Aerial image of battleship Yamato discovered

NHK Online ^ | 03 Jul 06 | Unkn

[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.

[Doohickey]

Halsey didn't fall for the decoy. He knew that Ozawa's force was a decoy because we were still intercepting and decoding Japanese transmissions. The fact is that Halsey just plain screwed up. He thought Kincaid had the San Barnardino Strait covered and just up and took off after Ozawa with his 3rd fleet.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I had read that because the Iowas could carry over 2 million gallons of fuel, they because lighter vessels for the destroyers. Some tanker, eh ?

[Gator101]

Halsey didn't fall for the decoy.

I guess "fall for" may be too strong. However, his strong desire to race off and bag Japanese carriers and failure to make sure San Bernadino was covered by somebody essentially allowed Ozawa's decoy force to be just as effective as if he hadn't known what its mission was. The Japanese plan was working by dumb luck and only Kurita's timidness off Samar in the face of American courage averted a worse disaster for the US.

[Robert A Cook PE]

And EVERY WWII naval attack History Channel shows has that same small Japanese cargo ship being strafed.....

Makes ya wonder how the other 1200 were sunk.. 8<)

[Tallguy]

FYI: The USN flew a version of the B-25 as a "Patrol Bomber". Their version was known as the PBJ (Patrol Bomber, "J" which was the letter designation for North American Aviation.) They do refer to the plane as a "PBJ" in the movie.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Good discussion at this web page: IT also covers decommissioningh "logic" of the recent cruisers, naming of frigates and cruisers, and related data. Worth "bookmarketing" 8<)

http://www.hazegray.org/faq/smn6.htm

Section F.13: Ships damaged in the Persian Gulf
Four US warships have suffered major damage in the Persian Gulf during 1980's/1990's conflicts. They are:

Guided Missile Frigate USS Stark (FFG 31): Struck by two Exocet missiles 17 May 1987. An Iraqi Marage F1 aircraft supposedly mistook Stark for an Iranian ship. Stark's SLQ-32 EW system detected the aircraft's radar; the only action the ship took was to attempt to communicate with the aircraft. The ship's Phalanx CIWS was not operating at the time. The CIWS and 76 mm gun were masked by her masts; no attempt was made to turn and un-mask those weapons. The missiles penetrated the hull, below the main deck level, under the port forward corner of the main superstructure. One missile detonated and the fuel from both missiles burned. 37 crewmen died; the ship was heavily damaged and was nearly lost due to the weight of firefighting water. She was saved by excellent damage control efforts. Temporary repairs were carried out by the destroyer tender Acadia (AD 42) at Bahrain. She then returned to the US under her own power. Repairs at Litton/Ingalls took 15 months and cost $90 million.

Guided Missile Frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58): Struck an Iranian mine 14 April 1988. She suffered a 22 foot hole in her side, a 9 foot tear in her bottom and a cracked superstructure; her gas turbine engines were knocked out of position. There were no fatalities. The incident did not attact as much attention as the Stark incident because there were no fatalities and no fire. Damage was actually more severe and the ship came closer to being lost because the structure of her hull was severely weakened and she was severely flooded. (Stark's hull structure was mostly unaffected, and she was not flooding.) After emergency repairs, Robertys departed the Gulf on 1 July 1988, aboard the deckship Mighty Servant 2. She was repaired at Bath Iron Works (Portland Ship Repair Facility) at a cost of $37.5 million. Repairs took 18 months.

Amphibious Assualt Ship USS Tripoli (LPH 10): Mined 18 Feb 1991 at 0430. While operating minesweeping helicopters, she struck a moored contact mine. The mine blew a 20 x 30 foot hole in the starboard side of the hull, below the waterline, forward. There were no fatalities. Repairs in Bahrain required one month.

Guided Missile Cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59): Mined 18 Feb 1991 at 0716. After Tripoli was mined, Princeton moved between her and a shore battery, unknowingly moving into a minefield. The cruiser detonated an Iraqi bottom-laid influence mine, and the detonation of that mine set off another. The second mine did no damage. The first mine exploded just forward of the aft 5 inch mount, flexing the ship's stern upwards and sending severe "whipping" vibrations throughout the ship. The entire fantail was left tilted upwards and twisted sideways. The main strength girder of the hull was broken; hull strength in the stern was 80% destroyed. There was extensive shock damage to the propellers, shafts, aft weapons systems, fuel tanks, the double bottom, and the superstructure. Despite the damage, her forward weapons systems and the Aegis system were back online within two hours.

Princeton was towed out of the minefield by the tug Beaufort (ATS 2), escorted by a minesweeper. The crippled cruiser arrived at Bahrain the next day. Temporary repairs were made by crews from the repair ship Jason (AR 8). More permanent repairs were made at Dubai, in order to get the ship back to the US under her own power. Ingalls Shipbuilding diverted a large amount of material intended for cruisers still under construction and sent it to the Persian Gulf to speed repairs to Princeton. The repairs in Dubai took 5 weeks. Following Princeton's return to Long Beach Naval Shipyard, additional repair work was carried out to complete the job started in Dubai.

