Secrets of the Battleship Yamato

In the port of Kure in southern Japan, the famous Kure Shipyard builds the world's most advanced ships of various types, from container ships to tankers. But more than 60 years ago, this bustling port saw the birth of the most formidable superweapon of World War II. Created in complete secrecy, the battleship was the deadliest of all ships ever built and was called the Yamato. Rumor has it that the Yamato was twice the size of its American prototype and had the largest guns ever mounted on a warship. It was considered unsinkable, but no one expected the pride of the Imperial Navy to meet the enemy one-on-one.

World War II was coming to an end. In April 1945, Japanese cities became the target of daily attacks by a large fleet of Allied bombers. Its once-great armed forces tried to stop the Americans from advancing to their native shores. As the enemy approached, desperate Japanese commanders brought a new and terrifying weapon into battle. Squadrons of kamikaze pilots were sent to fight the American fleet. After several gruesome weeks, these suicide pilots introduced a new form of terror to modern warfare. After that, Japanese commanders took the deadly battle to a new level.

Decisive orders were issued to the naval base in Kure, demanding new and unprecedented sacrifices. The largest battleship in history was ordered to sail straight towards the American fleet of 1,500 ships approaching Japan. At dawn on April 7, 1945, 3,000 soldiers aboard the battleship Yamato left their home waters to carry out the most hopeless and deadly mission of World War II.

With the sun rising, American bombers left 12 aircraft carriers and took to the air. Soon, the Americans spotted the Yamato, Japan's last formidable ship, and more than 400 planes rushed towards it. Hordes of American planes attacked the Yamato from all sides. Gradually, everyone on the lower deck of the battleship drowned, but the water slowly began to rise to the upper deck. The electricity went out. People with severed limbs lay everywhere, and there was a sea of blood. As the ship began to leak, the battleship's crew closed the hatches of the watertight compartments, trapping thousands of soldiers on the lower deck.

Soon, the battleship Yamato began to list to one side, and the entire left side sank into the water. In the chaos of battle, some senior officers gave the order to abandon ship, and several sailors managed to jump overboard before the explosion. Ten miles from the ship, an American torpedo bomber managed to take a photograph of the explosion during the last moments of the battleship Yamato's life. It seemed that Japan's greatest ship and nearly 3,000 of its crew members had committed suicide. Given the losses incurred, the sinking of this ship became the largest in military history. But since the Yamato's demise, there has been ongoing debate about whether this mission was truly suicidal and what actually caused the explosion.

Two thousand miles south of Japan, an international team of divers and naval historians hope to uncover the mystery of the Yamato's last mission. The fact is that the history of the battleship continues to arouse keen and deep interest among the Japanese, which is in no way connected with the ship itself. Simply reading about the fate of the legendary ship, they immerse themselves in it with headlong enthusiasm.

The team of underwater explorers uses two of the world's most advanced underwater vehicles to study the underwater world. Each of them is capable of diving to a depth of up to 3,000 meters. Equipped with mechanical grippers, the devices can pick up small objects from the bottom, and their panoramic dome provides a panoramic view. The Yamato had a distinctive feature: the imperial crest in the form of a white chrysanthemum affixed to the bow of the ship. This family crest was placed only on the largest ships: battleships and aircraft carriers. But the Yamato's emblem was the largest, with a diameter of 2 meters.

Jules inhabited submersible

The battleship Yamato was the most powerful warship in the world. It was built at a time when battleships served as an indisputable symbol of the power of great nations. And just a few years after its demise, superweapons such as battleships ceased to exist.

The battleship was designed to deliver a devastating blow from large guns at a great distance. The Japanese Navy was the first to appreciate the power of the battleship. In May 1905, it fought the powerful Russian fleet in the Tsushima Strait. In one day, the Japanese fleet sank 19 Russian ships. As a result of this battle, Japan gained great prestige. The Japanese were the first non-white nation to be accepted into the circle of great powers. They gained entry into this circle thanks to the strength of their navy. Moreover, this club required large expenditures. In 1922, the Western powers signed a treaty limiting the size of their fleets. As the newest member of the club, Japan was forced to agree to it, but was very upset that Britain and America could have 15 battleships each, while Japan could only have 9. At that moment, the emperor realized that he could not win by numbers. But the Land of the Rising Sun was not going to lose the arms race and decided to build a battleship of colossal size. However, no one underestimated the Japanese.

The most powerful battleship in the Japanese fleet

Construction of the world's largest battleship began in strict secrecy in the port of Kure. To shield it from prying eyes, sailors stretched a mile-long fishing net around the dry dock. No one had access to the plans. Only a few drawings and photographs of this unique ship have survived to this day. The dimensions of the Yamato are simply staggering. The ship could replace any two Allied battleships. Each of its three gun turrets weighed more than an entire American destroyer. Its main guns were designed to hit targets at an unprecedented range of 25 miles. But, as we know, the target is not visible at such a distance, so spotter planes were needed to guide the fire. This ship was to become one of the most advanced weapon systems of its time.

