Posted on 07/03/2006 8:42:25 AM PDT by GATOR NAVY
A Japanese museum has obtained a rare photo of Japan's World War Two battleship the Yamato shortly before it departed for the East China Sea, where it was sunk by US warplanes.
The aerial photo was taken by a US reconnaissance plane on April 6, 1945, off Tokuyama in Yamaguchi prefecture, western Japan, five hours before the Yamato made its final sortie.
The Yamato Museum in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, recently obtained a digital image of this photo, which is stored in the US National Archives in Washington.
The Yamato, the world's largest-ever battleship, sank on its way to Okinawa after being attacked by US naval aircraft on April 7, 1945.
The image shows the Yamato preparing for departure, and six other escort vessels, including the light cruiser Yahagi, which were anchored around the Yamato.
The Yamato was remodeled several times to counter US air attacks. A researcher says the picture is the first photo that clearly shows anti-aircraft guns installed near the Yamato's stern.
The Yamato Museum Director, Kazushige Todaka, says the photo is important since there is a lack of data on the battleship shortly before it sank.
That said, in a one-on-one dual, I would put my money on the an Iowa except at point blank range.
The US Navy wasn't as optimistic. The Iowa Class Battleships were smaller than the Navy wanted, so that they could fit through the Panama Canal, and not as heavily armored as the Navy wanted, so that they were fast enough to keep up with Aircraft Carriers.
The Navy designed and began production on their dream ships, the Montana Class Battleships. These were cancelled before any keels were actually laid, but they would have been a sight to behold: 60,500 tons and a dozen 16" guns.
Here is a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_class_battleship
Not so. There wasn't much difference in ballistics between the 16" (US) and 18.1" (JAP) caliber rounds. The 18-incher presumably would have hit harder, but if the IOWA got some hits in it would still have been devastating. The Washington & Tennessee proved that American radar-controlled gunnery was superior in the battleship clashes around Guadalcanal. The side that landed the first round was probably going to win. Given the radar advantage the percentages lay with the US BB's.
Which one? I have an interest in DD468.
Let me amend that. A bunch of destroyer and PT boat men might argue about who sunk what. Actually I think one of those Japanese BB's was definitely sunk before the US Battlewagons got their chance at her.
Well, I think Nietzche was the first to come up with the concept of "superman" and his writings were very highly thought of by the Nazis.
Wow. It's smaller than I expected.
German "pocket-battleships" like the Graf Spee were not REAL battleships. The Germans called them "Panzerschiff". It was British propaganda that coined the term "Pocket Battleship" to give the idea that they were something that they were not. Those ships had almost no armor, and only 11-inch guns. Plus they lacked the steam turbine powerplant of a true dreadnought having diesel engines instead (ie. they weren't that fast compared to a battleship).
So they were under-gunned, unarmored, and too slow. Meat on the table for a couple of heavy-cruisers -- which is how it turned out. Oh, the one thing that they did have was enormous RANGE owing to the efficiency of the diesels. One wonders why they went to the expense of 11-inch armament on ships that could only be used for commerce raiding. Fleet actions were out of the question.
I built her as DD448 La Valette. She would be almost identical to the USS Taylor except that I don't think that the Taylor had the raised AA fire control mount above the number 3 turret like the first few Fletcher round-bridges had.
Well I seem to remember the Iowa class ships having a radar fire control system. Yes it was 1940's radar technology but it probably meant that the Yamato would have been under 'somewhat accuarate' fire before it could have gotten the Iowa class its range.
#127. I believe the ships name was FUSO. Yamashiro also took a torpedo hit but continued on into the trap laid at Surigao Strait where she was pummeled by more destroyer torpedoes as well as gunfire from the Battleships that were resurrected from Pearl Harbor, they finally got their revenge that night!!!!
The idea of the all-big-gun dreadnought was developed because of the superior accuracy & range of the largest caliber naval rifles. By WW2 the secondary armament began appearing, mostly to deal with high-flying aircraft, and small torpedo craft.
A Truly excellently written piece on the U.S. Naval actions during WWII, Samuel Elliott Morison's(Ret. Rear Admiral) The Two Ocean War.
Well, that was true until August 6th, 1945.
Yep, the San Antonio class is an LPD.
Damn funny!
The interesting thing about that is he did it under the old German Imperial ensign and not the Swastika.
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