Destroyer Paul F. Foster (DD 964): Struck, but did not detonate, a moored contact mine a few days after Princeton was mined. Her propellers cut a gash through the mine within inches of the detonator horns.

[UCANSEE2]

Isn't this a present from President Bush to the recent visitor from Japan?

[Tallguy]

Communication between fleets was a problem throughout the war. The 7th Fleet was ultimately controlled by Douglas MacArthur as commander SWPac. The 3rd/5th Fleets were answerable to Nimitz at CincPac. The command arrangements between Mac & Nimitz were a kludge. Recall that the USS Indianapolis went missing when she was torpedoed after deliving the atom bomb to Tinian. The reason nobody looked for her is that she crossed a line in the ocean as she moved from one fleet area to the other. Only when the (I think it was) 7th Fleet realized she was 'overdue' did the search start. A lot of sailors died for that administrative mixup.

[OKSooner]

Well, see then, it happened just like that. And I thought all along they were just making it up for the movies.

[Gator101]

And what has to be the all time most played footage of the Pacific War...that same Wildcat making a failed carrier landing, hitting the island of the carrier, and cracking in half.

That poor pilot is must be like the Navy's version of the ABC Wide World of Sports "agony of defeat" ski-jumper guy.

[Doohickey]

Guided Missile Frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58)...

Still used to this day as an example of how to do damage control right. The structure of her hull was so "severely weakened" that her crew used lockwire and Band-It straps to keep her from breaking in half.

[COEXERJ145]

Another one is the air combat video where the American fighter is behind a Japanese fighter and another Japanese aircraft flies between them.

[wolficatZ]

Wasn't that a Grumman Hellcat? ;-)

[wolficatZ]

So that was the HMS Barham, thanks so much for that info.

The important thing about that spectacular rollover and explosion is that someone was there to film it from an nearby ship!

I've never been able to trace the origin of a hugh explosion of an ammo ship in a film clip, maybe from Leyte. It's so big it looks like a nuke. Do you know which one I'm talking about?

[Oztrich Boy]

The Shinano was a lousy aircraft carrier. Being build on a BB-hull she had little hangar space or aviation-fuel bunkerage for aircraft below deck compared to a purpose-built CV

Dis-agree. It was the concept that was lousy. The idea was a RRRR (Refuel, Rearm, Repair, Replace) ship to support the aircraft for other carriers. As such her own airgroup c50 (about half an Essex, not a third) was for self defence and only took a fraction of her capacity.
Used as a attack carrier, she could have operated 120.

And lash up as it was, her design cured most of the faults of Japanese carrier design. The usual narrow hull meant narrow, two tier hangers with low overheads. Shinano had a single wide hanger with decent overhead clearance.

And the flaw of Jap carriers was the basic design - enclosed, unarmoured hanger - so a hamger explosion would blow out the weakest point - the flight deck, which was also the strength deck of the ship. (The Taiho was given an armoured flight deck, which made it worse. That forced the explosion down threw the unarmoured hanger floor and blew the bottom out of the ship).

In Shinano the strength deck was the main deck, which had 8" armour. Above it was a open sided hanger (vent hanger explosions naturally), with an armoured flight deck above that.

An arrangement not unlike the USS Midway, probably the closest match to Shinanio. True, starting with a battleship hull maant it was bigger than it could have been, and a little slower. But used properly it could have been the most effective IJN carrier.

[Robert A Cook PE]

One classic (though can't be positive it is the one you're referencing) is of an ammo ship exploding off of Anzio in the Med.

Tragedy there: It had gas shells on board, but nobody (surviving) knew it: They leaked and spread phosgene (probably) across the water, and the survivors of the explosion got nasty chemical burns from the floating residue.

[Oztrich Boy]

From WWII on, even ONE hit on a DD (or FF) sized ship has taken out that ship: After just one hit, EVERY destroyer (which are now cruiser-sized: CG-47 etc are on essentially Spruance hulls) has lost power, command & control, fire control, or propulsion.
....
But EVERY one has lost the ability to keep fighting after only one hit.

Falkland Islands. 1982 HMS Glamorgan took an Exocet hit. Lost the helo hanger and helo inside - all else unimpaired.

[Robert A Cook PE]

True: But when I read the USNI Proceedings articles from that, I found that the shock of impact did knock out power though. Not as long as some other Falkland-hit ships, but in crossing through the hanger, the impact was not as trivial as it sounds.

From the earlier cited "hazegrey" web site:

Section F.6: Royal Navy losses during the Falklands War

The following Royal Navy ships were lost or damaged during the 1982 Falklands War. Data provided by Michael P. Reed, from Air War: South Atlantic (Jeffery Ethell & Alfred Price).

