Wreck of HIJMS Yamato (大和)

 Second World War 1939-1945, navy, shipwreck, battleship

HIJMS Yamato was the lead ship of her planned three-ship class of Battleships built by the Imperial Japanese Navy to be larger, faster and more heavily armored and armed than any Battleship in history. Laid down in secret at the Kure Naval Arsenal on November 4th, 1937 and officially commissioned into service on December 16th, 1941, the Yamato displaced a staggering 71,659 tons at full load and was armed with nine 18.1 inch (40cm) main guns mounted in triple turrets, each of which weighed more than a contemporary Destroyer. Her massive main armament, the largest rifles ever fitted to a warship, was augmented with a equally impressive amount of secondary and AA batteries, all of which sat upon a propulsion system comprising 12 Kampon boilers which drove 4 steam turbines and four 3-bladed propellers which gave the massive 839ft (263m) long and 121ft (36.9m) wide ship a top speed of 27 knots (31mph/50km/h).

Assigned to the IJN Combined Fleet's Battleship Division 1, the Yamato and her crew spent from December 1941 through May 1942 conducting extensive training in the Inland Sea testing her systems and maneuvering characteristics for her battle-readiness and also to implement changes to her sistership Musashi(武蔵), then under construction. Deemed fully combat ready on May 27th, 1942, the Yamato and her crew departed for war two days later, bound for Midway Atoll as part of the Japanese Invasion force steaming some 600 miles behind the Japanese Carrier force. Following the defeat and loss of several carriers in the subsequent Battle of Midway, the invasion was called off, prompting the Yamato to Hashirajima where she was joined briefly by her sistership Musashi in August, but the American Invasion of Guadalcanal on August 7th cut short their time together. Steaming at once for Truk and arriving in late August, the Yamato served in Truk Lagoon for the next nine months as Headquarters and Flagship of the Combined Fleet before she returned to Japan for repairs and upkeep in May 1943.

Returning to her duties at Truk in September, the Yamato departed on several combat sorties to counter American invasions in the Gilbert Islands, but each time she found no contacts. Returning briefly to Japan in early December to load supplies and troops, the Yamato returned to Truk on Christmas Day 1943 where the American Submarine USS Skate (SS-305) was waiting for her, after US codebreakers were able to decipher her schedule. The American sub attacked the Yamato just outside of Truk Lagoon and succeeded in hitting the Yamato with at least one torpedo which caused relatively minor damage to her hull, but deficiencies in her hull seams caused the Yamato to ship over 3,000 tons of water into her #3 magazine before the flooding could be contained. The damage and hull problems sent the SuperBattleship back to Japan for a refit which lasted until March 1944.

By the time the Yamato again emerged from the yard, her former homeport of Truk had been all but destroyed by American attacks and was no longer a viable base for the IJN. Instead, the Yamato began operations around the Philippine Islands and the East Indies through June 1944, in company with her sistership Musashi. Word reached the fleet of the American Invasion of the Marianas Islands on June 12th, 1944 and both Yamato and Musashi sortied along with much of the remaining Japanese surface fleet to counter the American invasion. In the resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea, neither fleet came into gun range of each other but the Yamato fired her main guns in anger for the first time at a formation of what turned out to be friendly aircraft. After the tremendous loss of carriers and aircraft in the battle, the Yamato withdrew from the Philippines to the area around Singapore, where she conducted intensive battle training with the remaining Capital ships for the next three months.

The American Invasion of the Philippines in late 1944 brought the Yamato back to the front lines in October 1944, where she and her sistership Musashi joined forces again along with 10 Heavy Cruisers, 2 Light Cruisers and 15 Destroyers to form the 'Center Force' of the Japanese Naval Armada bound for Leyte Gulf. The force steamed through the Palawan Passage on the night of October 23rd at high speed, hoping to elude detection but instead ran straight into a picket line of US Submarines, which sunk two Heavy Cruisers and damaged another two so badly they were forced to withdraw. Nonetheless, the force continued onward into the Sibuyan Sea, where they came under heavy air attack starting at 0800hrs on October 24th. Yamato fired her main guns in anger against Americans for the first time, along with her entire AA and secondary battery, but despite the pall of fire she put up and her Captain's evasive maneuvers the Yamato was struck by three 1000lb Armor Piercing bombs, one of which penetrated her anchor deck and exploded below the waterline. Two bombs hit turret No. 1, but were defeated by its armor while another near-missed but damaged her hull by its concussive force. The Yamato took on 3,370 tons of water and developed a 5 degree list, but damage control efforts had her back to a near-even keel within an hour. For the next seven hours, the force came under attack by no fewer than 250 aircraft, and though the Yamato emerged damaged but was able to continue onward, her sister Musashi was not as fortunate; she was devastated by at least 17 torpedoes and 19 bombs and sank with nearly half her crew lost.

