Fun fact: The harbour master was ordered to give the Yamato an amount of fuel which was only enough for it to get to the battle with almost none left over for maneuvering (eg to dodge torpedoes) and definitely none left over to return to port, but the clever man managed to both obey and disobey his orders at the same time. He obeyed his orders by first pumping out the required amount of fuel from the dockside tanks into the Yamato's fuel tanks, then he disobeyed his orders by having the harbour hands use portable pumps to pump out the residue of fuel which was left at the bottom of ostensibly empty storage tanks, and which the normal pumps could not reach. This fuel was added to the Yamoto's tanks, giving it enough fuel for maneuvering during battle and possibly even sufficient fuel for the ship to have limped some of the way home in the unlikely event of the battle going well. By doing this, the harbour master managed to give the Yamato a fighting chance. Without his action, it's quite possible that the Yamato would have run out of fuel during battle and become almost literally a sitting duck for the attacking allied forces. Yes, the Japanese were on the wrong side (at least from my point of view), but credit where credit is due.
This is proof that there are heroes in all areas. We should not forget or ignore noble actions of some men due to the damnable actions of others on the same side. It is astonishing though at the moral superiority of the navy over the army. The imperial navy fought honorably for their nation as a generality, even lining up to salute the crew of the USS Johnston floating in the water after they sank her. The army ran around laughing as they comitted war crimes. There were good and bad in both branches but the navy held to their beliefs. Thats all that can be asked of any individual.
@@Colonel_Overkill Towards the end of the war, the IJN did participate in some nasty stuff in the Philippines, but you're correct that for the most part, they did well. It's interesting to note that the same is true for the German navy. The U-Boat captains were a newer breed, but their surface fleet at the outset was mostly comprised of old sailors and captains who vehemently disagreed with the Nazi party line, even insofar as trying to block Nazi appointments to higher commands. Of course, this fell apart as Hitler tightened his grip and dismissed anyone who got into his way, but for some reason it always seems the navy is one of the more stalwart 'good guy" forces in any nation.
Colonel Overkill And then you need to consider the fact that Japanese Navy officers executed Wake Island prisoners of war with swords and mutilated the bodies because they were angry at how well they defended the island against them while transporting the PoWs to Japan. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japanese-execute-nearly-100-american-prisoners-on-wake-island www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/battle-of-wake-island-japanese-atrocities.html Japanese submarines routinely killed all survivors of cargo ships the sank.
@@allangibson8494 my statement was a generalization and there are always exceptions. US, Commonwealth, French, German, etc. Regardless of side someone somewhere comitted war crimes. I will say however that the mentality of a sailor at sea facing another at sea seems to be the common core of respect among all nations. Had it been US sailors on the deck of a warship would they have been executed? Possibly, even probably in all likelyhood if the admiral was that petty. The point remains though that brethern of the waves, on the waves often held more reapect for each other regardless of side.
Colonel Overkill The Japanese Navy was just as brutal as the army. They just generally had less opportunity as they were mostly dealing with Island campaigns - after you kill or deport (or both) all the islands occupants the opportunities get a little thin. The Japanese military did not surrender if physically able to fight and regarded anyone who did (even under direct orders) as sub-human. All wounded captured enemies were executed immediately. If female prisoners (ie nurses and nuns) were taken they were raped and then executed. If you were unable to work you were executed. If you were likely to be liberated by your own forces you were executed (the last of these executions happened right the end of August 1945 in Borneo after the Japanese announcement of surrender). (BTW executing PoW was formal Japanese Government policy and orders were sent in 1943 to that effect). As a general rule the pre-war Japanese regarded themselves as the only “humans” on the planet. Everyone else was sub-human slave fodder. www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/13/japan-revisits-its-darkest-moments-where-american-pows-became-human-experiments en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/wake-island-world-war-ii-prison-camp-tragedy%E2%80%94-pacific-43107 www.geni.com/projects/Japanese-prisoners-from-Wake-Island-Guam-and-Cavitie/914 The Japanese had two entirely parallel armed forces - to the point the Japanese Army operated almost as many submarines as the navy. The only ships the army didn’t operate were battleships and fleet aircraft carriers (the Japanese Army did operate escort carriers). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ships_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army
Or they get immediately destroyed by provoking a strong response from the enemy especially for the super large battleships of both Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany when both countries had resource problems
Or in the case of the V3 having it built, but having construction take so damn long that the allies knew of its existence and actually let them finish it just so on the day it is finished it could be bombed and destroyed, thereby wasting valuable manpower and resources
As a naval history enthusiast the incredibly poor research at some points in this video is so painful. 1. Iowa class war time full load was ~55,000 long tons... That's not 40% less... not by a long shot. 2. Iowa class (1940) was designed after the Yamato (1937) and built after. 3. North Carolina class (1937) was the one designed and built at the same time. And the 40% less at standard load is correct for these as well as the following South Dakota class.
Moreover the main turret weighted around 2 800 tons (8 400 tons together), which is not more than Uss Wyoming, New York or Nevada (around 27 000 tons each).
@@bilku7017 though purely for the sake of comparison, that is more than any ww2 destroyer displaced (and the combined weight is more than a standard cruiser displaced)
(Prior to starting the video) “Guns that weighed more than an American Battleship” That’s where you’re wrong my friend. Unless you’re talking about like Civil War era or earlier, and assuming you mean the IJN Yamato (which you almost certainly do), the guns did not weigh more than a battleship. They weighed as much as some WWII era destroyers though, which are warships but not battleships specifically.
Having checked your claim, the Yamato class’s turrets weighed about 2,500 tons each or as much as a Fletcher class Destroyer. Each gun barrel weighed about 150 tons. Now then the Nevada, New York, and Wyoming class Battleships weighed about 26-27,000 metric tons, while Yamato’s battery comes out to 7,500 tons. This appears to be a common misconception.
I think what he meant is the Yamato guns weigh as much as those US BBs guns combined, but there was probably a mistake in the script. Or he was just wrong
@@syaondri I can check the numbers, but the NY Class (USS New York and Texas) were WWI ships that survived past the coal age with refits. They were much smaller than the Iowa Class (the last class of US Battleships). Still, pretty sure the combined weight of the Yamato's guns did not outweigh the New York.
The engineering issues overcome building these battleships had never been dealt with before. The book "Build Musashi" tells the story, lots of shipyard photos not usually seen anywhere else when it was published.
@@TheNumber86 It was overwhelming quantity not necessarily quality that defeated the Germans on both FRONTS. The Germans were way ahead of the ALLIES in super tanks, jet aircraft, rockets and missiles.But none of their "super weapons" were enough to turn the tide of war in their favor.
Yeah, Germany production doctrine was very poor. Trying to develop the 'best weapon', they never built nearly the same number of anything compared tje tha Allies
Gary L, I wouldn’t call wasting desperately need resources on overly large tanks of questionable quality (yes, the Germans built something that’s wasn’t good) “way ahead”.
@@GFSLombardo Absolutely not. German tanks were meh at best. The Panther had HORRIBLE problems with fires and reliability. Same with the Tiger. And 70% of the time, whoever got off the first shot won. And Shermans could get that first one off because of the wider FOV on their optics. Their jets were maybe a month or two ahead of Allied designs and had horrible mechanical issues, like engines on the 262 lasting only 10 hours. Meanwhile the Meteor was operational a month later and didn't have those problems. And by early 1945, the US had operational P-80s, but they simply didn't need them. Why bother when P-51 pilots are massacring jets? As for their rockets, when von Braun was captured, he basically said that Goddard was a lot better than him. And I'd argue that the war was decided as soon as Hitler crossed the Polish frontier. And Soviet tech was great. The T-34 tore through German armor, especially the 85mm variant. And the IS-2 had little problems killing even Tiger IIs.
Wait, why'd you leave out the rest of the story, where Yamato is refitted for space travel, given the wave motion gun, and sent off to Iscandar? This is super-lazy work. SON, I AM DISAPPOINT.
@@syaondri Biggest ship = biggest target = needs "biggest" escort The escort they send was definitely not the "biggest", they were outnumbered and destroyed. To be the flagship of a fleet on paper, and being the _flagship of fleet_ are totaly different things.
@@syaondri That's exactly what I meant. That wasn't a fleet and I don't think that was "the first fleet" (obviously, I am being ironic here) of which Yamato was the flagship.
@@miskatonic6210 ...and they got knocked out by a few planes. The Bismarck took one hit to the rudder, not able to escape her pursuers and the Tirpitz got bombed and sunk while docked in a harbour. Also, they never faced a fleet of aircraft carriers.
Maybe, if the Allies didn't want to sink every single ship. By the end of the war, Nagato was still functional (and the only remaining Japanese battleship), but a nuclear test happened and there she goes, to the ocean floor. Sure Iowa and Missouri are great, but... eh. Japan also didn't help by literally burning every single blueprint of every ship (with possible exceptions).
This video title is entirely wrong. I don't know who did the research on this video, but it wasn't done well. 1.) One single gun, with the breech assembly included, weighed ~164 tons. 2.) Three guns fitted inside the turret had a weight of ~2,774 tons, three of which would then weigh ~8,332 tons. 3.) The Nevada, New York and Wyoming class battleships each had a weight of roughly 28,000 tons. Therefore, even when taking those US battleships that are on the lighter side for WWII, they still did outweigh all three gun turrets of the Yamato class battleships by a factor of ~3:1. Then there is the weight problem. The Iowa class, at full load, weighed roughly 57,500 tons, with the Yamato weighing in at 72,000 at full load. Therefore, if we use the Iowa as the base, the Yamato weighed ~26% more than the Iowa, with Yamato as base, the Iowa weighs 20% less than a Yamato. That is quite a lot less than the stated 40%.
But wait, in 2199 the Japanese find the Yamato and convert her into the Space Battleship Yamato, powered by wave-form energy and eventually finding the Cosmos DNA that saves Earth. Hurrah Yamato.
@@SaturnCanuck the supposed "wreck" in the anime was supposed to be a disguise to hide the new Yamato. The wreck on the original SBY was what was thought her wreck was as she wasn't discovered yet at the time
The Yamato was truly an amazing ship. Part of me wishes it and the Musashi survived WW2, just so we could visit it as a piece of history. Albeit, if it wasn't sunk, it would've rained hell upon the allies. But think about it. It basically took an entire fleet of ships + hundreds of aircraft to sink that thing.
It didn't require that many ships to sink it...that's just what the US had available at that point in the war. Best to play it safe and minimize losses. A single submarine could have sunk it. Or a single aircraft carrier bombing it with planes. It was sunk because the time of the battleship was over...air power was the new big stick.
They were around during the war, but their size made them inefficient and they weren't very effective aside from being a deterrent. Besides naval war had changed.
Eventually warships in general will be obsolete. They are all just huge, slow moving targets that are unable to defend themselves from ballistic anti-ship weapons falling along suborbital trajectories....
@@RealityIsTheNow not really Naval power is still always going to be relevant while we are limited to this Earth because control of the sea lanes is vital the type of control you cant do it from any landmass or aircraft you need ships to patrol and conduct expeditionary warfare
@UClIsbrINHWLRg5z8UR8xZqg and the only reason it took days was the fact that the USN had to locate the target most of the reason why conflict back then in naval engagement took longer was because it took time to locate the target.
the USS Massachusetts is a museum ship anchored in my home town (port?) i remember taking the tour and having the projectiles the 16" guns fired being so well described..... "these guns can fire a Volkswagon bug 20 miles"
The Mass didn't have 16 inch guns, the biggest US guns wer 15 inchers (edit: John O'Brien corrected me, she does have 16 in while the yamato had 18inchers)
@@southronjr1570 sorry, you are mis-informed. The "Big Mamie" BB-59 had (and still has) 9, 16" guns. As a matter of fact, the MA is believed to have fired the US' first 16" shells during the battle of Casablanca in 1942.
