sanshikidan beehive shells, twenty-four 127-mm. Deep sea explorers have found two Japanese aircraft carriers that were sunk in battle in World War Two. The debate up to that point was whether to keep the fleet in home waters as a last-ditch defense or to send it on what everyone knew would be a one-way mission to attack the overwhelming U.S. forces expected to be at Okinawa. heaviest and most powerful battleship ever built, carrying the most formidable He saw four Avengers go in low, dropping their torpedoes in a spread on Yamatos beam. As Yamato continued to list to port, her starboard armor belt came out of the water and her vulnerable underside became exposed. Legendary Lost Japanese WWII Battleship Found by Billionaire Paul Allen.The search was funded by Paul Allen, the Microsoft co . But in 'one of history's greatest salvage jobs,' many of the sunken ships rose to fight the Axis. 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. The destroyer Isokaze rushed to aid Yahagi and take off Rear Admiral Komura, but got pummeled by bombs before she got close. Have we no more ships?. To buck up morale, many captains of capital ships received a accelerated promotion to rear admiral in 1944. Finally some detail1st attack vb82 loses a helldiver (my uncleensign jack Carl fuller and chas. 2 gun mount. Yamato would have appeared indestructible. photographed the destruction. Support Veteran Journalism . A Curtiss Helldiver bomber like the one seen at right Hatsushimo suffered only three wounded on 6 April, but, on 20 July, struck a mine and was the last Japanese destroyer sunk in the war. At 1014, the Yamato force sighted the two Martin Mariner PBM flying boats, and also noted that Hackleback was still trailing (the Japanese had made so many course changes during the night that the sub was able to cut the corner and maintain contact on the force). most likely to cause flooding and eventual sinking. Most of her engineering drawings have disappeared and few photographs survive, making Yamatos exact dimensions and design a mystery. AA guns and one hundred fifty-two 25-mm AA guns all open fire. Relive the super battleship's last moments in photographs. Both ships cease firing. seven torpedo hits within two hours of battle. (Video: Reuters) When the Japanese fleet approached Midway, the Americans were lying in wait. Altogether more effective were Japan's aerial suicide weapons. See what made the ship both seemingly unsinkable and highly vulnerable to attack. (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.). DANFS - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Permitting Policy and Resource Management, The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: 20 Years Later, "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. Kasumi, which had her steering disabled by two bomb hits, suffered 17 dead and 47 wounded, and was scuttled by two torpedoes from Fuyuzuki. 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. Less than three and half years after Pearl Harbor, American industrial might was on full display. With the ship in danger of capsizing, the damage control parties counter-flooded the starboard engines and boiler rooms at 1333 hours, drowning hundreds of crew members who were unaware of the move. The battleship received a 30-minute time-late report from an observation post on a small Japanese island north of Okinawa that 150 U.S. planes were headed in Yamatos direction. 1,000 watertight compartments couldn't save her, and her lower decks rapidly It says that the Kikaigashima Island lookout station saw 150 carrier planes heading northwest. Design and construction Main article: Yamato-class battleship None of the captains was afraid to diethey just objected to the sheer folly of attacking in daylight without air cover, believing that they wouldnt get anywhere close to Okinawa. A Corsair from ESSEX drops a 1000-lb GP bomb that hits the superstructure in the port bow area. Thanks!!! One Helldiver is shot down, another is damaged badly. The Japanese fighters were unable to make contact before they left at 1000. The escorts cannot defend the flagship either. The most powerful battleship in the world was no match for 390 U.S. carrier aircraft. Captain Aruga lashed himself to the binnacle to do the same. This photograph was taken in December 1941, shortly LtCdr (later Captain) Herbert Houck, the leader of 43 TBM Avengers of VT-9 from YORKTOWN, detaches Lt Thomas Stetsons six Avengers in a final torpedo attack from the ships starboard side. 1s USS HORNET (CV-12), HANCOCK (CV-19), BENNINGTON (CV-20), BELLEAU WOOD (CVL-24) and SAN JACINTO (CVL-30) and from Task Group 58. Isokaze, which had her steering disabled by a near miss, suffered 20 dead and 54 wounded, and had to be scuttled by gunfire from Yukikaze. 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. Did anyone survive the Yamato sinking? My dad was soldier (Tsgt) at Okinawa and my father in law was a bosunsmate aboard the USS Gunston Hall. 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. The age of the battleship was over forever. 