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mdiehl -> (8/4/2003 11:30:02 PM)
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[QUOTE]There was lately a topic in one magazine about Yamato and its destruction-in detail.Pretty cool story and pics and there was briefly mentioned other Japanese biggest battleships and that carrier too.As the story tells the Yamato took in several torpedoes from sub whose name i really cant recall and slowly sank till its main caliber ammo mostly blew up and then followed the secondary ammo for AA and smaller caliber guns and this teared Yamato apart and it went down fast and painfully with over 3000 men.This is as much as i remember from this topic,there may be some mistakes but in general it should be correct.[/QUOTE]
Yamato's demise is documented in detail viewable at [url]www.combinedfleet.com.[/url] Click on the operational history for BBs and the Yamato.
Yamato's exact cause of death is unknown. She would not, however, have been savable even if a USN crew had been aboard. The second bomb to hit Yamato, a 1000 pounder, set a fire in her secondary magazine aft and destroyed the water mains in that and adjacent compartments. The 2ndary mag fire fire may eventually have detonated the main magazine, but the explosion may have been caused by some other source.
Yamato seems not to have been especially invulnerable to air or torpedo atttack. The account of her demise is similar to those of Bismarck and Prince of Wales. Lots or pummeling and eventual loss. In Yamato's case, the whole thing took about two hours.
[QUOTE]1232: A lookout spots American planes 25 degrees to port, elevation 8, range 4,375 yards, moving to port. This is the first wave of 280 aircraft .....
1423: Sunk: The YAMATO's No. 1 magazine explodes and sends up a cloud of smoke seen 100 miles away. She slips under followed by an underwater explosion. The YAMATO sinks at 30-22 N, 128-04 E.[/QUOTE]
Prince of Wales took ten torpedoes. Repulse 12. Yamato, 12, Musashi, 19. Pretty much consistent with the differences in displacement between the bunch, although the Repulse seems to compair favorably with all of them given the effort given to sink a ship of such comparatively small displacement. OTOH, maybe all that the demise of these ships prove is that with total air supremacy, during the interval between the delivery of a mortal wound and the final plunge, a whole lot more ordnance can get dropped.
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