You are correct, it seems age has dulled the memory a bit, the yamato had 18in while the Big Mamie has 16 inchers. Thank you for the correction. Either case the US guns had higher velocity and had much better armor penetration than the Yamato's guns even though they were slightly smaller in diameter. It would seem the Japanese imperial navy had a world class case of SPS.
😂 That’s my girl! The Massachusetts is the closest battleship to me (I live about 2 1/2-3 hrs away in CT) and also the one I’m best acquainted with having visited her all my life. If you get the chance to go visit the USS Salem, you’ll see 2 titanic shells near the ticket kiosk. I asked about what I Earth they were, each taller than me at 5’9” (175cm) and was informed that they were 46cm AP shells from the Yamato. South Dakota class have nothing on her for sheer size, in fact Massachusetts is the smallest BB I’ve visited.
John O'Brien I was assigned to a working party aboard the then-mothballed WISCONSIN in Philadelphia in 1985. The working party arrived on station, boarded, and we stood around for about a half hour before we were informed that our working party had been reassigned. While we waited aboard, I wandered around the deck and stood in awe of those mammoth guns. And felt like a tiny insect on the back of some terrible leviathan. I never did learn what our task aboard WISCONSIN was supposed to have been, but the task we ended up doing seemed ridiculously petty in comparison - picking up trash.
And for another bonus fact: Yamato (大和) ironically translate to Great Peace or Great Calm Not sure what Musashi (武蔵) stands for Shinano (信濃) is maybe dark trust or faith (you can get different meanings if you translate each kanji separately, together I'm not sure)
Actually... They are named after old province names in Japan. Yamato no Kuni （大和国 やまとのくに）- around modern day Nara Musashi no Kuni （武蔵国 むさしのくに）- modern day Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa area Shinano no Kuni （信濃国 しなののくに）- around modern day Gifu and Nagano
The gun turrets weighed as much as an entire USN destroyer. The guns did not weigh ss much as a battleship. Yamato was attacked by more aircraft than Pearl Harbour. 6 aircraft carriers attacked her in one go. Mismatch is a significant understatement.
33 Knots only in ideal conditions and smooth seas. Yamato could pretty much manage 27 at any time. Iowa during moderate or rough seas dropped speed dramatically
I'd also encourage people to search for the story of Taffy 3: Battle of Samar. Yamato plus her escort of over 20 ships including 3 more Battleships and mix of light and heavy cruisers AND destroyers vrs 3 destroyers, 4 destroyer escorts(basically baby destroyers) and 6 escort carriers. The USN were caught by surprise but counter attacked with so much aggression they convinced the Japanese that they were facing a far more powerful force than they actually were. Yamato on her own grossly outweighed the entire Taffy 3 and the level of heroics was extraordinary. Search Drachenifel Battle of Samar for a very good telling of the story 😉
Best example of Taffy 3 for beginners or historians is BATTLE 360 available on TH-cam now. Watch the episode DEATH OF THE JAPANESE NAVY. Interviews with Jack Yusen and other crew members of Taffy 3 destroyers and destroyer escorts are amazing. The Yamato weighed more and had more fire power than all 20 allied ship and they included 3 Jeep carriers. The 50lb projectiles from the 5 inch guns did a ton of deck damage while the torpedoes sunk a few cruisers. Check out the series BATTLE360. Members of the Enterprise flight crews flew CAP over Pearl Harbor during the attack.
As mentioned, the 460 mm San Shiki anti-aircraft shells weren't exactly a success. In addition of being almost useless against enemy aircraft, the blast from the guns was hampering the aiming and firing of the smaller AA guns and the copper rims on the shells wreaked havoc on the rifling.
Now there are a few principles you have to observe: 1) The relationship between volume and surface area: The volume of a ball (sfere) is = 4/3*pi* r^3 (radius - or ½ the caliber - cubed). The surface area of a ball (sfere) is = 4*pi*r^2 (or caliber squared). Now the surface area in relation to volume is: 4*pi*r^2 divided by 4/3*pi*r^3. Reducing the expression as appropriate= 3/r or 6/caliber. This means that the larger the caliber is the LESS relative surface area a grenade has! Surface friction is mainly a consideration below the speed of sound. 2) The relationship between volume (how large the amount of explosives that hit the target) and the cross section of the projectile is: Cross section is: pi*r^2 (radius squared) Cross section relative to volume is then: pi*r^2 divided by 4/3*pi*r^3 = (properly reduced) (3/2)/r. or the same basic relationship as the surface area - this is a major consideration above and around the speed of sound. Again the larger caliber has the advantage in that it results in LESS drag the higher the caliber - hence the longer range; but that is only PROPORTIONAL to caliber. 3) The Yamato-class had a maximum speed of 27 knots, but the Iowa-class had 33 knots (according to Wikipedia). I might not seem much; but the difference is HUGE. Drag on the ship is proportional (except at slow speeds - not the consideration here) to speed CUBED - hence required engine power. 33 knots/27 knots = 1.22 or about 25% higher speed. The result in engine power required is 80% more - for the same speed. The Yamato- and Iowa- classes had about the same engine power - or not that much different. The hull designs were also much different, so....
Joshua Cooper They are not the same; however, free to play games are truly rare to find And some have adapted themselves to be pay to win (like RuneScape) where a large amount of content is free but vast game is blocked behind a subscription service. The addition of “bonds” (the ability to buy the subscription from other players with in game money) was implemented to cut down on the illegal sale of ingame money, with a benefit of players being able to play the full game without spending real money. But it made purchasing ingame money mainstream. Decent fix to the economy with the duel arena patch though... helped a little. Edit: and then there are host websites like miniclip or addictinggames where Independent developers can post their games to play for free.
In a world where the gme owners and or developers become greedy. Free to play soon becomes empty your wallets. And empty your credit cards just so you can. Experience advancing forward and defend your land.
The displacement of a ship only has a small impact on it's speed. The more important metric is the lenght to beam ratio. Iowa class battleships were slightly longer than Yamato, but way thiner, since they had to fit through the panama canal. That is the reason for thier higher speed. Sometimes a higher displacement can be advantageous, since you have more space for boilers, turbines, etc. Also, you can't really compare the 18 inch turrets of Yamato to 20 years older US standards. Battleships were much smaller back then.
It also didn't hurt that the Iowa could boast 212,000 shp versus the Yamato which could only manage 150,000 shp on a good day. But, yes, you are correct that length-to-beam matters a lot.
Except that the engine room of the Iowa is smaller than the engine room of the Yamato, and it was able to develop all that HP using 8 boilers versus the 12 boilers in the Yamato. The Americans (and the Brits) simply knew how to build engines at much higher temperatures and pressures than anything the Japanese could build.
@@johnreynolds7996 Actually it's how piss poor the metal industry in Japan was at the time. Japan was pretty much shit out of luck when it came to metal deposits (most of Japan's iron in it's history was iron SAND, which was pretty crappy to make iron anything with), while the US was the ONLY nation on the planet that can make structural steel at such volume that they used it as ship armor.
I believe you are referring to "Special treatment steel" which had the big advantage of being able to be used as structural steel as well as for armour belts. But STS was no better then Krupp-cemented steel at thicknesses greater than 4 inches. The Krupp-cemented steel belt of the British King George V was regarded as superior to that of its US contemporaries (the South Dakotas and North Carolinas) with their STS belts. Yes, the Americans were good. The British were equally as good. The Japanese and the Germans, much less so.
The great irony of the Yamato class battleship is that by the day the lead ship in the class, Yamato was commissioned on Dec. 16, 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army air arm already proved TO THEMSELVES how vulnerable capital ships were. They had already sunk, through the sole use of air power USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Utah, USS Nevada, HMS Repulse, and HMS Prince of Wales. The only reason USS Pennsylvania didn't sink was because its awfully tough to torpedo a battleship while in dry dock! By the time the second ship in the class was commissioned in 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy was in trouble. They were losing experienced pilots faster then they could replace them. By the time Shinano was launched in 1944, it was over. There were no pilots to man her, and hardly any planes to put on her deck. It was over. The Navy was largely destroyed. The Army was losing far more troops to disease and starvation then from allied bullets, and the air arm was crippled sending up teenagers with only a week or two of flight training on suicide missions, which ironically they did in Zero-sen which were not only unarmored, but also became uncontrollable at high speed. (Its the great flaw of the Zero.)
The only problem was the accuracy, especially when the weather was not clear. *_Also don’t forget about the Yamato Class CV (Aircraft Carrier) Shinano - 信濃!_*
アレキサンダー 佐藤 He didn’t. He briefly mentioned that a 3rd Yamato class was completed as an aircraft carrier. We of course know her as Shinano, but she’s a bit obscure (though is featured in my ship encyclopedia) and did absolutely nothing worth speaking about I’m afraid.
That is not strictly speaking true Hoshimaru57. A U.S. submarine torpedoed her and the easy kill made the U.S. Navy reluctant to build super carriers. Effectively delaying our first super carrier by about a decade or so.
Shinano was a ridiculously easy kill, since it wasn’t even operational nor properly fitted out. The watertight doors didn’t even work right. A few torpedoes and an inexperienced crew doomed her to a slow, inevitable death.
not really. its more like sinking a really large flak barge. looks good on paper until you get into the details that all you did was sink a glorified piece of steel.
I visited the USS Iowa last weekend and one of the tour guides told us one of the 16 inch turrets weighed more than his ship he served on in the war... Great video as always keep it up!
The Yamato-Class vs The Iowa-Class is a case study in focusing on the obvious rather than the minor things that make up a weapon system: Yamato: Giant Guns, Iowa: Radar and better designed guns. At range, Iowa's 16-inch guns strike with the same angle and destructive power as the Yamato's larger shells.
The guns for the Iowa was literally whipped up in a couple months after BuOrd fucked up and made the turrets too small for the guns that they were originally supposed to use (the Mk.I 16" guns that were left over from the 20s). So no, they were not particularly better designed. Also it takes a pretty massive leap of logic to think that a 1460kg shell with 34kgs of explosive travelling at 780m/s is somehow equal in force to 1225kg with 18kg of explosives travelling at 700m/s. It's rather simple physics.
@@captaincoxwaggle6882 it never gets old see comments from people that dont have a clue and think that just cos the yanks made something that it has to be better even though facts and physics prove other wise
Ahhh, yes, the American haters who pretty much degrade every American accomplishment ever. I chuckle at the fact that the Yamato sits at the bottom of the Pacific while all Iowa-class battleships are still preserved to this day.
@@captaincoxwaggle6882 There's more to shell effectiveness than mass. The Iowa's were able to fire they shells out of the barrels much faster, so that the kinetic energy and ballistic angle was identical to what the Yamato-class' larger, heavier, and slower shells could do at range. Tie that with their Radar-guided targeting computers, and you have a weapon system that accomplishes the same result with less cost and wasted effort. And it says more of American industry and economy that they were to pull a totally new turret design out of their ass and it still work as well as a deliberate design, whereas any other navy would have either scrapped the ships and started over or bit the bullet and used the smaller guns.
