Yamato (ship, 1941)
 Drawing of the Yamato in April 1945
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The Yamato ( Japanese 大 和 ; after the province of Yamato , also archaic name for the primeval Japan, cf. Yamato Empire ) was a Japanese battleship in World War II . She was the lead ship of the Yamato class . At 46 centimeters, their heavy artillery was the largest caliber previously used in breech loading guns on ships . The ship was built from 1937 to 1941 at the naval shipyard in Kure and was subsequently used in the Pacific War like the sister ship Musashi . The Yamato was sunk by US carrier aircraft on April 7, 1945 about 300 kilometers south of the Japanese island of Kyushu .
Emergence
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construction
The planning and construction of the Yamato took place in the strictest secrecy, which was not practiced to this extent in any other battleship building of the time. It should be absolutely prevented that more information about the new "super battleship class" reaches the public. The shipyard in Kure was hidden behind privacy screens made of wood and sisal in order to protect the ship under construction from unauthorized eyes. Only the leading designers and the top of the navy knew all the details of the Yamato and its sister ship Musashi , all other engineers and workers involved in the planning and construction only knew the construction phases in which they were directly involved. Even later, after the battleship was completed, only the leading officers were given access to all specifications; for example, the caliber of the main weapons remained a well-kept secret for most of the ordinary crew members. This enormous effort continued even after the sinking of the Yamato - shortly before the surrender of Japan , photographs and construction plans of the ships were deliberately destroyed. It is due to this fact that there are very few and mostly inferior photographs of the ships of the Yamato class . Only the series of pictures taken during the Yamato test drives in October 1941 is an exception.
On August 8, 1940 then took place the launching of the battleship, which - was dispensed with a large official ceremony, in order to preserve the strict confidentiality - unlike most other prestigious capital ships. By autumn 1941, the Yamato was completed in the shipyard's equipment pool. In order to transport the huge main artillery, a ship specially constructed for this purpose, the 11,000 ts transporter Kashino , was used, which is unique in the history of battleship building . In October, the Yamato completed its test drives in the Sea of Japan , with a displacement of 69,500 tn. l. achieved a top speed of 27.4 knots with an output of 153,333 shaft horsepower .
Conversions
Armament
The middle artillery of the Yamato initially consisted of twelve 15.5 cm guns in four triplet turrets, one of which was installed in front and aft above the towers of the heavy artillery and two on the long sides of the superstructure. The latter were removed in early 1944 to make room for anti-aircraft guns. The guns came from the Mogami- class cruisers that had been converted to 20.3 cm guns in 1939 . The caliber length was 60, which gave the guns good accuracy and long range: They could fire a projectile weighing around 56 kg over a maximum distance of 27.4 km. Their high rate of fire of five rounds per minute further contributed to the high efficiency of these weapons.
The anti-aircraft armament of the Yamato was at the time of their commissioning - also in comparison with other contemporary capital ships - relatively weak. In December 1941 there were only twelve 12.7 cm guns and 24 25 mm cannons in eight triplet turrets on board - supplemented by two 13.2 mm double mounts on the sides of the command tower. In view of the constantly growing air threat, however, the strength of the air defense then grew rapidly: after the removal of the two triple turrets on the side of the middle artillery, a total of 24 12.7 cm cannons and 152 tubes of 25 mm cannons were used during several docks until April 1945 brought on board. In spite of the impressive number of tubes, the quality of the air defense was rather mediocre; this was due to the radar and fire control technology of the Japanese fleet, which was little developed in comparison to US and British ships. The 25 mm cannons were also a relatively old and hardly further developed model, in which in particular the insufficient supply of ammunition in combat and low pan and aiming speeds caused delays and technical problems.
Radar and radio measuring equipment
At the time of its completion there was no radar device on board the Yamato , it was not retrofitted with appropriate systems until the second half of the war. From 1943/44 onwards there were a total of:
- a Type 21 radar to detect air and sea targets on the main rangefinder of the bridge tower; Range 50 km
- two type 13 radar systems (for detecting aerial targets) on either side of the main mast; Range 50 km
- two type 22 radar systems (for detecting sea targets) on both sides of the superstructure; Range 40 km
The E-27 systems in particular were installed on the bridge tower on passive sensors. These systems warned of detection by enemy radar and reduced its signals.
In addition to the radar equipment, the Yamato had a Type 0 sonar device with which a submarine could be located when the ship was moving slowly or at a standstill.
