The Ships of Battlegroup: Japan Yamato (BB)

Displacement	64,000 tons	Belt Armor	16 inches
Overall Length	863 feet	Deck Armor	9 inches
Beam	127.75 feet	Main Turret Armor	25.6 inches
Speed	27 knots	Main Guns	9 × 18.1″

In 1934, the Japanese started design studies for a battleship that was intended to be faster, better protected and have more powerful guns than any other battleship to negate the numerical advantage of the United States battleline. By designing ships too wide to pass through the Panama Canal (110 feet wide), it was felt that the United States Navy could not match them with equivalent ships. The name ship of a planned four ship class, Yamato completely broke all existing treaty limits but, as the treaties ran out in 1940, by the time the ships were completed, the ships would be legal.

Yamato and Musashi, the first two ships of the class were the only ones completed as battleships (the third ship, Shinano, was delivered as an aircraft carrier and the fourth was dropped in favor of other construction). Yamato was laid down on November 4, 1937, launched on August 8, 1940 and commissioned on December 16, 1941. The ship carried a main armament of nine 18.1 inch main guns mounted three per turret; two superfiring centerline forward and one centerline aft. Propulsion was by oil-fired steam turbines that delivered 150,000 standard horsepower. "Yamato" is an ancient name for Japan. The blast effects of the big guns were unprecedented and no one could be exposed on deck when the 18.1 monsters were fired. In a test where caged guinea pigs were placed on deck, the shock wave caused the little animals to completely disintegrate!

Yamato spent most of her career swinging at anchor and only once fired her monster guns at enemy ships. As the flagship of the Combined Fleet commander, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943), Yamato sortied to no purpose during the Midway operation and was torpedoed by the American submarine Skate on December 24, 1943, requiring many months of repairs. On October 25, 1944, off Samar, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Yamato, in the company of Haruna, Kongo and Nagato, fired her big guns and took part in the sinking of the escort aircraft carrier Gambier Bay and three destroyers, although the Japanese then retired without attacking the United States troop transports. She was sunk by air strikes from numerous United States fast aircraft carriers during a one-way "kamikaze" mission on April 7, 1945. The air strikes that sent her down are thought to have scored 10 torpedo and possibly as many as 23 bomb hits.

For the foreign battleships constructed during the same time period, see: Alabama, Bismarck, Iowa, King George V, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tirpitz and Washington .

Where did we get all these fascinating historical tidbits and factoids? See the Bibliography for the culprits.