There seems to be this recurring theme in human history, this thought of building something that's indestructible this is especially true in naval history and it seems all these mega ships (Titanic, Bismarck, Tirpitz, Yamato) go down in an inglorious manner. The amount of steel and resources used to produced these military ships could of supplied land forces with 100's of tanks, armored personnel carriers could of prolonged the war for years, military planners indeed.
Hahaha yeah you are always like there is gunna be a tougher fight then your at the last boss and he has mad health so it doesn’t even feel cool cause it underpowered comparatively
Another bonus fact: the third Yamato battleship, Shinano (Simon mentions it was converted to an aircraft carrier), is currently the largest vessel ever sunk by a submarine. Shinano was built in so much secrecy that USS Archerfish's commanding officer, Joseph Enright, was not believed when he described his kill and was credited with a different aircraft carrier. Only after the war ended did Commander Enright get credit for Shinano.
@@scifiguy26 Not angry and certainly not at you, I love Space Battleship Yamato (the original animated series and followups, not Star Blazers). My comment was directed at Kyles who appears to be under the impression that we think Anime is real lol :)
For a class of ship that were designed to be the most powerful battleships ever built, the two Yamato class battleships and the one aircraft carrier built on the third Yamato class hull seriously underperformed. Added together the three only sank one lightly armed escort carrier and one severely outnumbered destroyer. And those sinking's were with a supporting fleet of overwhelming battleship, cruiser and destroyer firepower. It shows much about what the U.S. Navy had learned since 1941 and much about the deterioration of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Oddly enough, I've heard several people mistakenly say Yamoto, before, so I'm wondering if there's some unconscious proclivity towards that particular mistake in the minds of native English speakers?
I'd like to point out a few things of the five Yamato class battleships that were ordered. Yamato and Musashi were completed as ordered, but the third, Shinano, was finished off as an aircraft carrier. A very armored aircraft carrier that was sunk by the submarine USS Archerfish while she was traveling to a different shipyard for final fitting on 29 November 1944. To date, the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine. The fourth was laid down, but never completed. She never even got a name and was known simply as Warship Number 111. The fifth was never even laid down and had the designation of Warship Number 797. Just wanted to expand on the brief mention of the 5 ships originally planned. Also, you failed to mention that Japanese code being broken was one of the reasons Ten-Go failed. The US knew about it before Yamato even exited Japanese home waters. One more thing. Yamato took far fewer bomb and torpedo hits than Musashi to sink because the Allies learned from sinking Musashi to focus ordnance on a single side. Musashi took all those hits before sinking because those hits were all over the ship. Yamato's hits were on one side only. When Yamato blew up, the cloud was visible from over the horizon.
The description of the battle by a surviving Yamato officer (at 6:58) is strangely poetic. I guess it would feel surreal to see combat unfold around you if you had never seen it before, because there is almost nothing in civilian life which would compare to a raging battle.
When the Yamato's magazine blew the ship in two, seven U.S. aircraft were knocked out of the sky with it, more than they managed to actually shoot down.
Why do I imagine poor lost officers lost on the yomato just picking a nice spot in a compartment and decided to figure out where there bunk was tomorrow and go to sleep
This is how 16 inch guns are loaded, only two inches smaller than the ones on the Yamato in the video th-cam.com/video/MTW_xpK-Twc/w-d-xo.html about exactly 1:00 in they reload the gun
@@DMW-iq2ie Only 2 inches? You do know that still translates into the shell weighing 518lbs more then the Mk8 super heavy shell from the Iowa, NC, and SD right?
I know this video has been out forever a while, but if you read this, Simon, I’d like to mention a bonus to your bonus facts: The US “Tillman” Class battleships. A senator named Tillman was trying to block the Navy from getting modern warships, so after repeatedly blocking the Navy, they decided to name their biggest ever battleship proposal after him. The designs for the Tillman Class had several variations of guns and turrets, but they all carried three to five quad-turrets with 20” guns... and weighed in estimation up to 88,000-105,000 tons of displacement... and this was just after World War I. So before Japan had the idea to Yamato a Yamato, let alone Super-Yamato, the US Navy proposed it as a means of trolling Senator “F-the Navy” Tillman... obviously, they were never built, and in the end it seems the constant trolling by the Navy may have contributed to the brain aneurism that killed the senator in the end, and ironically his death opened the door for the post-WWI battleships to be built including the South Dakota, North Carolina, and so on between 1922 and 1939. Anyway, new to the channel and thought you might find the Tillman Class interesting.
One thing to point out re the video title: the Wyoming-, New York- and Nevada-class battleships were World War 1 era battleships, which were much, much smaller than WW2 battleships - the Iowa-class had a displacement of 57.5k tons at full load, which is granted still smaller than the Yamato's 72k tons, but more than double the displacement of the earlier named vessels
This ship was so symbolic for Japan, they made a whole si-fi anime series about it called, Space Battleship Yamato in 1974 (not to be confused by the American influenced remake in 2015). I'm surprised you didn't come across this.
@@syaondri OH MY GOSH. I had read that the ships weren't built until the end of the war. I had no idea they meant the FIRST world war. Now THAT changes things. These floating goliaths where designed in the 1910's and held their own over 30 years later. Its amazing, and I had no idea. Thank you for enlightening me. I have been fascinated by Japanese culture and history for most of my life. As a born American, I feel terrible for certain things my country has done in the past and so when I see things like this video along with knowing how incredible the Japanese can be with their technology, I find it hard to believe the most powerful battle ship in the seas during WWII could be taken out the way it was without some sort of sabotage from the notorious CIA, which it is known for.
@@syaondri you have a very good point. Any ship's greatest threat is the water it floats on. As soon as the hull was compromised, it was over. This is why I think they going to try beach the ship in Okinawa. If it cant sink, it may never have been taken out. Who knows, It would probably have been the most powerful beach side fortress as well.
Just as a note, the holding back of Yamato and Musashi until the tail end of the war was also motivated much by doctrine. They were held back, their strength and condition preserved because of the doctrine of "Kantai Kessen," Which sought to defeat the American Navy in a single, decisive battle. In fact, we see this factor into the planning for the Battle of Midway(Japanese: Operation MI). While the body of the Midway action centered around the American Task Forces 16 and 17 versus the Japanese Carrier Divisions 1 and 2, it's important to remember that the Midway invasion was supposed to be a LURE, not the main battle itself. Having crushed the American battle line at Pearl Harbor 6 months earlier, Yamamoto believed that he could achieve Kantai Kessen in Operation MI. The plan was to use CarDiv 1 and 2 attack Midway and shatter it's defenses, to allow for an Invasion and occupation force to take and hold the island. This was intended to lure the USN into a battle to crush it. The First Fleet Main Force, which was Yamamoto's command for operation MI, was a powerful surface force centered around the battleships Yamato, Mutsu, and Nagato. The Midway Invasion Force's Second Main Body was also centered around a powerful group of battleships, the Kongo and Hiei, and the cruisers of CruDiv 4 and 5, Atago, Chokai, Myoko and Haguro. The Midway Occupation Group consisted mostly of transports and destroyers, but it had attached to it a combat support group centered around the cruisers of CruDiv 7, Kumano, Suzuya, Mogami, and Mikuma. Basically....this was a metric fuck ton of firepower. It represented a significant portion of Japan's surface strength, and if you are familiar with the concept of Kantai Kessen, it's easy to see that the Japanese truly believed that this was the battle that would seal the deal for them.
One of those massive 160 mme cannons is preserved in Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes Delaware. Standing next to one of those, it is incredible to imagine one of those repeating every 40 seconds and easy to imagine the shock wave from that causing injury.
@@bjorn1583 - So politely asking for reference(s) is beyond your capacity to remain civil? OK. You are clearly not worthy of genetic reproduction, but I doubt that'll stop your adolescent mind from fucking anything that moves. jdhill4 - there's a fuck buddy for ya!!
It's not that it was so strong that it took 400 dive bombers to take care of it it was the fact that they were just there at the right time and besides destroyer that was with it pretty much sealed the Yamatos fate
The Japanese 18.1" guns did have a larger calibre but were lighter and fired a lighter shell than the British 18" guns. Initially built for the third of the Courageous class Light Cruiser Furious but cancelled due to Washington Treaty, they were fitted to Monitors for bombarding targets from coast.
The Japanese strategists responsible for funding aircraft carriers knew that giant battleships were anachronisms. While such weapons might have been viable as naval weapons in the first world war when aircraft were relatively small and slow, by the time WW2 commenced, they were basically only useful for shelling a fortress prior to a marine assault.
Despite how powerful these ships were we were terrified of the Bismark since we didn't know until after the war how truly massive these Japanese ships were.
jaspr1999 nah it has more to do with threat. The yamato and mushashi weren't actually that threatening to the existence of any country in comparison to the Bismark and tirpitz who if they got into the Atlantic could raid enough shipping to drag England out of the war. At least that was the thinking due to the tonnage that German cruisers in the Atlantic alone sunk.
That was the case with Bismarck/Tirpitz. Both tought to be major threats until the Allies found oud just how effective massing aircraft against it was. You could say these massive behemots were the right ships for the wrong war. WWII was when the Battleship era died. The very last was built in 1945 and decomissiined in 1960. The last serving one (USS Missouri) was retired in 2005, getting it's last rounds off in Iraq. The Jet age cemented the fate of the battleship. This is the era of the Supercarrier and it's complement of several other ships, nuclear submarines, surveillance and attack aircraft.
The Bismarck was sunk in May 1941, the Yamato was commissioned in December 1941 (9 days after Pearl Harbor) The Bismarck was sunk and the Tirpitz largely penned up by the time the IJN entered the war and became a threat. The RN and US Navy definitely considered the IJN a far larger naval threat than the Kreigsmarine, especially in terms of the surface fleet (the IJN had more classes of Battleship than the Kreigsmarine had capital ships at all, but the Kreigsmarine submarine force was far more dangerous than any submarine force other than the US Fleet boats). The worry with the Bismarck and Tirpitz was always how much damage they could do before being sunk, as they were so close to so much critical infrastructure and the critical convoy lanes to the UK. The IJN could put up a LOT more fight (it frankly could have outmatched Home Fleet for sure) but had to steam a long way to get anywhere critical (and in fact only the Kido Butai or its components ever really did that)
British and German people: The Bismarck was the largest and most terrifying warship ever constructed. Japan and America: *Jim staring through window meme*
Small note: The reason that MUSASHI took so long to sink after being hit by all those torpedoes was that the ship was so big it took a long time to fill up with enough water to scuttle her. Also, the torpedo and near-miss bombs that caused the flooding damage were roughly even on both sides of the ship so it had to fill up completely to sink. When the pilots attacked YAMATO, they had been trained to all use their torpedoes, if possible, on one side of the enemy target ship only, which caused YAMATO to capsize and roll over, blowing up from a combined boiler and magazine detonation shortly thereafter. Only about half the hits were needed to kill YAMATO than had been on MUSASHI due to better aiming standards by the US pilots. The US learned rapidly by experience during WWII (they had enough bad things happen at the start of the war to make them somewhat paranoid), something that was more difficult for the Japanese to do. The book DESTROYER CAPTAIN (I think) by an ex-Japanese WWII officer talks about this problem. He was the guy who figured out how to improve Japanese torpedo attack techniques which were so catastrophically effective against enemy warships during much of WWII, so he knew his business.