Mission history
Initial stages of the war and the Battle of Midway
The Yamato was put into service in Kure on December 16, 1941 - about a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor - and thus assigned to the 1st Battleship Division, to which the Nagato and the Mutsu also belonged. By February 12, 1942, the final equipment of the ship followed, with the end of which it officially became a fleet flagship of the Imperial Navy. In the months that followed, the Yamato conducted a series of break-in and combat drills and served as the floating headquarters from which much of the Japanese naval operations were directed in the early months of the Pacific War. On March 30, a practice shooting of heavy artillery was carried out in the inland sea at targets around 40 km away. The poor results achieved in this way clearly showed for the first time the inadequacies of the heavy artillery at great distances and the difficulties of fire control. At the end of May 1942, the Yamato was able to report its full operational readiness. As a naval flagship, she took part in the catastrophic Battle of Midway for Japan at the beginning of June , but like all battleships used, she remained without enemy contact. When marching back to Kure, an American submarine fired two torpedoes at the Japanese unit near the island of Minami-Torishima , but both of them failed.
Back in the roadstead of Hashirajima south of Kure, the previous 1st Battleship Division was disbanded in July 1942. The Nagato and Mutsu were from now on as the 2nd division, while the Yamato initially alone, from August 5th together with her sister ship Musashi , formed the 1st division.
The fighting for the Solomon Islands and the Southwest Pacific
After the US landing on Guadalcanal , the Yamato left Japan with an escort carrier and several destroyers and made her way to Truk to serve as a floating command center for the incoming Japanese counter-operations. On the way there she was attacked again by a US submarine, but the torpedoes again missed their target. On August 28th, the association reached its berth without further incident. In October 1942, the Yamato delivered 4,500 tons of oil to a tanker that was supposed to supply the Japanese ships deployed near Guadalcanal - a clear sign of the shortage of fuel in the Imperial Fleet at this early stage of the war. After the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands , a large banquet was held to celebrate the victory that was supposedly won there.
The Yamato remained stationed in Truk until May 8, 1943 and was not used operationally once during the entire fighting for Guadalcanal and later in the Solomon Islands. On February 11, she had already handed over her role as the fleet flagship to the sister ship Musashi , which has meanwhile also arrived . On May 21, 1943, she reached Kure, where the Yamato was initially docked for a week for routine repair and maintenance work. Shortly thereafter, she was again taken to a dock to expand her anti-aircraft armament by four 25 mm triplets, to install a Type 21 radar, to provide the 155 mm side turrets and parts of the superstructure with stronger armor and to make changes to be carried out at the oil bunker and rudder system. During this docking phase, the Yamato was inspected on July 16, 1943 by the German naval attaché in Japan, Rear Admiral Wenneker , despite concerns of some officers about secrecy .
Together with the battleships Nagato and Fuso , the Yamato left Kure on August 17, 1943, laden with troop units and supplies, heading for Truk, where the unit arrived unmolested six days later. On September 18, the Yamato, together with the Nagato and strong carrier and cruiser forces , left Truk for their first real combat mission: the Japanese unit was supposed to advance to Eniwetok to track down the US carriers who had recently attacked islands of the Marshall Group had carried out. However, there was no contact with the enemy and the fleet returned to Truk. This scenario was repeated in mid-October - this time the Yamato left with her sister ship Musashi and the Nagato - but the US forces again escaped Japanese grasp. On October 26, the ships reached the Truk lagoon again.
