Cloud cover precluded accurate firing of the At 14:23, having taken 10 torpedo and 7 bomb hits, Yamatos forward ammunition magazines detonated. 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. Adam Brown: A SEALs Life of Courage and Redemption, Complete List: Ticonderoga-class Missile Cruisers To Retire By 2027, Nuclear Close Calls That Nearly Caused World War III, Russian Sausage Millionaire and Putin Critic Falls to His Death in India, Deadly Russian Rifle Brigade Wiped Out During War in Ukraine. Two dud rockets hit FUYUTSUKI. Ito and Captain Aruga went down with the ship. Helldivers from BENNINGTON and HORNET attack from port. TOKYO Seventy-six years ago, on April 7, 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy vessel Yamato, the world's largest battleship, was sunk by U.S. military aircraft. He gave the go-ahead for the strike but ordered the battlewagons to proceed in the event the Japanese fleet got through the airstrike. Fuyuzuki suffered light damage from dud rockets, suffered 12 dead and 12 injured, and was repaired, but had her stern blown off by a mine after the August cease-fire. At that point, the crews would go ashore to fight and die to the last man along with their army comrades. I hope you enjoy the video! At 1243, five Hornet Avengers came in from port, while 14 F4U Corsairs from Bunker Hill were strafing and hitting Yamato with rockets that caused little damage to the ship, but were deadly to the gunners. sent to engage Yamato made it into position above her and soon began to The Japanese naval defense plan was code-named named Sho-I-Go ("Victory"), and its objective was simple: Sink the American invasion fleet, maintain the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, and, by doing this, protect Japan from invasion. The Japanese fighters were unable to make contact before they left at 1000. XIV: Victory in the Pacific by Samuel Eliot Morison, Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1969; Japanese Destroyer Captain by Tameichi Hara, New York: Ballantine Books, 1961; Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II by John Prados, New York: Random House, 1995. 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. 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 attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago left a tangled mess of burning and shattered warships. Her nine 18.1-inch guns firing Sanshikidan beehive shells, twenty-four 127-mm. 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. that ultimately led to the supership's demise. Throughout 1943, Yamato continually transferred between Truk, Kure and Brunei in response to American airstrikes on Japanese island bases. Yahagi was commanded by Captain Tameichi Hara (the only Japanese destroyer skipper at the start of the war who was still alive at the end of the war), with Rear Admiral Keizo Komura, commander of Destroyer Squadron 2, embarked. Another 110 planes appeared ready for the kill. Both Rear Admiral Komura and Captain Hara survived. Although accounts vary about how many crewmen were on Yamato, the most definitive appears to be that 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen were lost. Aruga receives a rare double promotion posthumously to Vice Admiral on the request of Admiral Toyoda. Three of the torpedoes hit in quick succession, and Yamato took on another 3,000 tons of water and a 7-degree list. At 1210, destroyer Asashimo, lagging behind the force, reported that she was under air attack, and radio transmissions from her ceased. The fighter issued a contact report at 0832. At 1000 hours he launched a total of 386 aircraft consisting of fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers. Vice Admiral Ito initially objected to the mission, viewing it as futile and wasteful. The Attack Force resumes zigzagging. began to flood. battleship's aft secondary magazine caused tons of ammunition to ignite almost simultaneously, The ship was split in two and was found resting at a depth of 1,120 feet (340 m). YAMATOs list increases to about 15 degrees and her speed slows to 12 knots. As later described by the captain of Yahagi, Captain Tameichi Hara, the meeting was quite contentious. Before getting underway, the Surface Special Attack Force put ashore 67 recently arrived midshipmen of the Etajima Naval Academy Class No. At 1830, destroyer Isokaze sighted Threadfin on the surface. VA-65 (1948) Air Group II (2) producing the blasts that tore the ship in half and sank her. Ten minutes later, two more torpedoes strike her port side. strafe the battleship with bullets and drop 1,000-pound bombs. One Helldiver was shot down. TG 58.3, commanded by Rear Admiral Frederick Ted Sherman, embarked on Essex (CV-9), included Bunker Hill (CV-17), Bataan (CVL-24), and Cabot (CVL-28). The second penetrates the port side of the aft Command station and explodes between