If aircraft carrier development had been delayed by 5 years, the Yamato, the Montana, the Bismarck, and the Prince of Wales type ships would have decided the sea war of both world wars.
3 we're completed, Yamato, Musashi, Shinano. Shinano got converted after she was completed but she still sailed a bit as a Yamato class before she was made into a CV
It would seem the Japanese imperial navy had a world class case of SPS (small pens syndrome). The funny part is that while their guns were the largest in diameter, they had less armor penetration than the Iowa class ships did. It would seem that the US understood that speed defeats armor and the Japanese didn't.
I mean US BBs also had some basic restrictions. They needed to keep up with the carriers and they needed to fit through the Panama Canal. This forced them to be smaller and faster. But that's fine because you won't win any naval war after the First World War with battleships.
cattila1 that's was their problem, they couldn't even sink em that way (not like they could have sunk em that way anyhow). Yamato could have fired enough ordinanceto to make a US BB sink from the weight of the shells.
the iowa class DID NOT have better penetration than yamato, that was all war propaganda to make the yanks feel safer in their tin cans. yamato shells weighed more, had higher initial velocity and longer range which are the main things to look at if talking about shell pen and as per usual the facts and physics are complete opposite to US war propaganda
At 2:35 in the video: "The shockwave produced by these guns firing was noted as being powerful enough to tear the skin off a human, if an unlucky individual stood within 15 meters of it without proper shielding." I'm guessing there is a nightmarish true story behind this interesting bit of trivia.
Things about the Yamato- 1) In the design phase the Japanese (correctly) predicted that the US would limit the size of any battleship it would build to still be able to transit the Panama Canal. (not over 58,000 tons fully loaded) . So the Yamato was designed to defeat a battleship that size. 2) The Washington Naval Treaty limited the size of battleships, but not their quality. The Yamato was built big, but of low quality components, relying on brute force. The US was a riich country, so we built treaty ships of the highest quality possible.As a consequence... 3) While the Yahato was big, I have seen evaluations that indicate it only had the combat effectiveness of an American South Dakota class (35,000 tons empty, precursor to the Iowas (45,000 tones empty)) because of advanced American fire control and artillery technology and using stronger but more expensive steel in the armor.
Fun Fact. Being able to fire a shell 25 miles does not imply being aware that such a target was present, much less being able to hit it, both of which Yamato had laughable capability of accomplishing. Yes, Yamato theoretically did achieve the longest range gunnery "hit" when at 17 miles (nautical miles, not statue, we are talking about ships) against White Plaines at Samar. "Hit" because a functioning type 41 diving shell exploded as it passed under White Plaines, ending it s career as an escort carrier. At this range, only the spotting top could see more than the masts and bridge of the escort carrier, so while ranges and bearings could be taken, allowing a shot, they were unable to see the waterline, and thus could not spot salvos over or under. For that, the target needs to be about 2 miles closer than the ~13 mile horizon from the spotting top (9 miles from the conning tower secondary spot). Yes, she had float planes aboard to spot. Hellcats present would have enjoyed that. And she had type 21 and 22 radar. But with A-Scope displays, wide beams and no side lobe suppression, as well as not integrated into the fire controls, the Japanese own assessment of them was they were of no use for gunnery outside of a starting range.
Inaccurate, though Yamato's gun caliber is larger than the Iowa class battleships, the Iowa class battleships has a higher shell velocity. Also, even if Yamato's range is high, it doesn't mean that it's guaranteed to hit its target. Iowa is a very fast battleship, in fact, the fastest in the world. It can reach over 33 knots, and without its ammunition, it can reach over 36 knots. Yamato's speed compared to Iowa's speed has quite a large margin between them. Compared to the Iowa class battleships, Yamato is inferior to the Iowa's. Iowa has better speed, comparably the same guns, and has better A/A as demonstrated in Okinawa. If the Iowa's were to get into an engagement with the Yamato's, Iowa would have a better chance of sinking Yamato.
They were compensating for the fact that Japan didn't have the industrial capacity or the materials to build large fleets of more battleships, so they built small numbers of massive, powerful ships.
These ships were kept secret from their own public while being built as there would have been an outcry at their destructive ability. I remember my WW II, Navy, Pacific combat veteran father remarking with glee at the fact that they were sunk without ever being seen.
iirc they can't keep up to the US's industrial capabilities, where they could create ships relatively quickly compared to the Japanese. This leads to them employing designs that would be so powerful that it could sink a lot of ships before being sunk itself as to ensure that they don't really waste a lot of resources
4:28 I finally get the joke in kantai collection anime. I didn't even realize it was a joke at the time. I learned something about history and didn't even realize it.
Sadly I think people were too mean, they got a lot of downvotes for people disliking his "gayish" voice, can't say that's the reason, but I think it's a pretty good guess, a shame, I kinda liked him.
The one ship that survived Yamato's last ride was the lucky destroyer Yukikaze, which had survived the war without a scratch despite being in the thick of most of the action.
The Montana class battleship proposed by the US Navy would have have had a larger total main armament (9x18.1 for the Yamato vs 12x16) but it was (rightly) canceled to make way for more aircraft carriers. The Montana was also more heavily armored than the Iowa and would have made for a fearsome rival to the Yamato class.
@@syaondri The Montana class was very close to being built, but the US Navy decided to build aircraft carriers (the correct decision) as well as the Iowa class which could keep up with the Essex class carriers. The Montana would have been left behind.
Well Midway's Hull design was based off the Montana Class. So Midway is as you could say the closest thing to a Montana Class Battleship. Similar to the way Shinano was a Yamato Class Converted Super Carrier (except Midway was actually useful and operational).
Right in my wheelhouse. Really enjoyed this one. Have you ever done a "TIFO" on the actual Musashi? He was basically a talented swordsman and dualist in Japanese lore (serial killer?).
Battleships: One of the technological casualties of WWII. Back in 1941, Nazi Germany tried to get the Bismarck (at the time, the biggest battleship ever) into the greater Atlantic, and it was effectively killed by a torpedo bomber made out of wood and paper. (tl;dr: the torpedo left Bismarck stuck in a circular pattern outside the range of Luftwaffe support.
0:24 - you should state three, not two. Just because Shinano was converted to an aircraft carrier (which you mention), it was started to be the third sister. The reason they converted Shinano was due to the loss of the the various CVs at Midway and the losses in the Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands.
19 torpedoes and 17 💣 is a heck of a lot to get hit by before sinking it shows that the musashi and yamato ships were well built and tough but not unsinkable yet to take all that damage and still be reluctant to sink is stunning if they had been better equipped to handle air defense they might have had a fair chance of survival but they still took a extremely harsh beating before going down in terms of damage taken they were quite resilient
My American grand father was the one who found the Yamato on its way to Okinawa for her last mission. He first thought it was a island, until he saw escorts and wave behind it. Funny story is my Japanese grand dad’s classmate’s father was captain of Yamato. He was in Imperial naval academy when war ended.
Fun fact: The harbour master was ordered to give the Yamato an amount of fuel which was only enough for it to get to the battle with almost none left over for maneuvering (eg to dodge torpedoes) and definitely none left over to return to port, but the clever man managed to both obey and disobey his orders at the same time.
He obeyed his orders by first pumping out the required amount of fuel from the dockside tanks into the Yamato's fuel tanks, then he disobeyed his orders by having the harbour hands use portable pumps to pump out the residue of fuel which was left at the bottom of ostensibly empty storage tanks, and which the normal pumps could not reach. This fuel was added to the Yamoto's tanks, giving it enough fuel for maneuvering during battle and possibly even sufficient fuel for the ship to have limped some of the way home in the unlikely event of the battle going well.
By doing this, the harbour master managed to give the Yamato a fighting chance. Without his action, it's quite possible that the Yamato would have run out of fuel during battle and become almost literally a sitting duck for the attacking allied forces.
Yes, the Japanese were on the wrong side (at least from my point of view), but credit where credit is due.
This is proof that there are heroes in all areas. We should not forget or ignore noble actions of some men due to the damnable actions of others on the same side. It is astonishing though at the moral superiority of the navy over the army. The imperial navy fought honorably for their nation as a generality, even lining up to salute the crew of the USS Johnston floating in the water after they sank her. The army ran around laughing as they comitted war crimes. There were good and bad in both branches but the navy held to their beliefs. Thats all that can be asked of any individual.
@@Colonel_Overkill Towards the end of the war, the IJN did participate in some nasty stuff in the Philippines, but you're correct that for the most part, they did well.
It's interesting to note that the same is true for the German navy. The U-Boat captains were a newer breed, but their surface fleet at the outset was mostly comprised of old sailors and captains who vehemently disagreed with the Nazi party line, even insofar as trying to block Nazi appointments to higher commands. Of course, this fell apart as Hitler tightened his grip and dismissed anyone who got into his way, but for some reason it always seems the navy is one of the more stalwart 'good guy" forces in any nation.
Colonel Overkill And then you need to consider the fact that Japanese Navy officers executed Wake Island prisoners of war with swords and mutilated the bodies because they were angry at how well they defended the island against them while transporting the PoWs to Japan.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japanese-execute-nearly-100-american-prisoners-on-wake-island
www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/battle-of-wake-island-japanese-atrocities.html
Japanese submarines routinely killed all survivors of cargo ships the sank.
@@allangibson8494 my statement was a generalization and there are always exceptions. US, Commonwealth, French, German, etc. Regardless of side someone somewhere comitted war crimes. I will say however that the mentality of a sailor at sea facing another at sea seems to be the common core of respect among all nations. Had it been US sailors on the deck of a warship would they have been executed? Possibly, even probably in all likelyhood if the admiral was that petty. The point remains though that brethern of the waves, on the waves often held more reapect for each other regardless of side.
Colonel Overkill The Japanese Navy was just as brutal as the army. They just generally had less opportunity as they were mostly dealing with Island campaigns - after you kill or deport (or both) all the islands occupants the opportunities get a little thin. The Japanese military did not surrender if physically able to fight and regarded anyone who did (even under direct orders) as sub-human. All wounded captured enemies were executed immediately. If female prisoners (ie nurses and nuns) were taken they were raped and then executed. If you were unable to work you were executed. If you were likely to be liberated by your own forces you were executed (the last of these executions happened right the end of August 1945 in Borneo after the Japanese announcement of surrender). (BTW executing PoW was formal Japanese Government policy and orders were sent in 1943 to that effect).
As a general rule the pre-war Japanese regarded themselves as the only “humans” on the planet. Everyone else was sub-human slave fodder.
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/13/japan-revisits-its-darkest-moments-where-american-pows-became-human-experiments
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/wake-island-world-war-ii-prison-camp-tragedy%E2%80%94-pacific-43107
www.geni.com/projects/Japanese-prisoners-from-Wake-Island-Guam-and-Cavitie/914
The Japanese had two entirely parallel armed forces - to the point the Japanese Army operated almost as many submarines as the navy. The only ships the army didn’t operate were battleships and fleet aircraft carriers (the Japanese Army did operate escort carriers).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ships_of_the_Imperial_Japanese_Army
Those guns? 18.1", That Armour? 410 mm, Hotel? Yamato.
@@syaondri he mean 18.1 inch 460 mm gun and 410 mm side armor
truly glorious hotel ever ijn made it
@@syaondri didn’t do it much good in 1945 though
Honestly seeing the title of the video Simon, I thought this was going to be sponsored by World of Warships XD
I instantly thought the almost the same, but I guessed War Thunder was responsible with the recent release of they adding naval battles...