In early December 1943, the Japanese leadership planned to use the Yamato together with the aircraft carrier Shōkaku in Operation BO-1, which had the aim of reinforcing Japanese troops in the Southeast Pacific. Even in the first phase of the war, Japan had used large warships to transport troops and materials. Since conventional transport ships came more and more into the sights of the US submarines, the heavily armored capital ships offered a significantly higher probability that the transports actually reached their destination. The ships left Truk on December 12, took troops and supplies on board as planned in Kure on December 17, and set out on their return voyage. By intercepting a radio message, the Americans knew that the Yamato was expected back in Truk on December 25, and alerted their submarines in the area. In fact, the USS Skate hit a torpedo around 180 nautical miles north of the atoll, penetrating 3,000 tons of water. The Yamato damage report was also decoded:
“ On December 25, 1943, 180 nautical miles north of Truk (10 ° 5 N 150 ° 32 E), we received a torpedo hit from a US submarine. The hole between frame 151 and 173 was five meters deep and 25 meters long. The water also penetrated through a small hole in the upper combat tower magazine 3. "
Despite the considerable damage, she reached the berth in Truk, where temporary repairs were initially carried out by a workshop ship. In the absence of a sufficiently large dock, the Yamato was then to be relocated back to Kure in January 1944 in order to be completely restored there. The US leadership was aware that the damage to the battleship in Truk could not be repaired and, in anticipation of a move to Japan, concentrated their submarines on the appropriate route. In fact, the Yamato was spotted by a total of three US submarines on its march back, but none of them could get into attack position. On January 16, 1944, she arrived in Kure and was immediately docked to repair the damage caused by the torpedo hit. During another dock stay in February, the ship was extensively converted: the two 15.5 cm triple towers on the side were removed to widen the superstructure and a total of twelve additional 12.7 cm anti-aircraft guns on the resulting galleries to be able to install in twin mounts. The light flak was also expanded; eight 25mm triplets and 26 individual 25mm cannons came on board. The occupation quarters had to be expanded to accommodate the now much stronger air defense crews. In addition, a Type 13 and a Type 22 radar were installed, two of the searchlights removed and an infrared detection system and a radar warning system mounted on the bridge structure.
Relocation to Southeast Asia and the Battle of the Leyte Gulf
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In April 1944, the Yamato acted again as a troop transport and brought reinforcements to Manila before taking her new berth at Lingga near Singapore . As the oil deliveries from the conquered Southeast Asian areas dried up more and more due to the increasing US submarine activities, the Japanese leadership was forced to station most of its surface fleet near the oil wells in the south. From Lingga, the Yamato - often together with the Musashi - took part in some practice and mission trips. Among them were an unsuccessful attempt to strengthen the island of Biak in June 1944 , the joint participation in the battle in the Philippine Sea , where the Yamato used their main guns against air targets for the first time - but accidentally against their own aircraft. Without any further contact with the enemy, she returned to Lingga in late June and moved to Japan in early July, where her anti-aircraft armament was reinforced again (five 25-mm triple turrets). Troops were transported to Okinawa on the way back south .
In the battle of the Philippine Sea , the Yamato was able to use its main guns with shrapnel for the first time, but without noticeable success. In June 1944 the 2nd fleet, to which the Yamato now belonged, moved back to the Lingga Archipelago near Singapore.
From July to October 1944, the Yamato took part in numerous training trips in order to achieve the highest possible level of operational readiness for the expected major defensive battle against the US troops. On October 20, 1944, she left her anchorage with her sister ship and all other capital ships stationed in Lingga to march via Brunei towards Leyte , where the US Navy landing operations in the Philippines had started. In the Sibuyan Sea , the Japanese unit was attacked by strong American air forces, whereby the Yamato received three bomb hits, but remained seaworthy and combat-ready. The Musashi, on the other hand, suffered such severe damage that it capsized and went down with most of its crew.
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On October 25, 1944, the rest of the unit with the Yamato in the lead met a group of American escort carriers with destroyer security. In the ensuing battle , the Yamato - which used its artillery against enemy sea targets for the first and only time here - scored hits on enemy ships and contributed to the sinking of the carrier Gambier Bay and a destroyer. Despite this, the Japanese did not succeed in the inconsistently led and poorly coordinated attack in defeating the significantly weaker US forces; they retreated north after fierce resistance from the US destroyers. In addition, the Japanese had used armor-piercing shells in this battle, which had hardly any effect against the only lightly protected carriers and destroyers. A day later, the Japanese unit was attacked again by carrier aircraft, the Yamato received hits, which again could not cause any serious damage. It reached Brunei on October 28, 1944 and added fuel there. 29 of its crew members were killed during the Leyte operation.
The last phase of the war
On November 16, the Yamato left together with the Nagato and the Kongō Brunei for Japan. On the way north, the association was attacked at the heights of Formosa on November 21 by the US submarine Sealion , which scored hits on the Kongo and an escort destroyer. Both ships were lost.
Back in Kure, the Yamato went into dock until early January 1945, where maintenance and repair work was carried out. In addition, the anti-aircraft armament was added one last time: 24 of the 25 mm single cannons were replaced by 9 triplet mountings, so that the battleship now carried a total of 152 tubes with 25 mm caliber.