* 1 May 1982: Arrow (F173) damaged by 30mm cannon fire, Glamorgan (D19) by bomb splinters, by three Daggers of Grupo 6 off Port Stanley.
* 4 May 1982: Sheffield (D80) hit by an Exocet from a Super Etendard from 2nd Naval Fighter and Attack Escuadrilla at 11:02AM, 100 miles south of Port Stanley. It is generally thought that the missile did not explode, but some claim it actually did explode. Sheffield sank under tow 10 May.
* 12 May 1982: Glasgow (D88) hit by a 1000 pound bomb, from an A-4 from Grupo 5, which passed through the ship amidships leaving 3 foot holes near the waterline, before exploding outside the ship. Glasgow was forced to withdraw from the operational area to make repairs.
* 21 May 1982
o Argonaut (F56) suffered light damage from a Macchi 339 of 1st Naval Attack Escuadrilla off San Carlos Water at 10:36AM. At 2:30 she was attacked by six A-4s and severely damaged by two 1,000 lb bombs. One hit just above the waterline between the boiler and engine room, hitting seveal steam pipes, exploding a boiler, and destroying part of the steering gear. The second hit below the waterline, passed through two fuel tanks, the sonar compartment, and into the Sea Cat Magazine detonating two missiles. Neither bomb exploded.
o Antrim (D18) hit in the stern by a 1000 lb bomb from a Dagger of Grupo 6 which "pierced her missile loading doors, narrowly missed a fully armed Seaslug missle, smashed through a fan compartment and a pyrotechnic locker, then demolished a calorifier before it came to rest in a lavatory area." The bomb failed to detonate.
o Broadsword (F88) strafed by Daggers of Grupo 6 off San Carlos Water at 11AM and again at 2:40.
o Ardent (F184) attacked at 2:30 by Daggers of Grupo 6, and struck by a 1000 lb bomb which exploded near the stern, destroying the Seacat launcher. At 2:45 PM was attacked by A-4s of Grupo 5 and hit by two bombs which exploded toward the stern. Shortly thereafter attacked by 3 A-4s of the 3rd Naval Fighter and Attack Escuadrilla, and struck by at least two Mk82 Snakeyes. She sank some six hours later. Regarding the use of aluminum in the construction of this ship, the authors remark:
"Several commentators have written that modern warships with aluminum structures are not strong enough to sustain major battle damage. The example of this particular frigate would suggest otherwise. 'I was amazed how strong she was, she had taken one hell of a hammering,' commented Alan West. Later the board of inquiry into the loss of Ardent would establish that she had been hit by no fewer than seven 1,000-pound and 500-pound bombs which exploded, and at least two others which lodged inside her but did not go off."
o Brilliant (F90) lightly damaged by strafing off San Carlos Water.
* 23 May 1982: Antelope (F170) attacked by A-4s from Grupo 5 and the 3rd Naval Fighter and Attack Escuadrilla in San Carlos Water, and hit by two bombs, which did not explode on impact. One bomb later detonated while being defused, blowing a hole from the waterline to the funnel and starting an uncontrollable fire which later ignited the magazines, resulting in Antelope's loss.
* 24 May 1982: Sir Bedivere (L3004) had a bomb "glance off her foredeck", ricochet off the water and hit Sir Galahad (L3005). Sir Lancelot (L3029) was hit by another bomb on her starboard side. Neither bomb exploded.
* 25 May 1982
o Six A-4s of Grupo 5 attack Broadsword (F88) and Coventry (D118) off Pebble Island. Two first attacked Broadsword whose FCR broke lock, and was hit by a bomb skipping over the water in the stern and through the flight deck and a Lynx, but did not explode. 2nd pair attacked Coventry who crossed in front of Broadsword again causing the FCR to break lock, and was struck by three bombs all which exploded; she capsized and sank.
o Two Super Etendards, after refuelling from a KC-130, attack the Task Force from the north firing their missiles at the carriers. The missiles were probably decoyed by chaff, with one relocking onto Atlantic Conveyor (a civilian container ship under charter to RN), which was hit on the port side and exploded. She burned out and sank on 30 May.
* 8 June 1982
o Plymouth (F126) attacked by five Daggers from Gruppo 6 off San Carlos Water, and hit by 4 bombs which failed to explode. One went through the funnel; two skipped off the water, traveled through the Limbo mount, and out the other side. The fourth bounced off the flight deck exploding a depth charge.
o Five A-4s from Grupo 5 attacked Sir Tristram (L3505) and Sir Galahad (L3005) off Fitzroy. Both ships were severely damaged by exploding bombs; Sir Galahad was later towed offshore and scuttled.
* 12 June: Glamorgan (D19) damaged by a shore launched Exocet, which failed to explode.

...

(The first British who got hit in the hanger had the bomb cross through the Lynx helicopter, destroying of course, its a major part of it ASW force.

In all, the British - had we told the Argentine Air Force how to arm their US-bought 1000 lb bomb fuses for low level operations, would have lost some 30 percent of their entire Navy.

Funny that we forgot to issue that page of the manual.

[VeniVidiVici]

Saw a rerun of Star Trek TNG a few days ago. They showed a newer sister ship of the Enterprise called the Yamato. The Yamato was having problems the crew attributed to bugs in the latest design of the Galaxy class ships.

I wondered why the heck the writers of the show would name a sister ship of the Enterprise the Yamato; till it exploded early in the show!

[wolficatZ]

If I can find the VHS tape I have it on, I will upload it to zippy or youtube, I would like to learn the circumstances behind this explosion.