@@Blegg000 but for now, there seem to be no signs of the japanese navy in the game
I have a whole playlist of war thunder or wargaming vids
or WoWs Blitz... cus that seems to be a thing as well
War thunder would have made more sense. Think its by the same devs as crossout and just had the navy component released.
I love how countries build super weapons that will "Destroy Any and All". And then wont use them for fear of they getting damaged.
Or they get immediately destroyed by provoking a strong response from the enemy especially for the super large battleships of both Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany when both countries had resource problems
looking at you HMS Dreadnought
Or in the case of the V3 having it built, but having construction take so damn long that the allies knew of its existence and actually let them finish it just so on the day it is finished it could be bombed and destroyed, thereby wasting valuable manpower and resources
The main point of a superweapon like that is to deter others from attacking
Oh? You wouldn't happen to mean something like a few super-expensive aircraft that I could name? wink wink, nudge nudge.
A Yamato video not sponsored by World of Warships?
Gaijin Entertainment's probably laughing their ass right now.
@Nguyễn Minh Hiếu Miku Hatsune with the money them baterds make youd think theyd make them better games
And then it got converted to space flight. And got a Wave Motion Engine.
That when the Gamilans learned not to mess with Earth!
Not to mention the gun that makes the Death Star's super laser look like a potato gun.
and a super laser. YOU MAY FIRE WHEN READY COMMANDER!
@John R Searching for a distant star
Heading off to Iscandar
Leaving all we love behind
Who knows what dangers we’ll find.
Wave Motion gun guys come on. I loved that cartoon.
Never create a weapon so great that you can't afford to lose it.
so just make thousands of annoying mf that both hits hard and react fast? sure
As a naval history enthusiast the incredibly poor research at some points in this video is so painful.
1. Iowa class war time full load was ~55,000 long tons... That's not 40% less... not by a long shot.
2. Iowa class (1940) was designed after the Yamato (1937) and built after.
3. North Carolina class (1937) was the one designed and built at the same time. And the 40% less at standard load is correct for these as well as the following South Dakota class.
This video definitely oversells Yamato and Musashi. Let's not even get started on that title.
Moreover the main turret weighted around 2 800 tons (8 400 tons together), which is not more than Uss Wyoming, New York or Nevada (around 27 000 tons each).
...I'd try to get one still if I won the lottery...
How else do you click bait?
@@bilku7017 though purely for the sake of comparison, that is more than any ww2 destroyer displaced (and the combined weight is more than a standard cruiser displaced)
(Prior to starting the video)
“Guns that weighed more than an American Battleship” That’s where you’re wrong my friend. Unless you’re talking about like Civil War era or earlier, and assuming you mean the IJN Yamato (which you almost certainly do), the guns did not weigh more than a battleship. They weighed as much as some WWII era destroyers though, which are warships but not battleships specifically.
Having checked your claim, the Yamato class’s turrets weighed about 2,500 tons each or as much as a Fletcher class Destroyer.
Each gun barrel weighed about 150 tons.
Now then the Nevada, New York, and Wyoming class Battleships weighed about 26-27,000 metric tons, while Yamato’s battery comes out to 7,500 tons. This appears to be a common misconception.
I think what he meant is the Yamato guns weigh as much as those US BBs guns combined, but there was probably a mistake in the script. Or he was just wrong
or the title was just hyperboling things to make it sound more interesting
@@syaondri I can check the numbers, but the NY Class (USS New York and Texas) were WWI ships that survived past the coal age with refits. They were much smaller than the Iowa Class (the last class of US Battleships). Still, pretty sure the combined weight of the Yamato's guns did not outweigh the New York.
@@cristianverdugogalaz8725 It's blatantly false and misleading information. That isn't interesting.
....Would hate to be that one guy who found out about the 15 meter shockwave 😅
I wouldnt be suprised if they tested it with a pow
@@mrdelaney4440 Bro you're so right...that's SICK 😠
@@mrdelaney4440 actually they tested it with hamsters.
They placed them in cages on deck and the back blast from the guns literally blew them apart.
@@cardiganflynn4905 this is ww2 so that's sunshine and rainbows compare to Soviets and nazis
@Squidpat Over9000 the Nazis are sunshine and rainbows compared to the Soviets and Japanese
The engineering issues overcome building these battleships had never been dealt with before. The book "Build Musashi" tells the story, lots of shipyard photos not usually seen anywhere else when it was published.
A prime example of preparing to fight the previous war.
@@TheNumber86 It was overwhelming quantity not necessarily quality that defeated the Germans on both FRONTS. The
Germans were way ahead of the ALLIES in super tanks, jet aircraft, rockets and missiles.But none of their
"super weapons" were enough to turn the tide of war in their favor.
Yeah, Germany production doctrine was very poor. Trying to develop the 'best weapon', they never built nearly the same number of anything compared tje tha Allies
Gary L, I wouldn’t call wasting desperately need resources on overly large tanks of questionable quality (yes, the Germans built something that’s wasn’t good) “way ahead”.
My first thought too. Right weapon, wrong war.
@@GFSLombardo Absolutely not. German tanks were meh at best. The Panther had HORRIBLE problems with fires and reliability. Same with the Tiger. And 70% of the time, whoever got off the first shot won. And Shermans could get that first one off because of the wider FOV on their optics. Their jets were maybe a month or two ahead of Allied designs and had horrible mechanical issues, like engines on the 262 lasting only 10 hours. Meanwhile the Meteor was operational a month later and didn't have those problems. And by early 1945, the US had operational P-80s, but they simply didn't need them. Why bother when P-51 pilots are massacring jets? As for their rockets, when von Braun was captured, he basically said that Goddard was a lot better than him. And I'd argue that the war was decided as soon as Hitler crossed the Polish frontier. And Soviet tech was great. The T-34 tore through German armor, especially the 85mm variant. And the IS-2 had little problems killing even Tiger IIs.
Wait, why'd you leave out the rest of the story, where Yamato is refitted for space travel, given the wave motion gun, and sent off to Iscandar? This is super-lazy work. SON, I AM DISAPPOINT.
and they only had 1 year to get to Iscandar and return to Earth...
Because they are still fighting!
Wait, why'd you leave out the rest of DISSAPOINT"ED"? JK. :)
I love these Space Battleship Yamato references
Is that supposed to be an abridged reference? Because I love it!
Yeah, I still can’t think of the Yamato without “UCHUU SENKAN YAAMAATOOO” echoing inside my head.
same here!
I know that feel, its a good feel *sheds a tear*
weeb
It was one of my favorite Saturday morning shows, back when I was a kid.
Same
Well, it was a flagship... without a fleet.
They had it coming.
It's still a shame that it could not have been preserved for generations to come.
@@syaondri Biggest ship = biggest target = needs "biggest" escort
The escort they send was definitely not the "biggest", they were outnumbered and destroyed.
To be the flagship of a fleet on paper, and being the _flagship of fleet_ are totaly different things.
@@syaondri That's exactly what I meant. That wasn't a fleet and I don't think that was "the first fleet" (obviously, I am being ironic here) of which Yamato was the flagship.
@@Seamus.Harper The biggest german BBs didn't need any big escort... Just saying.
@@miskatonic6210 ...and they got knocked out by a few planes. The Bismarck took one hit to the rudder, not able to escape her pursuers and the Tirpitz got bombed and sunk while docked in a harbour.
Also, they never faced a fleet of aircraft carriers.
Maybe, if the Allies didn't want to sink every single ship.
By the end of the war, Nagato was still functional (and the only remaining Japanese battleship), but a nuclear test happened and there she goes, to the ocean floor.
Sure Iowa and Missouri are great, but... eh.
Japan also didn't help by literally burning every single blueprint of every ship (with possible exceptions).
This video title is entirely wrong. I don't know who did the research on this video, but it wasn't done well.
1.) One single gun, with the breech assembly included, weighed ~164 tons.
2.) Three guns fitted inside the turret had a weight of ~2,774 tons, three of which would then weigh ~8,332 tons.
3.) The Nevada, New York and Wyoming class battleships each had a weight of roughly 28,000 tons.
Therefore, even when taking those US battleships that are on the lighter side for WWII, they still did outweigh all three gun turrets of the Yamato class battleships by a factor of ~3:1.
Then there is the weight problem.
The Iowa class, at full load, weighed roughly 57,500 tons, with the Yamato weighing in at 72,000 at full load. Therefore, if we use the Iowa as the base, the Yamato weighed ~26% more than the Iowa, with Yamato as base, the Iowa weighs 20% less than a Yamato. That is quite a lot less than the stated 40%.
But wait, in 2199 the Japanese find the Yamato and convert her into the Space Battleship Yamato, powered by wave-form energy and eventually finding the Cosmos DNA that saves Earth.
Hurrah Yamato.
You mean finding what's left of Yamato. She was literally blown to smithereens. There's basically nothing left.
But, y'know, anime and whatever.
Oh no. They found her half burred in the seabed. The they rebuild her into a spaceship. Really.
@@SaturnCanuck better off building it from scratch. You seen her wreck? Its a mess.
Oh I agree. I always thought it was a silly premise. But, hey, it's Anime. And, to be frank, Space Battleship Yamato looks to cool!
@@SaturnCanuck the supposed "wreck" in the anime was supposed to be a disguise to hide the new Yamato. The wreck on the original SBY was what was thought her wreck was as she wasn't discovered yet at the time
The Yamato was truly an amazing ship. Part of me wishes it and the Musashi survived WW2, just so we could visit it as a piece of history. Albeit, if it wasn't sunk, it would've rained hell upon the allies.
But think about it. It basically took an entire fleet of ships + hundreds of aircraft to sink that thing.
It didn't require that many ships to sink it...that's just what the US had available at that point in the war. Best to play it safe and minimize losses. A single submarine could have sunk it. Or a single aircraft carrier bombing it with planes. It was sunk because the time of the battleship was over...air power was the new big stick.
They were around during the war, but their size made them inefficient and they weren't very effective aside from being a deterrent. Besides naval war had changed.
Eventually warships in general will be obsolete. They are all just huge, slow moving targets that are unable to defend themselves from ballistic anti-ship weapons falling along suborbital trajectories....
@@RealityIsTheNow not really Naval power is still always going to be relevant while we are limited to this Earth because control of the sea lanes is vital the type of control you cant do it from any landmass or aircraft you need ships to patrol and conduct expeditionary warfare
@UClIsbrINHWLRg5z8UR8xZqg and the only reason it took days was the fact that the USN had to locate the target most of the reason why conflict back then in naval engagement took longer was because it took time to locate the target.
the USS Massachusetts is a museum ship anchored in my home town (port?) i remember taking the tour and having the projectiles the 16" guns fired being so well described..... "these guns can fire a Volkswagon bug 20 miles"
The Mass didn't have 16 inch guns, the biggest US guns wer 15 inchers (edit: John O'Brien corrected me, she does have 16 in while the yamato had 18inchers)
@@southronjr1570 sorry, you are mis-informed. The "Big Mamie" BB-59 had (and still has) 9, 16" guns.
As a matter of fact, the MA is believed to have fired the US' first 16" shells during the battle of Casablanca in 1942.