The ship was hardly to leave the anchorage in Kure. During the heavy attacks by US carrier aircraft on Japanese warships in the home ports on March 19, it received a single bomb hit in the command tower. In the course of March, fuel was also bunkered, the ammunition stocks replenished and target exercises for the air defense carried out. With the Allied landings on Okinawa , which began on April 1, it was to be expected that the Yamato would be the last operational capital ship in the fleet. Two days later she was transferred to Mitajiri Bay south of Kure and awaited further instructions. On April 5, she received orders there to intervene in the fighting over the southern Japanese island. For this purpose a combat group was formed, consisting of the light cruiser Yahagi and the eight destroyers Isokaze , Hamakaze , Yukikaze , Asashimo , Hatsushimo , Kasumi , Fuyuzuki and Suzuzuki . There are contradicting statements about the question of whether the Yamato should be consciously sacrificed in this mission and therefore only equipped with fuel for the outward journey. Nevertheless, in view of the complete lack of air support and the massive Allied superiority , a loss of the Yamato was to be regarded as very likely and was accepted by the Japanese leadership with approval. In this respect, the idea of the Yamato's final deployment as a " kamikaze mission" is possibly justified. The plan was to break through to the US fleet anchored off Okinawa, inflict the greatest possible damage on it and, in the - expected - case of serious damage to its own that would have made a return impossible, run aground off Okinawa in order to continue with the giant artillery to be able to intervene in the fighting.
Downfall
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On the way to Okinawa , the unit was located by a US submarine shortly after it left port and attacked on April 7, 1945 by a total of 386 carrier aircraft in several waves over two hours. It turned out to be disastrous to send the fleet to Okinawa without any air support. In the battle, the Yamato received - despite defense - 13 torpedo hits and eight heavy bomb hits and was damaged by numerous close hits. They decreased at 14:23 local time at the position of 30 ° 22 ' N , 128 ° 4' O . When the ship capsized, it was torn in two by a heavy explosion in the magazine for the front main guns by its own ammunition.
Of the crew of the Yamato , 2,498 crew members died, including the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Vice Admiral (Kaigun-Chūjō) Seiichi Itō and the ship's commander, Sea Captain (Kaigun-Taisa) Kosaku Ariga . 269 sailors were rescued. The light cruiser Yahagi and four destroyers accompanying them as escort were also sunk, killing over a thousand crew members.
After the loss of the Yamato , reports of the heroism of the commanders were circulated in Japan. Vice-Admiral Ito is said to have gone to his cabin shortly before the sinking, where he probably drowned. Captain Ariga is said to have tied himself to the engine telegraph or the compass platform in the last few minutes of the ship so as not to be washed out of the sinking wreck.
The high losses during the slow sinking of the Yamato resulted, among other things, from the fact that, according to Japanese naval doctrine , the Yamato was neither equipped with suitable lifeboats nor with lifebuoys and the extremely powerful explosion of the ammunition chamber caused many of the swimmers to be both in the air and in the air Water-propagating blast wave killed.
With the destruction of the Yamato , the last operational use of Japanese battleships in World War II ended.
Possible war crimes
Captain Tameichi Hara, who survived the sinking of the Yamato , accused in a book published after the war that survivors of the Yamato swimming in the water had been shot at by US fighter planes with on-board weapons .
wreck
The wreck of the Yamato has now been located and mapped in about 340 meters water depth; smaller objects were recovered. The wreck is torn into two large parts, the main and stern parts are up keel and the bow section on a level keel right next to it.
documentation
Models
In specially equipped Yamato Museum in Kure one was model of the battleship in the scale established 1:10. It has a length of 26.3 meters. Smaller models of the Yamato are also exhibited in the International Maritime Museum Hamburg .
For the shooting of the film Otoko-tachi no Yamato (2005), a full- size model of the front half of the Yamato's surface ship was recreated at the Mukaishima shipyard in Onomichi and made available to visitors from July 17, 2005 to May 11, 2006 .
watch TV
The American television station PBS first broadcast the documentary Sinking the Supership by Keiko Hagihara Bang and David Axelrod on October 4, 2005 on its science channel NOVA, in which the last mission and the discovery of the wreck of the Yamato are documented. This documentary was also broadcast in German by the television station Phoenix .
