how many planes were lost sinking the yamato

This particular image was taken during an earlier battle with American carrier aircraft on October 24, 1944 as Yamato transited the Sibuyan Sea. The Avengers drop three torpedoes. By the end of the battle, Yahagi and all eight destroyers were lost. Twelve Helldivers claimed several hits in the bridge area in exchange for five Helldivers damaged by anti-aircraft fire. 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. The explosion was heard over 120 miles away. . At 1407, she was struck by at least the seventh torpedo, this time to starboard. Throughout 1943, Yamato continually transferred between Truk, Kure and Brunei in response to American airstrikes on Japanese island bases. At 1430 on 7 April 1945, more than 300 nautical miles north of Okinawa, Yamato blows up after capsizing. They would not be needed. The fire in the area ofher forward 6.1 inch turret can be clearly seen (L42-09.06.05). 3. Yahagi capsized and sank shortly after 1400. Three Japanese destroyers are nearby (80-G-413914). YAMATO and YAHAGI open fire, increase speed to 24 knots and commence a series of sharp evasive maneuvers. The Imperial Japanese Navy ceases to exist as a fighting force. In 1945 Carrier Air Group 17 consisted of VF-17, VBF-17, VB-17, and VT-17. Jocko Clark, embarked on Hornet (CV-12), included Hancock (CV-19), Bennington (CV-20), Belleau Wood (CVL-24) and San Jacinto (CVL-30). At 0840, the Japanese reported seven Hellcats orbiting around the force. this one exploding off Yamato's port bow, it was their air-launched torpedoes The first torpedoes pass by harmlessly, but the remaining two strike her port amidships. An F/A-18C Hornet catches an arresting wire on the USS Nimitz. The result was arguably the largest suicide mission in history. It was going on the attack totally outnumbered. Aruga receives a rare double promotion posthumously to Vice Admiral on the request of Admiral Toyoda. 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 remaining destroyers tried to pick up as many survivors as possible and limped back to Japan. About 120,000 were held at 10 camps because of fears that Japanese Americans were enemy sympathizers. seven torpedo hits within two hours of battle. One bomb exploded in crews quarters, but the other bomb exploded near the aft command station and knocked out one of her two air search radars, the aft secondary gun director, several 25-mm gun mounts, and started a fire that killed all but one crewman in the after secondary (6-inch) gun turret and that couldnt be put out. The submarine radio traffic transmitted in the clear, reporting Yamato by name, and reported by Japanese radio intelligence, did nothing to improve the sense of foreboding felt by the senior officers on Yamato. Relive the super battleship's last moments in photographs. Yamato was still more than 300 nautical miles from Okinawa when she went down. One strikes her port side near the forward windlass room. Yamato was hit with three more torpedoes. after the Yamato first took to the sea. 1 magazine causing a huge explosion with a mushroom smoke cloud that was visible for 100 miles away. I was in a ASW squadron that still had many veterans serving and flying. Shinano () was an aircraft carrier built by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II, the largest such built up to that time. The big carriers got all the credit. concentrate their torpedoes on just one of Yamato's sides, an approach On April 7, 1945, the Japanese battleship Yamato, one of the greatest battleships of its time, is sunk in Japan's first major counteroffensive in the struggle for Okinawa. 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. Support Veteran Journalism . Vice Admiral Ito and Captain Aruga went down with the ship. Her secondary armament was significantly altered during the war by removing two of her four triple 6.1-inch turrets in favor of increased anti-aircraft armament, which, by 1945, included 12 dual 5-inch gun mounts, 54 25-mm triple mounts (162 guns), and smaller machine guns. She didn't even make it close to Okinawa. Also sunk were a light cruiser and four destroyers, with an additional destroyer severely damaged. When Yamato sank, marking the last Japanese naval action of the war, she took 2,747 men with herall but 269 of her crew. Asashimo went down with all 330 hands. YAMATO starts a turn starboard to course 230 degrees. Although accounts vary about how many crewmen were on Yamato, the most definitive appears to be that 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen were lost. This is a movie Yamato 2005. The American planes release their bombs and torpedoes and strafe the bridge with machine-gun fire. At 1402, Yamato took three more bomb hits amidships, and Aruga gave the abandon-ship order. aircraft's overhead view of its target. Although born a U.S. citizen, he had been studying in Japan when the war broke out and had the choice of execution or serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy.). The aft secondary battery fire control, secondary gun turret and the air search radar are knocked out. Although 16 warships were hit, Yamato sustained only minor damage from a number of near misses and from one bomb that struck her bridge. Of Yamato's crew of 2,747, all but 23 officers and 246 enlisted men were lost. 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. VFA-25 (1983 and continuing). Some of the Japanese survivors reported that U.S. fighter aircraft strafed Japanese survivors floating in the water. Numerous Helldivers from Bennington and Hornet attacked from Yamatos port side and numerous near misses splashed all around the battleship, which was moving at flank speed (27 knots), before she was finally hit by two 1,000-pound armor-piercing bombs at 1240. I am fortunate to be living as long as I have , I know us WWII vets are living on borrowed time, but glad to be of sound mind yet and can remember incidents like this. Did Yamato sink any ships? Her waterline armor belt was 16 inches thick. The age of the carrier was now confirmed. Musashi (? 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. 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. Thank you to all our WWII vets. Behind the Scenes The Attack Force resumes zigzagging. 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. 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. There were few Japanese survivors. 