Battleship Film Revives Japan's Pride In Wartime Generation

The telegraph (UK) ^ | 11-28-2005

[RichInOC]

"Old man, you fought well, but you lost in the end."

--Rudyard Kipling

[91B]

Thanks for the correction, I'll look for the book.

[91B]

I remember reading that story as a kid and I have always been struck by it. The USN should always be proud of the fight by those ships as one of its finest moments.

[Fred Hayek]

You are thinking of the Shinano. Built on a Yamato class hull, it was the largest carrier until the USS Enterprise (CVN 65). It never really had an operational airgroup, since by the time the Shinano was at sea, the IJN lost most of it's experienced pilots. So it was used mostly as an aircraft transport during its short career. The Shinano was sunk in 1944 by the USS Archerfish (mostly due to the IJN ignoring ASW)

The Akagi was a conversion of a WWI era battlecruiser that would have otherwise been scrapped due to the naval treaties of the interwar years. The Akagi (along with the Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu) was sunk at the Battle of Midway.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

When I was a kid, I lived in Japan. My Pop and I built a model of Yamato. It was 5 feet long! My mother made us put it up so she could have the dining room table back for Thanksgiving.

I well remember being outraged at the Japanese celebration of December 7. They had all the old Rising Sun battle flags flying. They probably don't do that anymore.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

[mad_as_he$$]

Don't forget that the Titanic had two sister ships. The Britannic was sunk in the Aegean - I think - during WW1 and the Olympic was damaged in a collision and then went on to a successful career. The Olympic was to be finished first but put behind Titanic for some reason. More than you wanted to know??

[mad_as_he$$]

Holy Cr@p that was a giant ( I will not use hugh or huge here out of respect for the hugh police) explosion!

[mad_as_he$$]

I went to Pearl for the first time in 1994. It was full of old Japanese guys. I asked one why they were there, he told me that they wanted to see where it started. I have been told by others since then that the old guys gloat about the victory at Pearl. I believe that many want to remember the "honorable" part of the war. Oh well they will all be passed on soon and the Memorial will have a drop in attendance, I believe.

[Domangart]

Wrong ship.

[Domangart]

I think they turned on the fans to clear the fuel vapor. That popped the hull and it sunk.

[Buffalo Head]

The plane depicted are not Avengers.

[Maynerd]

Note to self: Never sail on an unsinkable ship.

LOL. How about the USS Hiliary?

[tophat9000]

The plane depicted are not Avengers.

No the aircraft in the post 8 are Curtiss SB2C-5 "Helldivers" divebombers SB=Scout Bomber 2 C=Curtiss

[jim_trent]

Again, I had to turn to Google to answer my own question. There were 4 torpedos that struck the Shinano. Three did not penetrate the armour plating that was left over from its days as a battleship hull.

The 4th one happened to strike at a jointline (it is unclear from the source if it was a weld joint or riveted). Anyway, just above the joint line there were a bunch of diagonal braces from the hull up to the deck (again, unclear -- I imagine there were several decks so I don't know which one they went to). The upper part (above the joint) was braced in place and the lower part (below the joint) was free to move under the impact of the torpedo. It opened up the seam and the water flooded in.

Without the diagonal braces, the armour plating at that point would have probably held, too, like the armour at the other three torpedo strikes. But, it did not because of the design. What I don't know is if the diagonal bracing was in the original hull (perhaps for bracing to support the huge gun turrets) or if it was added to support the aircraft carrier deck.

[Bender2]

PBS recently did a program on the mighty Yamato, even showing the wreck on the ocean floor. However, the film miscast the Yamato's last ride as its only combat action.

Actually, the Yamato commanded the attack on a small US escort carrier and destroyer force at Leyte Gulf in October of 1944. There, the courage of American destroyers kept the Yamato at bey and allowed the small escort carriers to flee. The Japanese Admiral Kurita had the upper hand and the Leyte Gulf beachhead in his 18-inch guns sites, yet he unexpectedly turned tail, beating a quick retreat back to Nippon.

BTW the Yamato's sister ship, the Musashi was sank ealier in the Leyte Gulf engagement as a preview of what was to come. There was not any mention of the Yamato's sibling in the PBS program. It is akin to the liberal media offering up a glowing bio of Hillary Clinton without mentioning her husband or his antics.

It always gets my goat when the entertainment and news medias rewrite history or in the case of the Yamato, edits it.

In the end, all the Japanese effort and expense of building the Yamato was for naught. American Airpower sunk it as another payment for Pearl Harbor.

[BenLurkin]

I also built a Yamato. Back in the sixties.

I always thought that the Iowa class battleships were esthetically superior -- even if they couldn't have stood toe to toe with the Yamato in battle.

[BenLurkin]

Yup.

Blowed up real good!

[1rudeboy]

[75thOVI]

My wife and I are considering a cruise, I've told her that if anyone says the ship is "Unsinkable", we'll walk to shore if we have to. 'Sides as a former submariner, I think all that "Going on top of water", is unnatcheral anyway.