the 155-mm gun magazine and main gun turret No. Breaking the news to the Emperor, a Japanese admiral was asked, what about the fleet? The admiral had to admit, the Japanese fleet had ceased to exist as a fighting formation. Weighing 72,800 tons. The most powerful battleship in the world was no match for 390 U.S. carrier aircraft. Jocko Clark, embarked on Hornet (CV-12), included Hancock (CV-19), Bennington (CV-20), Belleau Wood (CVL-24) and San Jacinto (CVL-30). A report that had been delayed for 25 minutes by ransmission and decoding, is received finally. This time, all attacks concentrated on the battleship. One-hundred aircraft were destroyed, and the Japanese death toll reached 4,137. Thank you to all the brave men and women of the US armed forces! She ships about 3,000-tons of seawater. 4s YORKTOWN (CV-10), INTREPID (CV-11), LANGLEY (CVL-27) engage the Attack Force. The most powerful battleship in the world was no match for 390 U.S. carrier aircraft. The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including sailors, soldiers and civilians. I stumbled on this article and I finally know a little about this battle. Though incredibly powerful, Yamato suffered from a relatively low top speed as its engines were . A Japanese destroyer peeled off three times to keep Hackleback at bay. Thank you to all our WWII vets. Survivor Stories Two sunken Japanese aircraft carriers were found weeks before the movie about the World War II battle opens By Michael E. Ruane November 8, 2019 at 7:00 a.m. EST At 1115, Yamatos radar indicated the two air groups were at 44 miles and closing rapidly. 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). The element of surprise was gone for the Japanese. My dad was a radioman on an Avenger and didnt talk about much that happened in the war. It had been deployed on a Surface Special Attack Force suicide mission to drive back U.S. forces that had landed on Okinawa. In the interviews below, meet two Yamato veterans still haunted by memories of the battle that took most of their comrades lives. This is a movie Yamato 2005. Pearl harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941,hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. YAMATO turns hard to port. My dads name is Ronald R. LeFebvre (Ding). RecPak is a meal replacement for the outdoors that saves you weight, space and time in the most challenging environments, just add water. 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. They shadowed the Japanese and relayed their position to the American fleet. The chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka, flew in from Tokyo to ensure that Ito would comply with Admiral Toyodas orders. So, the admirals concocted what they termed, Operation Ten-Go (Operation Heaven One). Almost all of the nearly 400 American fighters and bombers (The actual U.S. landings on Okinawa commenced 1 April 1945, but carrier strikes and shore bombardment began a week earlier and the landings on the small islands of the Kerama-shtto group just southwest of Okinawa occurred on 27 March.). Hatsushimo suffered only three wounded on 6 April, but, on 20 July, struck a mine and was the last Japanese destroyer sunk in the war. One fire can be observed amidships from the initial strike, but no list has developed at this point. 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,. Air search reports two groups of aircraft, range 44 miles, closing at high speed. The age of the battleship was over forever. This photograph was taken in December 1941, shortly Another 110 aircraft from Task Group 58. All ships increase speed to 25 knots and commence a simultaneous turn. By the end of the battle, Yahagi and all eight destroyers were lost. Aboard the TF 58 carriers, the strike packages were remaining ready on deck while the searches were underway. 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. He reports the formation at bearing 180, heading north, and splitting into two groups. 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. TG 58.2 was in the act of refueling and wouldnt get there in time. Thanks for your presentation of this event! Yamato would have appeared indestructible. 7, 1945 south of Kyushu. The battleship received a 30-minute time-late report from an observation post on a small Japanese island north of Okinawa that 150 U.S. planes were headed in Yamatos direction. There are many stories about the sinking of the Japanese battleship Yamato. Yamato took at least four more bomb hits in the superstructure area, which wiped out many of the remaining 25-mm guns. 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. Transferred between Truk, Kure and Brunei in response to American airstrikes on Japanese island bases the battleship Heaven. That point, the most definitive appears to be that 3,055 of crewmen! 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