At 1530hrs and with a wave of American aircraft withdrawing, the entire 'Center Force' turned back and appeared to withdraw from the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, within two hours enough damage control had been effected on all the ships and the entire force turned again and made for the almost-unguarded San Bernardino Strait, left wide open by the departure of the US 7th Fleet. The still-powerful remnants of the 'Center Force' emerged off Samar at dawn on October 25th, and found the passage guarded by what appeared to be six Fleet Carriers, escorted by three Cruisers and two Destroyers, when in fact the enormous Japanese force had come upon 'Taffy 3', consisting of six Escort Carriers, three Destroyers and four Destroyer Escorts, all of which combined weighed less than Yamato alone. In the resulting Battle of Samar, the Yamato loosed her mighty 18-inch guns against warships for the first time, scoring hits on several ships in the confused and violent battle before concentrated torpedo and air attacks caused the Japanese fleet to withdraw back into the San Bernadino Strait, where they came under heavy air attack all the way though the Philippine Islands, losing another three Cruisers in the process.

Returning to Brunei, the Yamato then steamed in convoy for Japan where she would remain in the Kobe shipyard undergoing repairs and modernization from late November 1944 through January 1945. After coming under several rounds of air attack while at Kure, the Yamato departed Kure for Sasebo where she rearmed and reprovisioned. Engaging in training and frequent port shifts to keep ahead of marauding American aircraft though March 1945, the Yamato arrived at Mitajiri on April 2nd where she received her final orders for Operation TEN-ICHI-GO; a one-way trip to Okinawa where she and her escorts would beach themselves to act as shore and anti-aircraft batteries against the American force invading the island.

After loading enough fuel to get her safely to Okinawa, the Yamato and her escorts departed Tokuyama on their final mission at 15:20hrs on April 6th, 1945 under strict radio silence. American codebreakers had already deciphered the scope of Yamato’s mission by the time of her departure, and their suspicions were confirmed when picket submarines sighted the force in the Bungo Strait heading for Okinawa on the night of the 6th. Upon receipt of the course and speed of Yamato and her escorts, the American Navy mustered six Battleships, with seven Cruisers and twenty-one Destroyers to prepare for immediate surface action against the Yamato, but they were held in reserve in favor of concentrated Carrier air strikes while the Japanese force was still in the open ocean. Before dawn on April 7th aircraft were readied aboard the USS Essex (CV-9), USS Intrepid (CV-11), USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), USS Hancock (CV-19), USS Bennington (CV-20), USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24), USS Cabot (CVL-28), USS Bataan (CVL-29) and USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) for airstrikes against the Japanese ships and were airborne at first light, directed by reports from American Submarines.

The crew of Yamato were at general quarters at the break of dawn on April 7th and shortly thereafter lookouts sighted American recon seaplanes shadowing the force at 0823hrs. At 1000 more planes appeared overhead, but none made any direct attacks until roughly 1107hrs, when Yamato's long-range radar began picking up several large groups of inbound aircraft. Increasing speed to 25 knots and beginning evasive maneuvers the Yamato, her crew and her escorts awaited the American attack. At 1232hrs, the first wave of what would eventually be 280 aircraft (132 fighters, 50 bombers, 98 torpedo planes) were sighted and at 1234hrs the Yamato unleashed her main battery at her attackers, followed by her secondary and AA batteries. In the first wave, the Yamato was struck with two 1000lb armor piercing bombs and a torpedo, while a third near-miss disabled her Starboard shaft. Taking on over 2,000 tons of water, the Yamato was nonetheless able to correct her list and maintain flank speed towards Okinawa despite having lost three of her escort ships in the fray.

The second wave of aircraft appeared at 1302hrs and were met with strident anti-aircraft fire from the Yamato's crew, but she was struck with another 1000lb bomb in her forward superstructure in addition to several smaller bombs amidships and took six torpedoes along her Port Side, one of which jammed her rudders hard to Port. Incendiary and armor piercing bombs rained onto her superstructure, causing heavy casualties and uncontrollable fires which spread rapidly through several decks as the ship took a further 3,000 tons of water aboard and a seven degree list. Flooding of her Starboard engine and boiler rooms brought her to an even keel momentarily but another three 1000lb bombs struck the Starboard side, followed almost instantly by three more torpedoes in her heavily damaged Port midships. With her list suddenly increasing to 15 degrees to Port and growing, the realization that she was no longer functional prompted the order to abandon ship to be passed to the surviving crew at 1404hrs. Rolling to her beam ends, the exposed and thinly armored Starboard keel was struck by at least four torpedoes at 1405hrs, marking the last American attack on Yamato which continued to capsize to port, heavily aflame.

As her crew scrambled over her side, the Yamato was rocked by a massive explosion from the detonation of her forward #1 turret magazine, sending a mushroom cloud into the sky visible over 100 miles away. The massive ship was almost split in two by the force of the blast and quickly sank at this location at 1423hrs on April 7th, 1945. As her hull slipped beneath the waves, a second heavy detonation underwater killed many of the survivors in the water around the wreck, and by the time her escorting Destroyers were able to pick up survivors, an estimated 3,055 of her 3,332 crew had been lost.

With the sinking of the Yamato, the Imperial Japanese Navy ceased to be an effective fighting force and the era of the Battleship being the principal offensive weapon in naval conflict had been clearly passed to the Aircraft Carrier. Despite the heavy armament of the Yamato and the massed fire provided by her escorts, only 10 American aircraft and 12 airmen were lost in the attack.

The wreck of the Yamato was discovered in 1984 lying in two pieces some 180 miles (290 km) southeast of Kyushu under 1,100 feet (340 m) of water. Her wreck site is considered a war grave.


www.combinedfleet.com/yamato.htm
www.yamato-museum.com/en/