You are correct, it seems age has dulled the memory a bit, the yamato had 18in while the Big Mamie has 16 inchers. Thank you for the correction. Either case the US guns had higher velocity and had much better armor penetration than the Yamato's guns even though they were slightly smaller in diameter. It would seem the Japanese imperial navy had a world class case of SPS.
😂 That’s my girl! The Massachusetts is the closest battleship to me (I live about 2 1/2-3 hrs away in CT) and also the one I’m best acquainted with having visited her all my life.
If you get the chance to go visit the USS Salem, you’ll see 2 titanic shells near the ticket kiosk. I asked about what I Earth they were, each taller than me at 5’9” (175cm) and was informed that they were 46cm AP shells from the Yamato.
South Dakota class have nothing on her for sheer size, in fact Massachusetts is the smallest BB I’ve visited.
John O'Brien I was assigned to a working party aboard the then-mothballed WISCONSIN in Philadelphia in 1985. The working party arrived on station, boarded, and we stood around for about a half hour before we were informed that our working party had been reassigned. While we waited aboard, I wandered around the deck and stood in awe of those mammoth guns. And felt like a tiny insect on the back of some terrible leviathan. I never did learn what our task aboard WISCONSIN was supposed to have been, but the task we ended up doing seemed ridiculously petty in comparison - picking up trash.
NOW WITNESS THE FIREPOWER OF THIS FULLY ARMED AND OPERATIONAL SUPER BATTLESHIP!
"Fire at Will, Commander!"
Which begs the question, what did Will do?
And for another bonus fact:
Yamato (大和) ironically translate to Great Peace or Great Calm
Not sure what Musashi (武蔵) stands for
Shinano (信濃) is maybe dark trust or faith (you can get different meanings if you translate each kanji separately, together I'm not sure)
Actually... They are named after old province names in Japan.
Yamato no Kuni （大和国 やまとのくに）- around modern day Nara
Musashi no Kuni （武蔵国 むさしのくに）- modern day Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa area
Shinano no Kuni （信濃国 しなののくに）- around modern day Gifu and Nagano
I say "Yamato", you say "Yamoto". I say "Potato", you say "Pototo"...
3:44 "commically large shotgun"
[inhales]
*UCHUUU SENKAN YAAAAAMAAAAATOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*
When you have to protect your own weapons. But not from enemy, but from your own other weapons. You know that you have a really BIG guns.
The gun turrets weighed as much as an entire USN destroyer. The guns did not weigh ss much as a battleship.
Yamato was attacked by more aircraft than Pearl Harbour. 6 aircraft carriers attacked her in one go. Mismatch is a significant understatement.
OK Yamato 27knots Iowa 33 knots DUDE that is TWENTY-TWO percent! That is a HELL of a difference!
More importantly, 33 knots is what carriers were doing.
The Iowa's guns were pretty much that equal of the Yamato's guns despite being smaller and lighter.
@@Jamie-kg8ig true
Iowa's can do more than 33knots during emergency runs.
33 Knots only in ideal conditions and smooth seas. Yamato could pretty much manage 27 at any time. Iowa during moderate or rough seas dropped speed dramatically
I'd also encourage people to search for the story of Taffy 3: Battle of Samar. Yamato plus her escort of over 20 ships including 3 more Battleships and mix of light and heavy cruisers AND destroyers vrs 3 destroyers, 4 destroyer escorts(basically baby destroyers) and 6 escort carriers. The USN were caught by surprise but counter attacked with so much aggression they convinced the Japanese that they were facing a far more powerful force than they actually were. Yamato on her own grossly outweighed the entire Taffy 3 and the level of heroics was extraordinary. Search Drachenifel Battle of Samar for a very good telling of the story 😉
Best example of Taffy 3 for beginners or historians is BATTLE 360 available on TH-cam now. Watch the episode DEATH OF THE JAPANESE NAVY. Interviews with Jack Yusen and other crew members of Taffy 3 destroyers and destroyer escorts are amazing. The Yamato weighed more and had more fire power than all 20 allied ship and they included 3 Jeep carriers. The 50lb projectiles from the 5 inch guns did a ton of deck damage while the torpedoes sunk a few cruisers. Check out the series BATTLE360. Members of the Enterprise flight crews flew CAP over Pearl Harbor during the attack.
As mentioned, the 460 mm San Shiki anti-aircraft shells weren't exactly a success. In addition of being almost useless against enemy aircraft, the blast from the guns was hampering the aiming and firing of the smaller AA guns and the copper rims on the shells wreaked havoc on the rifling.
Great video Simon. The addition of the sailor's own words about the battle really brings home the humanity of war that is so often lost. Well done sir
Only weighs more than a WWII destroyer, not a battleship.
Now there are a few principles you have to observe:
1) The relationship between volume and surface area:
The volume of a ball (sfere) is = 4/3*pi* r^3 (radius - or ½ the caliber - cubed).
The surface area of a ball (sfere) is = 4*pi*r^2 (or caliber squared).
Now the surface area in relation to volume is: 4*pi*r^2 divided by 4/3*pi*r^3. Reducing the expression as appropriate= 3/r or 6/caliber.
This means that the larger the caliber is the LESS relative surface area a grenade has!
Surface friction is mainly a consideration below the speed of sound.
2) The relationship between volume (how large the amount of explosives that hit the target) and the cross section of the projectile is:
Cross section is: pi*r^2 (radius squared)
Cross section relative to volume is then: pi*r^2 divided by 4/3*pi*r^3 = (properly reduced) (3/2)/r.
or the same basic relationship as the surface area - this is a major consideration above and around the speed of sound.
Again the larger caliber has the advantage in that it results in LESS drag the higher the caliber - hence the longer range; but that is only PROPORTIONAL to caliber.
3) The Yamato-class had a maximum speed of 27 knots, but the Iowa-class had 33 knots (according to Wikipedia). I might not seem much; but the difference is HUGE.
Drag on the ship is proportional (except at slow speeds - not the consideration here) to speed CUBED - hence required engine power.
33 knots/27 knots = 1.22 or about 25% higher speed. The result in engine power required is 80% more - for the same speed. The Yamato- and Iowa- classes had about the same engine power - or not that much different. The hull designs were also much different, so....
Yamato, not Yamoto
Frexuz Yamato, commissioned by Yamamoto, under Emperor Hirohito in Tokyo. Oh, no....
Sorry. I could not pass that up.
Tamato Tamoto.
@@Carewolf tomato😄
@@MHMDmusic moto moto
Pay to win vs free to play.
Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Those are the same thing. :/
@@somebody700 or coal
Joshua Cooper
They are not the same; however, free to play games are truly rare to find And some have adapted themselves to be pay to win (like RuneScape) where a large amount of content is free but vast game is blocked behind a subscription service. The addition of “bonds” (the ability to buy the subscription from other players with in game money) was implemented to cut down on the illegal sale of ingame money, with a benefit of players being able to play the full game without spending real money. But it made purchasing ingame money mainstream.
Decent fix to the economy with the duel arena patch though... helped a little.
Edit: and then there are host websites like miniclip or addictinggames where Independent developers can post their games to play for free.
In a world where the gme owners and or developers become greedy. Free to play soon becomes empty your wallets. And empty your credit cards just so you can. Experience advancing forward and defend your land.
The displacement of a ship only has a small impact on it's speed. The more important metric is the lenght to beam ratio. Iowa class battleships were slightly longer than Yamato, but way thiner, since they had to fit through the panama canal. That is the reason for thier higher speed. Sometimes a higher displacement can be advantageous, since you have more space for boilers, turbines, etc. Also, you can't really compare the 18 inch turrets of Yamato to 20 years older US standards. Battleships were much smaller back then.
It also didn't hurt that the Iowa could boast 212,000 shp versus the Yamato which could only manage 150,000 shp on a good day. But, yes, you are correct that length-to-beam matters a lot.
Well, less armor and lighter turrets gives you more space for engines, so i'm not surprised
Except that the engine room of the Iowa is smaller than the engine room of the Yamato, and it was able to develop all that HP using 8 boilers versus the 12 boilers in the Yamato. The Americans (and the Brits) simply knew how to build engines at much higher temperatures and pressures than anything the Japanese could build.
@@johnreynolds7996 Actually it's how piss poor the metal industry in Japan was at the time. Japan was pretty much shit out of luck when it came to metal deposits (most of Japan's iron in it's history was iron SAND, which was pretty crappy to make iron anything with), while the US was the ONLY nation on the planet that can make structural steel at such volume that they used it as ship armor.
I believe you are referring to "Special treatment steel" which had the big advantage of being able to be used as structural steel as well as for armour belts. But STS was no better then Krupp-cemented steel at thicknesses greater than 4 inches. The Krupp-cemented steel belt of the British King George V was regarded as superior to that of its US contemporaries (the South Dakotas and North Carolinas) with their STS belts. Yes, the Americans were good. The British were equally as good. The Japanese and the Germans, much less so.
The great irony of the Yamato class battleship is that by the day the lead ship in the class, Yamato was commissioned on Dec. 16, 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army air arm already proved TO THEMSELVES how vulnerable capital ships were. They had already sunk, through the sole use of air power USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Utah, USS Nevada, HMS Repulse, and HMS Prince of Wales. The only reason USS Pennsylvania didn't sink was because its awfully tough to torpedo a battleship while in dry dock! By the time the second ship in the class was commissioned in 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy was in trouble. They were losing experienced pilots faster then they could replace them. By the time Shinano was launched in 1944, it was over. There were no pilots to man her, and hardly any planes to put on her deck. It was over. The Navy was largely destroyed. The Army was losing far more troops to disease and starvation then from allied bullets, and the air arm was crippled sending up teenagers with only a week or two of flight training on suicide missions, which ironically they did in Zero-sen which were not only unarmored, but also became uncontrollable at high speed. (Its the great flaw of the Zero.)
The only problem was the accuracy, especially when the weather was not clear. *_Also don’t forget about the Yamato Class CV (Aircraft Carrier) Shinano - 信濃!_*
アレキサンダー 佐藤 He didn’t. He briefly mentioned that a 3rd Yamato class was completed as an aircraft carrier. We of course know her as Shinano, but she’s a bit obscure (though is featured in my ship encyclopedia) and did absolutely nothing worth speaking about I’m afraid.
That is not strictly speaking true Hoshimaru57.
A U.S. submarine torpedoed her and the easy kill made the U.S. Navy reluctant to build super carriers.
Effectively delaying our first super carrier by about a decade or so.
@@davidgrover5996 She just finished sea trial , and didn't bring anything aboard of course it was a n easy kill
Shinano was a ridiculously easy kill, since it wasn’t even operational nor properly fitted out. The watertight doors didn’t even work right. A few torpedoes and an inexperienced crew doomed her to a slow, inevitable death.
not really.
its more like sinking a really large flak barge. looks good on paper until you get into the details that all you did was sink a glorified piece of steel.
I visited the USS Iowa last weekend and one of the tour guides told us one of the 16 inch turrets weighed more than his ship he served on in the war... Great video as always keep it up!
The Yamato-Class vs The Iowa-Class is a case study in focusing on the obvious rather than the minor things that make up a weapon system: Yamato: Giant Guns, Iowa: Radar and better designed guns. At range, Iowa's 16-inch guns strike with the same angle and destructive power as the Yamato's larger shells.
The guns for the Iowa was literally whipped up in a couple months after BuOrd fucked up and made the turrets too small for the guns that they were originally supposed to use (the Mk.I 16" guns that were left over from the 20s). So no, they were not particularly better designed.