The battleship Yamato at its home port

The battleship Yamato entered service in December 1941. To keep this a secret, no naming ceremony was held in the port of Kure. However, in Japan, the ship's name had almost religious significance. The word “Yamato” was a political synonym for “Japan.” All information about the battleship's operation was strictly classified. Even the ship's commander did not know the true size of the Yamato. For a long time, they could not decide on the shape of the bow that would reduce water resistance. In the end, they settled on a bulbous bow.

The degree of protection afforded by such ships was first demonstrated at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese fleet attacked the US Navy naval base. On the morning of December 7, 1941, 100 Japanese bombers struck eight American battleships that were anchored there. Later, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese launched another devastating attack on the British battleship Prince of Wales in western Malaysia. According to experts, this was a shocking event, as the latter was a new ship ready for battle, but the planes still sank it. Japan dealt with all the Allied battleships in the Pacific Ocean. It demonstrated that with the skillful use of aviation, it was possible to surpass warships. Even after so many ships were sunk, the Japanese continued to believe in the invulnerability of the battleship Yamato. However, the days when only battleships fought were coming to an end.

The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the Pacific War, and the time had come for aircraft carriers to face off. In June 1944, the American fleet lured the Japanese into a trap and sent a hundred of its planes to attack the fleet. In a few hours, the Japanese lost four of their aircraft carriers and more than 330 planes. It was a defeat from which the Japanese Imperial Navy would never recover.

During the battle, the Yamato served as a command post. It was located 300 miles from the horizon, out of reach of enemy aircraft. After the Battle of Midway, the battleship Yamato lost the air cover provided by four Japanese aircraft carriers and was forced to retreat to safe Japanese bases. The ship's crew waited, continuing to prepare for the main battle, which never began. The Japanese never put the battleship Yamato into action. They could not risk their irreplaceable treasure. From late August 1942 to May 1943, the battleship went to sea for only one day.

While the Yamato was moored in Kure, the Japanese navy was losing the war. With heavy human casualties, American troops captured Japan's Pacific territories, island by island. By April 1945, the Americans were ready to invade the island of Okinawa, just 300 miles from Japan. With no shortage of human lives, the Japanese introduced a secret weapon into the battle: the kamikaze. By the spring of 1945, the kamikaze had sunk 300 ships. Soon, newspapers began to admire the kamikaze. As a result, the spirit of suicide began to arouse universal enthusiasm.

In such an atmosphere, how could the navy not send its greatest ship into battle, even if the battle could end in defeat? The same commanders who trained the young kamikaze prepared a secret order for an even more desperate mission. With no air cover, the Yamato was to sail towards hundreds of enemy warships as it approached the shores of Okinawa. If its powerful guns did not sink the enemy, it would ram them. In the name of honor, the Japanese navy decided to sacrifice the battleship Yamato.

On the night of the battleship's departure, strong winds and rain swept in, and low clouds made it difficult for aircraft to detect the Yamato. A few miles away, a small tactical group of destroyers protected the ship from submarines, but nothing could protect it from air attacks. That night could have been the last in the sailors' lives, and they were allowed to drink. The second in command opened the storeroom where there were supplies of beer and sake. And the order to drink was given. A few hours before dawn, the battleship Yamato was already heading for several hundred American ships. The next morning, the first planes intercepted the Yamato when it was 200 miles from the American warship. Eighteen-inch guns tried to fire at the planes, but low clouds prevented accurate hits.

Soon, almost all the planes were positioned 600 meters directly above the ship. The first 500-pound bombs struck the stern, and a fire broke out. The aircraft dropped torpedoes to hit the battleship's weakest points. The aviators were ordered to torpedo the ship from only one side in order to flood the compartments and capsize it. Even hundreds of watertight compartments could not save the ship, which had been hit by a dozen torpedoes. The lower deck quickly filled with water. The battleship was doomed. Then, under their own weight of about 3,000 tons each, the gun turrets broke off and sank to the bottom, and in the powder magazines, tons of ammunition collided with each other, causing the most powerful explosions ever heard at sea. The ship was torn in two and sank to a depth of 360 meters.

For the Japanese, the loss of the battleship meant the loss of the imperial fleet, and in terms of human casualties, the loss of the Yamato became one of the greatest naval disasters in history. The giant battleship, the largest ever built, was considered not so much a practical weapon as a symbol of national prestige. By the end of World War II, the battleship, a floating symbol of Japanese power, had been replaced by the aircraft carrier. In the 60 years since the sinking of the Yamato, no nation in the world has dared to build another battleship like it.