4: Factual error; Musashi was sunk on Oct. 23, 1944 in the Sibuyan Sea. Japans secrecy was due to her inability to match U.S. naval power ship for ship. 1300 hour YAMATO changes course to 180 degrees, due South. One Avenger is shot down. Though incredibly powerful, Yamato suffered from a relatively low top speed as its engines were . Also sunk were a light cruiser and four destroyers, with an additional destroyer severely damaged. YAMATO stops zigzagging and increases speed to 24 knots. Photographed from a USS Yorktown (CV-10) plane (NH 62581). 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. The chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka, flew in from Tokyo to ensure that Ito would comply with Admiral Toyodas orders. Yahagi lost 446; Asashimo lost 330; the seven destroyers, 391 officers and men. Survivor Stories One-hundred aircraft were destroyed, and the Japanese death toll reached 4,137. 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. Yamato's injuries were fatal. The largest battleships ever built were Yamato and Musashi of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Ito was posthumously promoted to full admiral. Only 10 American aircraft Praesidus brings homage to the military watch tradition. Yukikaze suffered three dead from strafing and survived the war. By this time, there wasnt much left of the Japanese navy that was still operational, and fuel was in critically short supply. [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. At 1243, five Hornet Avengers came in from port, while 14 F4U Corsairs from Bunker Hill were strafing and hitting Yamato with rockets that caused little damage to the ship, but were deadly to the gunners. A lookout spots American planes 25 degrees to port, levation 8, range 4,375 yards, moving to port. after the Yamato first took to the sea. Thanks for watching. YAMATOs No. Altogether, more than 2,700 men went down with the ship or drowned after it sank, making the loss of the Yamato one of the greatest naval disasters of all time. As later described by the captain of Yahagi, Captain Tameichi Hara, the meeting was quite contentious. The loss of these ships shocked the British government, and helped change procurement and employment strategies in both the United States and the United Kingdom. 1). Note the fire in one of the Light cruiser Yahagi steered away from Yamato in an attempt to draw attention away from the battleshiptoo successfully. 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. Light cruiser YAHAGI, hit by 12 bombs and seven torpedoes sinks exactly one minute after the last bomb hits. Aruga receives a rare double promotion posthumously to Vice Admiral on the request of Admiral Toyoda. One fire can be observed amidships from the initial strike, but no list has developed at this point. Twenty Avengers attacked from the port side (concentrating torpedo attacks from the port side was deliberate, with the intent to capsize the ship). About 120,000 were held at 10 camps because of fears that Japanese Americans were enemy sympathizers. How many Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk in ww2? (They were right.) One of the torpedo planes took a hit in the wing, pulled up in flames, then plunged into the sea. The Yamato, completed in Kure in December 1941, was the largest battleship in the world at the time. The wreck lies 290 kilometres (180 mi) southwest of Kyushu under 340 metres (1,120 ft) of water in two main pieces; a bow section comprising the front two thirds of the ship, and a separate stern section.. Who found battleship Yamato? This Is A Great Article Of An Historic Event. 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. Surrounding Japanese ships lost an additional 1,167 men. Being young, I took it all for granted. Everyone of them, enlisted and officers, were a true gentleman. Yamato and her sister ship Musashi, sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, were, at 65,000 tons displacement (72,000 tons fully loaded), the largest battleships ever built. When Yamato sank, marking the last Japanese TOKYO -- Seventy-six years ago, on April 7, 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy vessel Yamato, the world's largest battleship, was sunk by U.S. military aircraft. With only three twin 6-inch gun turrets, she was no match for U.S. light cruisers with their four triple-turret, rapid-fire 6-inch guns. This time all the attacks are concentrated against the battleship. The shocked emperor then asked, But what about the Navy? Two eyewitness accounts of Yamato's last battle. She lies in two main parts in some 1,000 feet of water. Quickly spotted by Allied aircraft, Yamato and its consorts were subjected to a series of heavy air attacks that resulted in the loss of the battleship and most of its supporting ships. It would not be enough. A 500-pound general-purpose bomb hit Suzutsuki and blew off her bow. At 1342, another Avenger was shot down, but four more torpedoes were inbound from the port side and two hit. 7, 1945 south of Kyushu. At 1000, Task Group 58.1 and Task Group 58.3 commence launching a 280-plane strike wave (132 fighters, 50 bombers, and 98 torpedo planes). Yamato (), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. On 1 January 1945, Yamato, Haruna and Nagato were all transferred to the newly reactivated 1st Battleship Division; Yamato left drydock two days later. Meanwhile, about 34 Hellcats and Corsairs and 22 Helldivers and Avengers worked over some of the other Japanese destroyers. My father, Donald Lennox, Sr. was an Avenger pilot on the San Jacinto whose torpedo is credited for striking the Asashimo. 