Also it takes a pretty massive leap of logic to think that a 1460kg shell with 34kgs of explosive travelling at 780m/s is somehow equal in force to 1225kg with 18kg of explosives travelling at 700m/s. It's rather simple physics.
@@captaincoxwaggle6882 it never gets old see comments from people that dont have a clue and think that just cos the yanks made something that it has to be better even though facts and physics prove other wise
@@bjorn1583 well I mean all in all the Americans made better tanks, ships, planes, and weapons than most of their allies in ww2
Ahhh, yes, the American haters who pretty much degrade every American accomplishment ever. I chuckle at the fact that the Yamato sits at the bottom of the Pacific while all Iowa-class battleships are still preserved to this day.
@@captaincoxwaggle6882 There's more to shell effectiveness than mass. The Iowa's were able to fire they shells out of the barrels much faster, so that the kinetic energy and ballistic angle was identical to what the Yamato-class' larger, heavier, and slower shells could do at range. Tie that with their Radar-guided targeting computers, and you have a weapon system that accomplishes the same result with less cost and wasted effort. And it says more of American industry and economy that they were to pull a totally new turret design out of their ass and it still work as well as a deliberate design, whereas any other navy would have either scrapped the ships and started over or bit the bullet and used the smaller guns.
There seems to be this recurring theme in human history, this thought of building something that's indestructible this is especially true in naval history and it seems all these mega ships (Titanic, Bismarck, Tirpitz, Yamato) go down in an inglorious manner. The amount of steel and resources used to produced these military ships could of supplied land forces with 100's of tanks, armored personnel carriers could of prolonged the war for years, military planners indeed.
So these are like those super weapons in video games that you irrationally ration.
Hahaha yeah you are always like there is gunna be a tougher fight then your at the last boss and he has mad health so it doesn’t even feel cool cause it underpowered comparatively
Another bonus fact: the third Yamato battleship, Shinano (Simon mentions it was converted to an aircraft carrier), is currently the largest vessel ever sunk by a submarine. Shinano was built in so much secrecy that USS Archerfish's commanding officer, Joseph Enright, was not believed when he described his kill and was credited with a different aircraft carrier. Only after the war ended did Commander Enright get credit for Shinano.
Well at least the YAMATO will be converted into a spaceship in the year 2199.
Harris Caldwelly Anime 👏Stories 👏 Aren’t fucking real...
@@johnilarde8440 I know ...I know just fuckin around Lol
@@johnilarde8440 no shit Sherlock
@@dportass you seem quite angry for what?...did you serve on the real YAMATO or something????
@@scifiguy26 Not angry and certainly not at you, I love Space Battleship Yamato (the original animated series and followups, not Star Blazers). My comment was directed at Kyles who appears to be under the impression that we think Anime is real lol :)
For a class of ship that were designed to be the most powerful battleships ever built, the two Yamato class battleships and the one aircraft carrier built on the third Yamato class hull seriously underperformed. Added together the three only sank one lightly armed escort carrier and one severely outnumbered destroyer. And those sinking's were with a supporting fleet of overwhelming battleship, cruiser and destroyer firepower. It shows much about what the U.S. Navy had learned since 1941 and much about the deterioration of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imagine if they had US aiming systems and such
Fun fact: yamato was made to be 3 kilometres long, yes, 3 kilometres. But the admiral thinks its too large, so they reduced the length to 263 metres.
I feel like at this point, Simon just intentionally mispronounces names to bait nitpicky people like me into commenting...
Tell me about it. First he mispronounces Yamato as Yamoto after pronouncing correctly until then and then there's his butchering of Okinawa.
SarmonOflynn he does because he only butchers it once, while otherwise having fine diction.
@@Riceball01 Yamato is pronounced "yah-mah-toe", rather than "ja-mah-toe"
Japanese words are literally the easiest to pronounce too. I mean, they are pronounced exactly they way they are spelled.
Oddly enough, I've heard several people mistakenly say Yamoto, before, so I'm wondering if there's some unconscious proclivity towards that particular mistake in the minds of native English speakers?
I'd like to point out a few things of the five Yamato class battleships that were ordered. Yamato and Musashi were completed as ordered, but the third, Shinano, was finished off as an aircraft carrier. A very armored aircraft carrier that was sunk by the submarine USS Archerfish while she was traveling to a different shipyard for final fitting on 29 November 1944. To date, the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine. The fourth was laid down, but never completed. She never even got a name and was known simply as Warship Number 111. The fifth was never even laid down and had the designation of Warship Number 797.
Just wanted to expand on the brief mention of the 5 ships originally planned.
Also, you failed to mention that Japanese code being broken was one of the reasons Ten-Go failed. The US knew about it before Yamato even exited Japanese home waters.
One more thing. Yamato took far fewer bomb and torpedo hits than Musashi to sink because the Allies learned from sinking Musashi to focus ordnance on a single side. Musashi took all those hits before sinking because those hits were all over the ship. Yamato's hits were on one side only. When Yamato blew up, the cloud was visible from over the horizon.
Oh look. Another Yamato vid. Are we going to review Desler's Flagship next?
Probably not. But there is some info on yamato2202.net
@@mrdunk2955 Opens website
.
.
*The Infinite Universe intensifies*
The description of the battle by a surviving Yamato officer (at 6:58) is strangely poetic. I guess it would feel surreal to see combat unfold around you if you had never seen it before, because there is almost nothing in civilian life which would compare to a raging battle.
"Today I found out.." that it's pronounced "Ya-ma-to", not "Ya-mo-to". Leave "moto" for the "Hello Moto" commercials.
I think moto moto likes you.....
When the Yamato's magazine blew the ship in two, seven U.S. aircraft were knocked out of the sky with it, more than they managed to actually shoot down.
Why do I imagine poor lost officers lost on the yomato just picking a nice spot in a compartment and decided to figure out where there bunk was tomorrow and go to sleep
You say it only took 2 hours, but considering the size of the force against her i'd say she did pretty bloody well......
3k pounds? I feel sorry for the poor bastard that had to load the guns.
It had a semi automatic loading system
Hydraulics, dude.
Poor bastard *s*
This is how 16 inch guns are loaded, only two inches smaller than the ones on the Yamato in the video th-cam.com/video/MTW_xpK-Twc/w-d-xo.html about exactly 1:00 in they reload the gun
@@DMW-iq2ie Only 2 inches? You do know that still translates into the shell weighing 518lbs more then the Mk8 super heavy shell from the Iowa, NC, and SD right?
I know this video has been out forever a while, but if you read this, Simon, I’d like to mention a bonus to your bonus facts: The US “Tillman” Class battleships. A senator named Tillman was trying to block the Navy from getting modern warships, so after repeatedly blocking the Navy, they decided to name their biggest ever battleship proposal after him. The designs for the Tillman Class had several variations of guns and turrets, but they all carried three to five quad-turrets with 20” guns... and weighed in estimation up to 88,000-105,000 tons of displacement... and this was just after World War I. So before Japan had the idea to Yamato a Yamato, let alone Super-Yamato, the US Navy proposed it as a means of trolling Senator “F-the Navy” Tillman... obviously, they were never built, and in the end it seems the constant trolling by the Navy may have contributed to the brain aneurism that killed the senator in the end, and ironically his death opened the door for the post-WWI battleships to be built including the South Dakota, North Carolina, and so on between 1922 and 1939. Anyway, new to the channel and thought you might find the Tillman Class interesting.
These guns did not weigh more than ENTIRE American battleships😂😂😂
I think he's talking about the full weight of the turret and its cartridge storage compartment.
@@craftpaint1644 that still wouldnt be enough the IOWA class weighed 60,000 tons at full load yamatos turrets only weigh 2730 tons each
He said all of the Yamato's guns *combined*
Still idk if that's right but he didn't mean just one gun.
@@revenevan11 still not enough the guns probably weigh 15000 tons alone but most American BBs weigh over 40000 tons
@@revenevan11 I specifically said "these guns"
One thing to point out re the video title: the Wyoming-, New York- and Nevada-class battleships were World War 1 era battleships, which were much, much smaller than WW2 battleships - the Iowa-class had a displacement of 57.5k tons at full load, which is granted still smaller than the Yamato's 72k tons, but more than double the displacement of the earlier named vessels
“The right ship for the wrong war” quoted by someone I don’t remember
it is a title of a video
Potential History
This ship was so symbolic for Japan, they made a whole si-fi anime series about it called, Space Battleship Yamato in 1974 (not to be confused by the American influenced remake in 2015). I'm surprised you didn't come across this.
@@syaondri oohh....wait a minute.. how was it their main symbol if no one knew about it? lol
@@syaondri OH MY GOSH. I had read that the ships weren't built until the end of the war. I had no idea they meant the FIRST world war. Now THAT changes things. These floating goliaths where designed in the 1910's and held their own over 30 years later. Its amazing, and I had no idea. Thank you for enlightening me. I have been fascinated by Japanese culture and history for most of my life. As a born American, I feel terrible for certain things my country has done in the past and so when I see things like this video along with knowing how incredible the Japanese can be with their technology, I find it hard to believe the most powerful battle ship in the seas during WWII could be taken out the way it was without some sort of sabotage from the notorious CIA, which it is known for.
@@syaondri you have a very good point. Any ship's greatest threat is the water it floats on. As soon as the hull was compromised, it was over. This is why I think they going to try beach the ship in Okinawa. If it cant sink, it may never have been taken out. Who knows, It would probably have been the most powerful beach side fortress as well.
True. That's why I really like anime, it does a pretty good job at the speculating part.
9:40
end of sponsored plug-in
Just as a note, the holding back of Yamato and Musashi until the tail end of the war was also motivated much by doctrine. They were held back, their strength and condition preserved because of the doctrine of "Kantai Kessen," Which sought to defeat the American Navy in a single, decisive battle. In fact, we see this factor into the planning for the Battle of Midway(Japanese: Operation MI). While the body of the Midway action centered around the American Task Forces 16 and 17 versus the Japanese Carrier Divisions 1 and 2, it's important to remember that the Midway invasion was supposed to be a LURE, not the main battle itself. Having crushed the American battle line at Pearl Harbor 6 months earlier, Yamamoto believed that he could achieve Kantai Kessen in Operation MI.
The plan was to use CarDiv 1 and 2 attack Midway and shatter it's defenses, to allow for an Invasion and occupation force to take and hold the island. This was intended to lure the USN into a battle to crush it. The First Fleet Main Force, which was Yamamoto's command for operation MI, was a powerful surface force centered around the battleships Yamato, Mutsu, and Nagato. The Midway Invasion Force's Second Main Body was also centered around a powerful group of battleships, the Kongo and Hiei, and the cruisers of CruDiv 4 and 5, Atago, Chokai, Myoko and Haguro. The Midway Occupation Group consisted mostly of transports and destroyers, but it had attached to it a combat support group centered around the cruisers of CruDiv 7, Kumano, Suzuya, Mogami, and Mikuma. Basically....this was a metric fuck ton of firepower. It represented a significant portion of Japan's surface strength, and if you are familiar with the concept of Kantai Kessen, it's easy to see that the Japanese truly believed that this was the battle that would seal the deal for them.
Why is "W" called double u instead of double v?
EpicATrain I think before the way they wrote their w were different because I was taught that W was written as two u
In French it is
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W#History
A "W" sound is just a "V" sound in German.
Because the u and the v used to be the same letter in Ye Olden Times. The W was just a double v, and was treated as a seperate letter later on.
