|
BBfanboy -> RE: OT: The Great War of Archimedes (2019) (1/12/2020 4:28:04 PM)
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: spence
quote:
So it looks to me that real Yamato was smaller and thinner than paper one.
So it wasn't the largest battleship ever built (with its sister-ship)?
In "A Glorious Way to Die" written by the Asst Damage Control Officer (IIRC) and senior survivor (IIRC) the author credits the US with learning from the sinking of the Musashi some months before by sending in waves of fighters to strafe the AAA mounts (which were way too concentrated in the superstructure) AND to concentrate all torpedo hits on the same side of Yamato (a longitudinal bulkhead running the length of the ship limited the ability of the DCA to shift water from one side to the other to counteract flooding caused by torpedo hits).
Saw a website with a bomb by bomb, torpedo by torpedo account of the battle with pictures showing Yamato after each hit. One of the first hits was a bomb through the roof of the aft 155 mm turret that went down to that turret's powder magazine. For the rest of the battle that fire burned white hot with white smoke coming from the turret roof. It seems likely the adjoining 18.1" magazine would have had to be flooded as well.
The torpedo bombers did concentrate on one side (starboard) until Yamato was listing heavily to that side and barely moving. At that point a flight of four TBs came in on the exposed port side where the bottom of the ship was almost showing out of the water. All four torps from that strike hit, tearing out Yamato's bottom and setting up the sudden capsize to port and magazine explosion.
The pictures were incredible, and showed the hits on Yahagi as well, shredding that ship. It is a miracle it stayed afloat so long and that her Captain (Tameichi Hara) survived. I had the web site bookmarked but when my hard drive crashed I lost it and have not been able to find it again. [:(]
|
|
|
|
