I’ve seen that piece of Yamato armor numerous times. It wasn’t struck by 16” Superheavy AP fired from a 50 caliber Iowa class rifle, it was struck by a standard 16” AP fired from a 45 caliber Washington/South Dakota class rifle.
The important thing in looking at the damage to that plate isn’t the full penetration — it’s the massive spalling and cracking around the penetration. Turns out Yamato-type armor was pretty brittle and the plate was shattered by the hit.
Over hardening, makes armor steel brittle. The Russians have had that problem with their tank turrets since WWII.
Could someone explain the nomenclature of the calibers used in these big naval guns, particularly the part about ".45 caliber", ".50 caliber", etc?
TIA.
Important to also note that the Yamato (sunk in April 1945 during its Kamikazi mission against US forces at Okinawa) and the Musachi (sunk in October 1944 during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea during the overall Battle of Leyte Gulf) were never his by US Navy battleship rifle fire during the war.
They were both sunk by US Naval aviation.
There was a third, the Shinano, which was converted to a carrier while building in 1942 that was sunk in November 1944 by a US submarine on its maiden voyage.
A fourth, which was never named, was only 30% complete when it as canceled well before the end of the war, and broken up in place by the Japanese during the war.
The armor pictured in that photo above is a piece of 26” turret armor off of one of the Yamato class that the USN salvaged later for testing purposes