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. After a dozen torpedo hits, even the Yamato's I was so fortunate to have had that experience!!! U.S. losses were 10 aircraft and 12 pilots and aircrewmen. The Yahagi was too tempting a target for the hundreds of attacking aircraft. YAMATO opens fire with her two forward main turrets and AA guns. Yahagi was a relatively small light cruiser (6,600 tons) completed in 1943 and intended for use as a destroyer flotilla leader. 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. Lieutenant J.G. The shocked emperor then asked, But what about the Navy? began to flood. Displacing 72,800 tons fully loaded, they were about 30 percent heavier than the largest U.S . 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. Though incredibly powerful, Yamato suffered from a relatively low top speed as its engines were . At 1115, Yamatos radar indicated the two air groups were at 44 miles and closing rapidly. (Although some accounts say that, according to the plan, the ships were only given enough fuel to reach Okinawa, they actually received as much fuel as was available to give. As a Minnesota teenager when the war started,. The carriers were among seven ships that went down in the Battle of Midway, a major air and . Yamato avoided two, but the third hit her port side at 1245. This great vessel had a . After all, she was the 0800 hour The Attack Force is sighted by a searching Grumman F6F Hellcat from USS ESSEX (CV-9). 7, 1945 south of Kyushu. By this point, the uncorrected list was passing 15 degrees to port, and alarms were warning of critical temperatures in the forward main battery magazines, with no working pumps to flood them. producing the blasts that tore the ship in half and sank her. One Avenger is shot down but her barrage is largely ineffective because each AA battery fires independently without coordination. The second and third waves of the American attacks pummeled Yamato. The real story of the Yamato sinking March 06, 2008 On April 7, 1945, three southern boys were above the clouds north of Okinawa, 125 miles from the southernmost tip of the main Japanese islands searching for "the largest, heaviest and most powerful battleship ever constructed." The light cruiser Yahagi was the first hit, less than fifteen minutes after the firing began. Here, an Yahagi lost 446 of about 1,000 crewmen. Listing heavily to port, YAMATOs exposed hull is hit by several more torpedoes. About 1,620 survivors of Yamato, Yahagi, Hamakaze, Isokaze, and Kasumi were rescued by the surviving Japanese destroyers. Still kicking but dont know why. 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. Also interviewed is an American dive-bomber pilot who took part in the attack. [28] An estimated 2,498 of the 2,700 crew members on Yamato were lost, including Vice-Admiral Seiichi It, the fleet commander.[1]. Vice Admiral Ito retired to his stateroom to go down with the ship. Less than three and half years after Pearl Harbor, American industrial might was on full display. Stetsons crewmen reset their Mark 13 torpedoes running depth to 20 feet. Torpedoes dropped from their bellies, slashing through the water toward Yamato. A lookout spots American planes 25 degrees to port, levation 8, range 4,375 yards, moving to port. At 1017, Yahagi commenced jamming the Mariners communications, but by then it was too late. The carriers were among seven ships that went down in the Battle of Midway, a major air and sea battle fought between the US and Japan in 1942. 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. As luck would have it, he said, the big ship was turning to port, thereby exposing the full broadside expanse of her enormous hull to the converging torpedoes.. Instead, military leaders decided to build a secret weapon that could engage many enemy ships at once. 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). Praesidus brings homage to the military watch tradition. The escorts cannot defend the flagship either. torpedoes such that they would penetrate Yamato below the waterline near On her last morning, before the first American planes intercepted her, that ultimately led to the supership's demise. The Japanese fighters were unable to make contact before they left at 1000. Surrounding Japanese ships lost an additional 1,167 men. 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. The American invasion fleet had, besides a heavy battleship contingent consisting of six battleships (Massachusetts, Indiana, New Jersey, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Missouri), seven cruisers (including the large cruisers Alaska and Guam) and 21 destroyers. Yahagi lost 446; Asashimo lost 330; the seven destroyers, 391 officers and men. 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. . 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.". YAMATOs list increases to about 15 degrees and her speed slows to 12 knots. Had Yamato ever encountered an Allied battleship group, she could have floated safely out of range, while destroying each ship in turn. I have his flight logs (as he never talked about the war except the death of his brother and his friends) so it is nice to get the big picture of this action. At 1302, Yamatos remaining air search radar detected a second inbound wave. 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. Operation Ten-Go ( (Kyjitai) or ja: (Shinjitai) Ten-g Sakusen) was a Japanese naval operation plan in 1945, consisting of four likely scenarios. But the Americans also had, The Ultimate Gunfighters! [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. Yamato's remains were located and examined in 1985 and again examined, more precisely, in 1999. The fighter issued a contact report at 0832. VA-6B (1946) They shadowed the Japanese and relayed their position to the American fleet. Musashi and her sister ship, Yamato, were by a wide margin the largest battleships ever built. Her remaining air search radar reports the approach of a second attack wave. In total, 97 combatants were killed and 122 wounded. Another 110 aircraft from Task Group 58. According to Morison, there were only 23 officers and 246 enlisted sailors who survived, which doesnt exactly match, but is close. 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). 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