how many planes were lost sinking the yamato

(Although U.S. carrier air groups complement had been changed to have a mix of about three quarters fighters to defend against kamikaze and only one quarter bombers and torpedo planes, the fighters had been trained and gotten pretty good at being used in a fighter-bomber role, and, with no Japanese air opposition, had the freedom to do so.) One of her lookouts spots the tracks of four torpedoes approaching. The aircraft are lost behind the clouds. Yamato avoided two, but the third hit her port side at 1245. Less than three and half years after Pearl Harbor, American industrial might was on full display. Legendary Lost Japanese WWII Battleship Found by Billionaire Paul Allen.The search was funded by Paul Allen, the Microsoft co . The Musashi and its sister vessel, the Yamato, were two of the largest battleships ever built. According to the plan, Yamato, light cruiser Yahagi, and eight destroyers would form a Surface Special Attack Force (the term special attack was understood to mean suicide) and sortie on 6 April 1945. Yahagi was a relatively small light cruiser (6,600 tons) completed in 1943 and intended for use as a destroyer flotilla leader. Instead, Yamato was obsolete the day she was launched, as the Japanese themselves proved at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere by sinking Allied battleships with airpower. One Helldiver was shot down. One of the largest battleships ever built, Yamato entered service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in December 1941. 3s upper powder magazine. There were few Japanese survivors. Then it was supposed to beach itself, run aground, and use the ship as a makeshift fort. 1400 hour Three bombs explode port amidships, five minutes later a torpedo hits her starboard side amidships. Here, an Three of the torpedoes hit in quick succession, and Yamato took on another 3,000 tons of water and a 7-degree list. Two dud rockets hit FUYUTSUKI. The Americans lose 10 aircraft and 12 crewmen. It had been deployed on a Surface Special Attack Force suicide mission to drive back U.S. forces that had landed on Okinawa. It would not be enough. While still a token of national pride, the sinking of Yamato also symbolized the sad end of the once invincible Imperial Japanese Navy. 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. In a separate attack, compani miles southwest of Kyushu, Japan. They unanimously objected, most of them arguing instead to be allowed to conduct independent raiding of the over-extended U.S. supply lines. They lost their best battleship, a cruiser, and four destroyers along with nearly 4,200 sailors. guns ever mounted at sea. Aruga receives a rare double promotion posthumously to Vice Admiral on the request of Admiral Toyoda. 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. Her nine 18.1-inch guns firing Sanshikidan beehive shells, twenty-four 127-mm. 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. This would be carried out in conjunction with a mass aerial kamikaze attack by over 350 airplanes ( Kikusui No. To buck up morale, many captains of capital ships received a accelerated promotion to rear admiral in 1944. The fighter issued a contact report at 0832. 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. settled on the seafloor 1,200 feet down and about 50 The 40 mm Bofors, with radar guidance and proximity fuses, were marginally effective in shooting down attacking planes. The Attack Force changes course to 100 degrees. 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. blasts were perhaps the largest ever to occur at sea. Twenty Avengers attacked from the port side (concentrating torpedo attacks from the port side was deliberate, with the intent to capsize the ship). Join SOFREP for insider access and analysis. The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including sailors, soldiers and civilians. 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. Ito's last order was to cancel the operation and have the remaining destroyers rescue whoever they could before he joined the 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen who went down with Yamato. By early 1945, the Japanese Empire was shrinking daily and the war had reached its home shores. A heartfelt salute from myself, a navy vet in the 70s! An F/A-18C Hornet catches an arresting wire on the USS Nimitz. My dad served on the Langley. Flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, she was lead ship of the Yamato class. At 1246, she took a direct torpedo hit in the engine room that killed the entire engine room crew and left her dead in the water, unable to avoid further hits. She was blasted by 12 bombs and six more torpedos. The Japanese also noted eight Hellcats circling the force with impunity because of no Japanese fighter cover, and remaining outside anti-aircraft range. John Carter, was in a perfect position to watch what unfolded. As later described by the captain of Yahagi, Captain Tameichi Hara, the meeting was quite contentious. Japanese naval leaders briefed Emperor Hirohito on their plans, which consisted of massive air attacks, including kamikaze strikes. Barrett products are used by civilians, sport shooters, law enforcement agencies, the United States military, and more than 75 State Department-approved countries around the world. Senior U.S. Navy commanders in the Pacific, including Admiral Raymond Spruance, Commander U.S. Fifth Fleet, knew what the battleship Yamatos mission was before almost anyone on Yamato did. At 2:10pm Yamato rolled over and began to sink with fires from her aft 6.1" turret reaching her no. One strikes her port side near the forward windlass room. Though incredibly powerful, Yamato suffered from a relatively low top speed as its engines were . Then radar reports the closing aircraft have turned towards the force. 