Movies
- Arukimedesu no Taisen (The Great War of Archimedes), Japan 2019, director: Takashi Yamazaki [1]
- Supēsu Batorushippu Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato), Japan 2010, director: Takashi Yamazaki ; based on the series of the same name (Japan 1974–1975)
- Otoko-tachi no Yamato (Yamato - The Last Battle), Japan 2005, director: Junya Sato , actors: Yū Aoi , Junichi Haruta , u. a.
- Rengo kantai , Japan 1981, director: Shuei Matsubayashi , actors: Susumu Fujita , Hiroshi Hasegawa , u. a. [2]
- Senkan Yamato , Japan 1956, directed by Yutaka Abe
literature
Technical literature by Japanese authors on Yamato / Musashi
- Todaka Kazushige: The Battleship YAMATO and MUSASHI. Kure Maritime Museum, Supplemental Volume, Kure 2005.
- Chihaya Masatake: IJN YAMATO and MUSASHI Battleships. Warship Profile Vol. 30, Windsor 1973.
- Maru Special: Japanese Naval Vessels. Vol. 52. Yamato / Musashi. Maruzen, Tokyo 1981.
- Maru Special: Japanese Naval Vessels. Second Series Vol. 115. History of YAMATO-Class. Maruzen, Tokyo 1986.
- Maru Special: The Imperial Japanese Navy. Vol. 1 (Battleships I). Maruzen, Tokyo 1989 (2nd edition 1994).
- Gakken Pictorial Series Vol.50, Bird's Eye YAMATO, Gakken, Tokyo 2005.
- Fukui Shizuo: Japanese Naval Vessels Illustrated. 1869-1945. Vol. 1. Battleships and Battlecruisers. KK Publishers, Tokyo 1974 (2nd edition 1982).
- Ishiwata Kohji: Yamato Class. In: Japanese Battleships. Ships of the World Vol. 391. Kaijinsha, Tokyo 1988, pp. 130-143.
- Watanabe Yoshiyuki: Japanese Battleships. Gakken, Tokyo 2004.
- Model Art Vol. 6: Drawings of Imperial Japanese Naval Vessels Vol. 1. (Battleships and Destroyers), Tokyo 1989 (2nd ed. 1995).
- Model Art Vol. 745: Imperial Japanese Battleship Yamato. Tokyo 2nd edition 2008.
Selected non-Japanese sources on Yamato / Musashi
- Janusz Skulski: The Battleship YAMATO. Conway, London 1988 (3rd edition 2000).
- Steve Wiper: Yamato Class Battleships. Warship Pictorial Vol. 25, Tucson 2004.
Web links
- Yamato Museum in Kure (Engl.)
- Chronology of the history of the Yamato (Engl.)
- Extensive photo archive to the ships of the Yamato class (Engl.)
- The Last Operation of Battleship Yamato (japan.)
- Photos of an underwater expedition to the wreck of Yamato (Engl.)
- Photos and location of the wreck of Yamato (Engl.)
Individual references and comments
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wätzig, pp. 184f.
- ^ MJ Whitley: Battleships of World War Two. Cassel & Co, London 2001, ISBN 0-304-35957-2 , p. 211.
- ^ W. David Dickson: Yamato. In: Warship International 4. 1975, pp. 294-318, here: p. 294.
- ↑ Silence, p. 11
- ^ Dickson, p. 313.
- ^ Stille, Mark: Imperial Japanese Navy Battleships 1941 - 1945, Oxford / New York 2008, p. 43.
- ↑ History of the operation of the Yamato on combinedfleet.com
- ↑ Silence: Japanese Battleships, pp. 39-43.
- ↑ a b Joachim Wätzig: The Japanese Fleet - From 1868 to today . Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89488-104-6 . P. 183
- ↑ http://www.spacecruiseryamato.com/ijn/dive.html
- ↑ Yamato Today ( Memento from August 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Yamato Museum ( Memento of March 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.onomichiguide.com/yamato.html onomichiguide.com, English, viewed April 7, 2010
- ^ Sinking the Supership on pbs.org, viewed September 17, 2011
- ↑ Documentation on phoenix.de ( Memento from March 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Remarks
- ↑ According to the literature, seven double receivers, but at least nine are recognizable according to photos and original plans.
- ↑ The Japanese rank Chūjō corresponds to the German rank of Vice Admiral . The prefix Kaigun indicates that it is a naval officer.
- ↑ The Japanese rank Taisa corresponds to the German rank of captain at sea . The prefix Kaigun indicates that it is a naval officer.