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. They were also instructed to Thank you to all the brave men and women of the US armed forces! YAMATO starts a turn starboard to course 230 degrees. After all, she was the The result was arguably the largest suicide mission in history. Additionally, aircraft damaged most of the . The morale aboard Yamato was described as not being very good, especially after the crews were informed they were on a one-way mission. So, the admirals concocted what they termed, Operation Ten-Go (Operation Heaven One). The rest of the Surface Special Attack Force consisted of the light cruiser Yahagi, and eight destroyers. My dads name is Ronald R. LeFebvre (Ding). The element of surprise was gone for the Japanese. At 0823, a Hellcat fighter off Essex (CV-9) sighted Yamato, a contact that the battleship reported at 0832. Although the battleship was in no danger of sinking at this point, the list meant that the main battery was unable to fire . [5] The smoke from the explosionover 4miles (6.4km) highwas seen 100miles (160km) away on Kysh. By noon, the Corsair and Hellcat fighters arrived over the Yamato group, looking for fighters protecting the Japanese, and finding none waited for the dive bombers and torpedo planes to arrive. miles southwest of Kyushu, Japan. Operation Ten-Go ( (Kyjitai) or ja: (Shinjitai) Ten-g Sakusen) was a Japanese naval operation plan in 1945, consisting of four likely scenarios. 276 men are rescued including Rear Admiral Morishita Nobuei, Chief of Staff, Second Fleet (and former YAMATO skipper). At 0840, the Japanese reported seven Hellcats orbiting around the force. WORLD WAR II. 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. Having already counter-flooded to starboard, the only option Yamato had was to flood her starboard engine and boiler rooms. A report that had been delayed for 25 minutes by ransmission and decoding, is received finally. Orders to Commit Suicide The Yamato had unbelievable orders. Spruance gave orders to Rear Admiral Morton Deyo, commander of the Bombardment Force, to take his six old battleships and set up a blocking force northwest of Okinawa (as Yamato was circling around in that direction with the intent to stay as far from TF 58 as possible). document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Our web site is dedicated to the memory of Harry D. Jones (1922-2012), VT-17 pilot during WWII. Twelve Helldivers claimed several hits in the bridge area in exchange for five Helldivers damaged by anti-aircraft fire. April 7, 1945 Sinking of the Battleship Yamato. RecPak is a meal replacement for the outdoors that saves you weight, space and time in the most challenging environments, just add water. 3. Even before the war, the Japanese understood that they could never match the U.S. Navy for quantity, but were convinced they could build a better battleship. Submarine Hackleback (SS-295) then picked up surveillance, issuing four contact reports during the night as Yamato transited southwesterly along the coast of Kyushu. A Japanese destroyer peeled off three times to keep Hackleback at bay. Thirty-four Hellcats, 22 Helldivers and one Corsair attack YAMATOs escorts. At 1423 as she began to capsize, the raging fires onboard ignited her magazines and the resultant explosion unleashed a huge mushroom cloud that rose to 20,000 feet and took out a few American planes that were overhead. At 1402, Yamato took three more bomb hits amidships, and Aruga gave the abandon-ship order. Five Helldivers are damaged by AA fire. One of the largest battleships ever built, Yamato entered service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in December 1941. Lieutenant J.G. This force include battleships Massachusetts (BB-59), Indiana (BB-58), South Dakota (BB-57), New Jersey (BB-62), Wisconsin (BB-64), and Missouri (BB-63) (54 16-inch guns), the battle-cruisers Alaska (CB-1) and Guam (CB-2), five cruisers, and 21 destroyers. TG 58.1, commanded by Rear Admiral J. J. This particular image was taken during an earlier battle with American carrier aircraft on October 24, 1944 as Yamato transited the Sibuyan Sea. However, three-quarters of these (128 boats) were lost during the conflict, a proportion of loss similar that experienced by Germany's U-Boats. Now I know a little bit. Torpedoes explode against Yamato's port side The first explodes in the crews quarters abaft the Type 13 radar shack. As waves of kamikazes took to the sky to defend the island, Yamato was ordered to sea on a mission to emulate the suicide planes and take out as many American ships as possible.
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