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. [5] Shortly afterward, a second strike of 100 aircraft attacked Yamato and her remaining escorts. Vice Admiral Ito and YAMATOs skipper Captain Aruga and 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen are lost. World War II would see the aircraft carrier emerge as the key to naval supremacy, supplanting the battleship. Fifty aircraft from ESSEX and BATAAN are sighted approaching from the SSW, range 18.5 miles. Between then and 1000, a total of 14 Zekes would provide cover. One of the torpedo planes took a hit in the wing, pulled up in flames, then plunged into the sea. I Was At Okinawa At This Time. How many Japanese submarines were lost in ww2? Anatomy of Yamato ship's aft turrets. And it was never more apparent than during the Battle of Okinawa. They withheld the news from the public. At 1234, Yamato opened fire with her two forward main battery turrets, lobbing sanshikidan shells at the U.S. aircraftto no effect. She lists about seven degrees to port. 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. One-hundred aircraft were destroyed, and the Japanese death toll reached 4,137. Some who were shot down were later picked up by seaplanes or submarines. 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.. Yamato was essentially doomed by a question from Emperor Hirohito during a briefing on 29 March about plans for Japanese air opposition to expected landings on Okinawa. The Hell Divers then plummeted straight down dropping armor-piercing bombs, clearing the way for the Avenger torpedo bombers that came in low and slow to try to put torpedoes on the target. While the Americans' 1,000-pound bombs held fearsome destructive power, as seen in 10 aircraft Yamato was still more than 300 nautical miles from Okinawa when she went down. All these years later I remember each one of those men fondly and with great respect. Timeline of Battleship Yamato sinking on 7 April 1945 0800 hour - The Attack Force is sighted by a searching Grumman F6F Hellcat from USS ESSEX (CV-9). One of the surviving destroyers did not have a bow. The rest of the Surface Special Attack Force consisted of the light cruiser Yahagi, and eight destroyers. (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. Her auxiliary rudder is jammed in position hard port. 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. sent to engage Yamato made it into position above her and soon began to A near miss on Hamakaze disabled her starboard shaft and then, at 1247, torpedo hits amidships blew her in half. 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. He had friends wounded and killed, but the small carriers were never given credit for anything that happened. 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. Have we no more ships?. The first attack wave retires. Yamato carried only enough fuel to reach Okinawa, as the fuel stocks available were insufficient to provide enough fuel to reach Okinawa and return. She slips under followed by an underwater explosion. The element of surprise was gone for the Japanese. Barrett is the world leader in long-range, large-caliber, precision rifle design and manufacturing. Deep sea explorers have found two Japanese aircraft carriers that were sunk in battle in World War Two. 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. 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. In total, the U.S. lost 12 men. 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. YAMATO starts a sharp turn to port but three torpedoes rip into her port side amidships. More than 4,000 Japanese sailors were involved in the operation. YAMATO stops zigzagging and increases speed to 24 knots. This was taken as a yet another bad omen. It's cable. Yamato was commanded by Captain Kosaku Aruga (spelled Ariga in some accounts). They truly were the Greatest Generation. This image The visibility was highly variable, but often not very good due to cloud cover. 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. Still kicking but dont know why. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. 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.". Was the Bismarck bigger than the Yamato? 1,000 watertight compartments couldn't save her, and her lower decks rapidly The Attack Force briefly sights seven Hellcat fighters, but they are not seen by the escorting Zekes. The attack lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. Six Yorktown Avengers attacked from the starboard side, with their Mark 13 torpedoes re-set for a 20-foot depthseveral hit. By 1420, the main deck was vertical and, at 1430, Yamato had rolled over and just gone under when the No.1 forward magazine detonated in a massive explosion that killed almost all of Yamatos crew who had survived to that point and raised a pall of smoke that could be seen for 100 miles. YAMATO is hit by two AP bombs. One Avenger is shot down. Yukikaze suffered three dead from strafing and survived the war. 1). USS Iowa Class Battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, This slowed Yamato down to 10 knots and made her a sitting duck. She quickly shipped 2,235 tons of water, but the list was soon corrected with effective counter-flooding. Meanwhile, about 34 Hellcats and Corsairs and 22 Helldivers and Avengers worked over some of the other Japanese destroyers. 74, although many begged to stay. What is not mentioned above is that this mission was considered a potential suicide mission for the American aviators due the distance they were required to fly. The execute order for Operation Ten-ichi-go (Heaven Number One) was intercepted on 26 March 1945 and decrypted. He saw four Avengers go in low, dropping their torpedoes in a spread on Yamatos beam. battleship's guns. As luck would have it, he said, the big ship was turning to port, thereby exposing the full broadside expanse of, PO Box 1077 MURFREESBORO, Tennessee 37133 United States, P.O. The age of the carrier was now confirmed. A bomb impact in the dispensary killed many of the wounded who had been gathered there, along with many of the medical personnel. Both the U.S. Fifth Fleet commander, Admiral Spruance, and Vice Admiral Mitscher (commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force, TF 58), who had access to the Ultra communications intelligence and were expecting the sortie, immediately reacted to the submarine reports. 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