Yamato (1941) Yamato (1941)The class were to be ‘super-battleships’, bigger, more heavily armed and better-protected than anything else afloat. Intended to enforce Japan’s mastery of the Pacific, they made a minimal contribution to the country’s war effort.
Work on the Yamato class began, in secret, in 1934 and three years of intensive planning and modelling followed. Yamato was laid down in the Kure Kaigun Kosho building basin on 4 November 1937, launched on 8 August 1940 and completed on 16 December 1941, as the first of a planned five that were intended to be the largest and most powerful battleships in the world.
The tower carried Type 21 and 22 radar, the main battery range-finder, and Type 98 low-angle fire control director. Uppermost bridge deck is the combat bridge, with compass bridge below. The conning-tower top with its periscopes is just above the 155mm (6.1in) turret.
The nine 460mm (18.1in) 45-calibre guns were the heaviest ever used afloat. The triple turrets each weighed 2516 tonnes (2774 tons). Barrel length was 21.13m (69ft 4in), they weighed 162 tonnes (178.6 tons) and had a range of 44km (27.3 miles) at an elevation of 45 degrees. The HE shells weighed 1460kg (3219lb). The secondary armament was 12 155mm (6.1in) guns mounted in four triple turrets and 12 127mm (5in) guns in twin mounts. Building was done on the raft body principle, with the vital areas contained within side armour of 410mm (16in) thickness, tapering towards the bottom to 75mm (2.9in), topped by a 200mm (7.8in) armoured deck and terminated by transverse bulkheads. Only the barbettes, flue gas uptakes and trunks for command systems, all heavily armoured, protruded through the ‘raft’.
Yamato at speed, photographed from an American warplane while under bomb attack in the Leyte Gulf sea battle, 25 October 1944.
Torpedo protection consisted of a bulkhead and a torpedo bulge with a maximum width of 3m (10ft), and to guard against explosions from below the side armour was continued as a floor 80–50mm (3.15–2in) thick beneath the magazines, with a space of around 4m (13ft 6in) to absorb explosive energy. Altogether there were 1065 watertight compartments below the armoured deck, and 82 above.
The deck plan reveals the distinctive hull shape, reaching maximum beam towards the stern. The ‘wings’ carried Type 96 25mm AA guns in triple mounts.
Instead of the ‘pagoda’ style superstructure of previous Japanese battleships there was a tall octagonal tower-mast, reaching 28m (92ft) above the waterline, with relatively few external features, though signalling wings were built out at bridge level. Control and chartrooms were arranged round a central armoured cylinder. A 15m (49ft) rangefinder surmounted the tower, with gunnery control centres above and below. The upper bridge extended forwards some 5m (16ft 4in), flanked by triple searchlights on each side.
The hull attained its maximum beam aft of the mid-point, part of the design scheme sometimes referred to as the ‘Kampon line’ and intended to minimise the stresses caused by the ship’s great length and the massive weight of the turrets. Despite its huge dimensions, Yamato was intended to be a fast ship, and at one stage diesel propulsion was proposed for the two outer shafts, with turbines for the inner ones. In the end an all-turbine drive was chosen, as in the original plan.
After trials and training exercises, Yamato served as flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and as such was command ship in the Battle of Midway at the end of May 1942, in which four Japanese fleet carriers were sunk. Yamato was not involved in the fighting. By August 1942 its sister ship Musashi had been completed and replaced Yamato as flagship on 11 February 1943. Yamato moved between the mid-ocean base of Truk (Chuuk) and the home base of Kure, where it underwent a refit in July–August.
Successful class?
Japan’s most able naval designers, engineer Hiraga and Captain Fujimoto, made major contributions to the design of the class, which was generally recognised as a highly successful and effective one despite going beyond all previous bounds of size. However, none of the Yamato class achieved results comparable to their size, expense and power. Musashi was sunk by aerial bombs and torpedoes. The third ship, Shinano, was converted while building to a carrier. Newly completed, it was sunk by torpedoes from the US submarine Archerfish on 29 November 1944. Construction of the fourth ship, never named (No.111), was suspended in November 1941 when it was about 30 per cent completed, and finally abandoned in September 1942. A fifth had been envisaged but no construction order was placed.
Specification (1941)
Dimensions |
Length 263m (862ft 9in), Beam 36.9m (121ft 1in), Draught 10.39m (34ft 1in), Displacement 61,698 tonnes (68,010 tons); 65,008 tonnes (71,659 tons) full load |
Propulsion |
12 Kampon HP boilers, 4 Kampon turbines developing 111,855kW (150,000hp), 4 screws |
Armament |
9 460mm (18.1in) guns, 12 155mm (6.1in) guns, 12 127mm (5in) guns, 24 25mm (0.98in), 4 13.2mm (0.52in) AA guns |
Armour |
Belt 410mm (16in), Deck 230–200mm (9.1–7.9in), Barbettes 546–50mm (21.5–2in), Turrets 650–193mm (19.7–11.8in), Torpedo Bulkhead 300–75mm (11.8–2.9in) |
Range |
13,330km (7200nm) at 16 knots |
Speed |
27 knots |
Complement |
2500 |
On 25 December, Yamato was torpedoed by the US submarine Skate while it was carrying troops and equipment from Yokosuka to Truk. The attack caused the rear magazine to flood when some 2721 tonnes (3000 tons) of water surged in. Repairs and refitting at Kure lasted until 18 March 1944. Between 22 and 25 October 1944 it was part of the Japanese Centre Force, engaged in the widespread Battle of Leyte Gulf. Yamato’s guns sank the US escort carrier Gambier Bay and it participated in the sinking of three US destroyers. It received several bomb and shell hits without sustaining serious damage, but Musashi was sunk by US aircraft. Yamato returned to Kure.
On 6 April 1945 it was sent to help repel the American landings on Okinawa in an operation code-named Ten-go, generally considered a large-scale suicide mission. Yamato was to be beached on the island to act as a fixed artillery fortress. With nine escorting craft but no air protection, it was attacked on the 7th, southwest of the Kyushu Islands, by around 400 American bombers and torpedo bombers in three waves. The attacks began at 12:37 and, hit by six bombs and 11 or more torpedoes, Yamato was progressively disabled and partially flooded, with little power and no steering. At 14:23 the ship capsized, one of the two fore magazines exploding at the same time. Around 2055 of the crew were killed or drowned.
