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. 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. YAMATO starts a sharp turn to port but three torpedoes rip into her port side amidships. The sinking of the Yamato on April 7 conclusively signaled the end of the "all-big-gun" battleship era of naval warfare. One of the torpedo planes took a hit in the wing, pulled up in flames, then plunged into the sea. One Avenger is shot down. 1,187 crewmen of DesRon 2s light cruiser YAHAGI and the four destroyers are also lost. Captain Aruga lashed himself to the binnacle to do the same. Baka, essentially a piloted cruise missile, made its debut at Okinawa. A torpedo stopped her dead in the water and killed the entire engine compartment crew. Yamato's injuries were fatal. At 1830, destroyer Isokaze sighted Threadfin on the surface. Yamato'sFinal Voyage About 1,187 crewmen of Yahagi and the four destroyers were lost. The Yahagi was too tempting a target for the hundreds of attacking aircraft. 1200 hour A lookout spots three Japanese troopships on bearing 0250 heading for Amami-Oshima. It says that the Kikaigashima Island lookout station saw 150 carrier planes heading northwest. 10 aircraft Yamato was still more than 300 nautical miles from Okinawa when she went down. The Yamato sank during a fierce battle for Okinawa on April, 7 1945. She was blasted by 15 bomb hits and eight torpedoes. Submarine Hackleback (SS-295) then picked up surveillance, issuing four contact reports during the night as Yamato transited southwesterly along the coast of Kyushu. Design and construction Main article: Yamato-class battleship 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. Barrett is the world leader in long-range, large-caliber, precision rifle design and manufacturing. Twenty Avengers attacked from the port side (concentrating torpedo attacks from the port side was deliberate, with the intent to capsize the ship). The destroyers were Destroyer Division (DESDIV) 17 (Isokaze, Hamakaze, Yukikaze), DESDIV 21 (Asashimo, Kasumi, Hatsushimo), and DESDIV 41 (Fuyuzuki, Suzutsuki). settled on the seafloor 1,200 feet down and about 50 The explosion was heard over 120 miles away. The American planes release their bombs and torpedoes and strafe the bridge with machine-gun fire. Deep sea explorers have found two Japanese aircraft carriers that were sunk in battle in World War Two. Far more effective was the extraordinary skill of Japanese ship captains in making evasive maneuvers to throw off aim and avoid numerous bombs and torpedoes. Mitscher correctly assumed that the Japanese were operating without air cover and would be sitting ducks for his huge airwing. With nearly all of her anti-aircraft guns out of action, the Avenger torpedo planes wreaked havoc. Since Yamatos radios were destroyed, Vice Admiral Ito sent out a signal via flag hoist cancelling the operation and freeing the other ships to try to get back to Japan. 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. The fighters attacked first, strafing the anti-aircraft guns on the decks with machine guns and rockets. When Yamato sank, marking the last Japanese Around 2:00pm all power was lost and permission was given to abandon ship. Of the 3,332 crew members aboard the Yamato, only 276 survived the sinking. guns ever mounted at sea. battleship's aft secondary magazine caused tons of ammunition to ignite almost simultaneously, 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. 3. Ito was posthumously promoted to full admiral. The FIST of the FLEET where it began during WWII. 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. Light cruiser YAHAGI, hit by 12 bombs and seven torpedoes sinks exactly one minute after the last bomb hits. . 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 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. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ USS Iowa Class Battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, This slowed Yamato down to 10 knots and made her a sitting duck. Eggheads on this subject get "lost in the sauce" going over tables, charts, and math formulas done by researchers after the war shooting rounds into armor plate captured from Japan and Germany,. In addition, sick sailors and also the oldest sailors were sent to shore. About 120,000 were held at 10 camps because of fears that Japanese Americans were enemy sympathizers. blasts were perhaps the largest ever to occur at sea. Of the just over 3,000 men aboard the Yamato on the morning of April 7, 1945, fewer than 300 were alive at days end. 129 Japanese soldiers were killed. A Japanese destroyer peeled off three times to keep Hackleback at bay. A Curtiss Helldiver bomber like the one seen at right 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. 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). Experts believe that a fire raging in the 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). On her last morning, before the first American planes intercepted her, 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.). Captain Hara on Yahagi reported that the large formations of aircraft circled around the task force just outside anti-aircraft range for a number of minutes, some in clockwise rotation and some in counter-clockwise rotation, as strike leaders organized strikes on particular targets free of interference from Japanese fighters. 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. Another 110 planes appeared ready for the kill. The ships were to sink as many troop transports as possible, then beach themselves and continue firing as long as they had ammunition. US warplanes sank the Musashi on 24 October 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, believed to be. 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. 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