Japanese sailors said that in their history people built the three largest and at the same time the most useless things: the pyramids in Giza, the Great Wall of China and the battleship Yamato. How did this majestic warship, the pride of the Japanese shipping industry and the flagship of its navy deserve such an ironic attitude?
Idea of creation
The battleship "Yamato" was the product of the experience of naval battles of the First World War. Then, not only in Japan, but throughout the rest of the world, it was believed that only heavy guns and armor of battleships were able to ensure supremacy at sea. On the wave of successes in the Russo-Japanese War, the admiralty of the Land of the Rising Sun believed that the Japanese fleet was able to withstand any enemy, even such an industrial giant as the United States. However, there was also an understanding that the island's industry could never compete with the American one, which means that a numerical superiority will definitely not be in favor of the imperial fleet. In order to level the numerical advantage of the enemy, it was decided to focus on qualitative superiority. According to Japanese strategists, the throughput capabilities of the Panama Canal limited the displacement of ships passing through it. So, the US battleships could not have a displacement of more than 63,000 tons, a speed of more than 23 knots, and the most powerful weapons could consist of only ten guns of a caliber of no more than 406 mm. Fairly believing that, at equal costs, increasing the ship's displacement would significantly increase its combat power and thereby offset the numerical superiority of the enemy, the Japanese planned a series of super linkors, the head of which was to be the battleship Yamato.
Grand plans
The construction of the latest battleships was to begin no later than 1936. In total, in the first series, seven ships were planned, armed with nine 460 mm guns, with armor that could withstand 406 mm projectiles from a distance of 20 km and a speed of more than 30 knots. By 1941, it was planned to transfer them to the fleet. Then followed the construction of four more giants, but with guns of 20 inches (~ 508 mm). They were supposed to go into operation in 1946, and until 1951 the previously built battleships were converted into powerful new guns. The implementation of this plan, according to Japanese experts, made it possible to maintain at least parity with the US Navy in the Pacific. But in reality, only four ships of the series were laid, and only two of them were built - the battleship Yamato and the battleship Musashi, the unfinished hull of the third was converted into the Shinano aircraft carrier, and the fourth did not even receive a name. Both ships reached full alert by 1942.
Combat career
When the battleship "Yamato" became the flagship of the imperial fleet, the war in the Pacific Ocean has already reached its zenith. And the Japanese fleet achieved all of its grandiose victories at the expense of naval aviation, and not at all in the exchange of battleships in the wake of the convoy. Superlinkers simply could not find a place in a new war, and their fate was obviously sad. Having taken part in several military operations of the fleet, the Yamato (battleship) was not able to demonstrate its qualities anywhere, and was practically just an expensive floating headquarters.
The death of the battleship "Yamato"
On April 7, 1945, the ship set off on its last voyage. He was attacked by 200 Americans and during the two-hour battle received 12 heavy bombs and about ten aircraft torpedoes. Then he sank with 2498 sailors and his commander.