Posted on 03/12/2017 11:45:09 AM PDT by DFG
My grandfather commanded the Nagato,last Japanese battleship afloat at the end of WWII. Readied her for sailing to Bikini Atoll.
Took 2 A-bomb shots to sink her.
Was Yamatoto’s flagship at Pearl Harbor.
What if the American Dive Bombers had attacked the Japanese carriers first at Midway?
Might have been a different story.
The Japanese weren’t stupid. They had air cover for their carriers. I maintain that their philosophy turned against them at Midway. The American Torpedo Planes attacked first, and the Japanese air cover all came down to engage because their philosophy required them to get a kill.
Then, the American dive bombers showed up and there were no Japanese fighters at altitude to engage them.
Not to mention the Japanese lacked the fuel to use them effectively. Yamato and the Imperial Navy’s remaining fleet carriers ended up being lumbering, immensely expensive and altogether ineffectual kamikazi weapons. Allocated enough fuel to make it to the battle area.
They sure could absorb and dish out a LOT of punishment although they thankfully missed the opportunity to do the latter. Their net contribution, apart from diverting massive Japanese resources that were in desperately short supply in the final year of the Pacific War was being target practice for our aviators and huge morale and propoganda coups for America when they were sunk off the Philippines and Okinawa.
I suspect the disaster would have been on our side had that happened. The Japanese had been preparing for combat, and probably some of their pilots already had dogfighting experience over China...our guys had yet to discover what they were up against.
For all the risk involved in the Pearl Harbor attack, and even with Yamamoto’s expectation that the force would have to fight its way in, the Japanese forces were very risk-averse otherwise. They knew that they had ambitious plans and a lot of ground to cover, and only X amount of forces at hand...and the Dutch East Indies oilfields were the primary consideration above all.
Yamamoto strongly opposed these. It’s one reason they put him out to sea-—it was thought if he stayed at IJN HQ in Tokyo he’d be assassinated by the “battleship admirals” or the Army.
Even today’s drones can be launched from any ship with 50 yards of deck or less: just need an ‘arsenal ship’ full of drones and operators.
Some slow-reaction drones can be supervised from Stateside even. Mid-range defence/attack provided by on-site operators.
Tethered drones can provide close-in automated defence against multi-million-dollar missiles/torpedoes for next-to-nothing.
The revolutionary change is that a battleship group can provide it’s own air-cover. That throws out all the ‘lessons’ of WW2.
They can attack too, but the cheap 16 inch guns would be the preferred choice.
Yamato’s last minutes:
https://youtu.be/LlHPDy4bqrQ?t=5586
(I believe the attacking planes numbered somewhere near 1,000 or something)
I don’t remember the speed of these, but our older battleships at PH couldn’t keep up with the carriers. The newer, Texas, Missouri, etc., could.
Yes they were. But without effective air cover they were sitting ducks.
CC
My impression of the Japanese (Army, at least) is that, of all the major powers that took part in World War I, they had learned the least.
Ironic, in that Japan quit the Naval Conference because of capital ship limitations and built carriers. The carriers were not considered capital ships.
Instead of moving forward with carriers, they turned back to battleships.
“The flaw in the reasoning of Imperial Japanese Naval thinkers was their failure to realize that the battleship was largely obsolete. “
I’m starting to wonder about the US dependence on carriers in the age of guided missles for the same reason.
The 1961 move “Bridge to the Sun” has been shown on TCM a few times.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054701/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
TCM Robert Osborne - Final comments about 1961 move “Bridge to the Sun”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w0Vv842aB0
“Yamato also served as the subject of a live-action film in 2005.”
The melodrama in that movie was ridiculously over the top.
Not to be confused with Fleet admiral Heichaihiro Nogura, who was CinC Starfleet, stardate 2371.1 .
CC
...”the course of the war in 1942 and 1943 demanded a more risk-acceptant posture; ...’
This was the Japs problem on Dec. 7, 1941 and there after. Shoulda’ fought Pearl like it mattered.
Lol! I’d love to see the effects of firing an 18.1in naval rifle in zero gravity.
It is (I have the movie)...I’ve likened it to “Titanic with blood and shellfire”. At the same time, I suspect some of that may be common elements of Japanese cinema, especially when it comes to the War.
Not a bad score, though.
Don’t underestimate the impact of the off-shore shelling of the various islands.
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