One of those massive 160 mme cannons is preserved in Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes Delaware. Standing next to one of those, it is incredible to imagine one of those repeating every 40 seconds and easy to imagine the shock wave from that causing injury.
More planes were sent out to deal with the Yamato. Than the Japanese had sent out to attack Pearl Harbor.
Reference please...
@@doogleticker5183 google it or are you too stupid to be able to do that
That is an. Interesting point.
@@bjorn1583 - So politely asking for reference(s) is beyond your capacity to remain civil? OK. You are clearly not worthy of genetic reproduction, but I doubt that'll stop your adolescent mind from fucking anything that moves. jdhill4 - there's a fuck buddy for ya!!
It's not that it was so strong that it took 400 dive bombers to take care of it it was the fact that they were just there at the right time and besides destroyer that was with it pretty much sealed the Yamatos fate
Further ship designs included the Super Yamato Entertainment System, Yamato 64, Yamato Cube, Yamato Wii & the Yamato Switch!
I sexually identify as a Yamato class battle ship.
And I sexually identify as a Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger!
I jest, of course.
Are you sure about claiming that, considering that the Yamato saw almost no “action” ? lol
@@brianphillips7696 And it was slapped down on its first outing and never got another chance. :)
KanColle
My favorite YAMATO moment is when she flies into space.
"*Midway* through the construction"
The Japanese 18.1" guns did have a larger calibre but were lighter and fired a lighter shell than the British 18" guns. Initially built for the third of the Courageous class Light Cruiser Furious but cancelled due to Washington Treaty, they were fitted to Monitors for bombarding targets from coast.
I have a question:
What do police do with confiscated items such as weapons and drugs after they take them?
th-cam.com/video/kLYVTdiACRA/w-d-xo.html
They are destroyed. The weapons are cut up and drugs burned.
@@evilutionltd
After they're held as evidence for trial, I presume?
in 11 states, the weapons are sold to civilians.
Random Commenter - they plant them on unarmed black people after they've shot them
The Japanese strategists responsible for funding aircraft carriers knew that giant battleships were anachronisms. While such weapons might have been viable as naval weapons in the first world war when aircraft were relatively small and slow, by the time WW2 commenced, they were basically only useful for shelling a fortress prior to a marine assault.
Despite how powerful these ships were we were terrified of the Bismark since we didn't know until after the war how truly massive these Japanese ships were.
jaspr1999 nah it has more to do with threat. The yamato and mushashi weren't actually that threatening to the existence of any country in comparison to the Bismark and tirpitz who if they got into the Atlantic could raid enough shipping to drag England out of the war. At least that was the thinking due to the tonnage that German cruisers in the Atlantic alone sunk.
That was the case with Bismarck/Tirpitz. Both tought to be major threats until the Allies found oud just how effective massing aircraft against it was.
You could say these massive behemots were the right ships for the wrong war.
WWII was when the Battleship era died. The very last was built in 1945 and decomissiined in 1960.
The last serving one (USS Missouri) was retired in 2005, getting it's last rounds off in Iraq.
The Jet age cemented the fate of the battleship. This is the era of the Supercarrier and it's complement of several other ships, nuclear submarines, surveillance and attack aircraft.
The Bismarck was sunk in May 1941, the Yamato was commissioned in December 1941 (9 days after Pearl Harbor)
The Bismarck was sunk and the Tirpitz largely penned up by the time the IJN entered the war and became a threat.
The RN and US Navy definitely considered the IJN a far larger naval threat than the Kreigsmarine, especially in terms of the surface fleet (the IJN had more classes of Battleship than the Kreigsmarine had capital ships at all, but the Kreigsmarine submarine force was far more dangerous than any submarine force other than the US Fleet boats). The worry with the Bismarck and Tirpitz was always how much damage they could do before being sunk, as they were so close to so much critical infrastructure and the critical convoy lanes to the UK. The IJN could put up a LOT more fight (it frankly could have outmatched Home Fleet for sure) but had to steam a long way to get anywhere critical (and in fact only the Kido Butai or its components ever really did that)
British and German people: The Bismarck was the largest and most terrifying warship ever constructed.
Japan and America: *Jim staring through window meme*
@@blackwellmarkman3377 Iowa and Yamato would blast Bismarck to Kingdom Come
Small note: The reason that MUSASHI took so long to sink after being hit by all those torpedoes was that the ship was so big it took a long time to fill up with enough water to scuttle her. Also, the torpedo and near-miss bombs that caused the flooding damage were roughly even on both sides of the ship so it had to fill up completely to sink. When the pilots attacked YAMATO, they had been trained to all use their torpedoes, if possible, on one side of the enemy target ship only, which caused YAMATO to capsize and roll over, blowing up from a combined boiler and magazine detonation shortly thereafter. Only about half the hits were needed to kill YAMATO than had been on MUSASHI due to better aiming standards by the US pilots.
The US learned rapidly by experience during WWII (they had enough bad things happen at the start of the war to make them somewhat paranoid), something that was more difficult for the Japanese to do. The book DESTROYER CAPTAIN (I think) by an ex-Japanese WWII officer talks about this problem. He was the guy who figured out how to improve Japanese torpedo attack techniques which were so catastrophically effective against enemy warships during much of WWII, so he knew his business.
The bigger they are the harder they fall.
Chuck Keough but it’s in water
Touché
they cant fall they sink ...
Funny you say that. The Koreans had tiny turtle ships that defeated their whole navy.
If aircraft carrier development had been delayed by 5 years, the Yamato, the Montana, the Bismarck, and the Prince of Wales type ships would have decided the sea war of both world wars.
3 we're completed, Yamato, Musashi, Shinano. Shinano got converted after she was completed but she still sailed a bit as a Yamato class before she was made into a CV
It would seem the Japanese imperial navy had a world class case of SPS (small pens syndrome). The funny part is that while their guns were the largest in diameter, they had less armor penetration than the Iowa class ships did. It would seem that the US understood that speed defeats armor and the Japanese didn't.
I mean US BBs also had some basic restrictions. They needed to keep up with the carriers and they needed to fit through the Panama Canal. This forced them to be smaller and faster. But that's fine because you won't win any naval war after the First World War with battleships.
well they don't need to penetrate the armor of the US ships. they just need to weigh them down enough, as long as it sinks :D
cattila1 that's was their problem, they couldn't even sink em that way (not like they could have sunk em that way anyhow). Yamato could have fired enough ordinanceto to make a US BB sink from the weight of the shells.
@@southronjr1570 hehe yes it may not be the most efficient way of sinking a ship, but as the saying goes. Whatever floats your boat XD
the iowa class DID NOT have better penetration than yamato, that was all war propaganda to make the yanks feel safer in their tin cans.
yamato shells weighed more, had higher initial velocity and longer range which are the main things to look at if talking about shell pen and as per usual the facts and physics are complete opposite to US war propaganda
There is a pretty good dramatization video of the Yamato's sinking from the perspective of the crewmen called "Yamato's death" on youtube.
Looking sharp, Simon
At 2:35 in the video: "The shockwave produced by these guns firing was noted as being powerful enough to tear the skin off a human, if an unlucky individual stood within 15 meters of it without proper shielding." I'm guessing there is a nightmarish true story behind this interesting bit of trivia.
Bear moth 😆
Bare hair moths! Worse than giant ants. You know... THEM!
Things about the Yamato-
1) In the design phase the Japanese (correctly) predicted that the US would limit the size of any battleship it would build to still be able to transit the Panama Canal. (not over 58,000 tons fully loaded) . So the Yamato was designed to defeat a battleship that size.
2) The Washington Naval Treaty limited the size of battleships, but not their quality. The Yamato was built big, but of low quality components, relying on brute force. The US was a riich country, so we built treaty ships of the highest quality possible.As a consequence...
3) While the Yahato was big, I have seen evaluations that indicate it only had the combat effectiveness of an American South Dakota class (35,000 tons empty, precursor to the Iowas (45,000 tones empty)) because of advanced American fire control and artillery technology and using stronger but more expensive steel in the armor.
WE MEET AT MIDWAY
NAVAL WAR
"Screw you guys Im going home!" -IJN Yamato Battle of Midway
Boomshaft
Displaying might
Ordering carriers
Admirals at war!
To win the fight
Tactics are crucial
NA-VAL WAR!
Fun Fact. Being able to fire a shell 25 miles does not imply being aware that such a target was present, much less being able to hit it, both of which Yamato had laughable capability of accomplishing.
Yes, Yamato theoretically did achieve the longest range gunnery "hit" when at 17 miles (nautical miles, not statue, we are talking about ships) against White Plaines at Samar. "Hit" because a functioning type 41 diving shell exploded as it passed under White Plaines, ending it
s career as an escort carrier.
At this range, only the spotting top could see more than the masts and bridge of the escort carrier, so while ranges and bearings could be taken, allowing a shot, they were unable to see the waterline, and thus could not spot salvos over or under. For that, the target needs to be about 2 miles closer than the ~13 mile horizon from the spotting top (9 miles from the conning tower secondary spot).
Yes, she had float planes aboard to spot. Hellcats present would have enjoyed that.
And she had type 21 and 22 radar. But with A-Scope displays, wide beams and no side lobe suppression, as well as not integrated into the fire controls, the Japanese own assessment of them was they were of no use for gunnery outside of a starting range.
Damn it's so hot in Arizona that the USS Arizona went underwater to cool down.
Would you like to purchase some Arizona oceanfront property?
Found the weeb.
haha? That's not dark humor, man, that's just bad.
You're a moron.
It's so hot in Japan that nearly the entire IJN had to go underwater to cool down.
Inaccurate, though Yamato's gun caliber is larger than the Iowa class battleships, the Iowa class battleships has a higher shell velocity. Also, even if Yamato's range is high, it doesn't mean that it's guaranteed to hit its target. Iowa is a very fast battleship, in fact, the fastest in the world. It can reach over 33 knots, and without its ammunition, it can reach over 36 knots. Yamato's speed compared to Iowa's speed has quite a large margin between them. Compared to the Iowa class battleships, Yamato is inferior to the Iowa's. Iowa has better speed, comparably the same guns, and has better A/A as demonstrated in Okinawa. If the Iowa's were to get into an engagement with the Yamato's, Iowa would have a better chance of sinking Yamato.
Think the Japanese were compensating for something lol
To be honest, they were actually compensating for low quantity.
Is that why Americans love guns and drive big SUV’s 😂 compensating as well . . .
@@chrisnoble5685 It's to tell people like Yamamoto that it's a bad idea to invade us. MURICA
They were compensating for the fact that Japan didn't have the industrial capacity or the materials to build large fleets of more battleships, so they built small numbers of massive, powerful ships.
These ships were kept secret from their own public while being built as there would have been an outcry at their destructive ability. I remember my WW II, Navy, Pacific combat veteran father remarking with glee at the fact that they were sunk without ever being seen.
Such a big ship.... compensating for something?
I always heard Asians have the biggest peckers... Wdf?!?
Yes...compensating for the US Navy.
@@RealityIsTheNow LMAO
Chuck Keough nah, they have the smallest in the world. static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uuuploads/fun-maps/fun-maps-19.jpg
iirc they can't keep up to the US's industrial capabilities, where they could create ships relatively quickly compared to the Japanese. This leads to them employing designs that would be so powerful that it could sink a lot of ships before being sunk itself as to ensure that they don't really waste a lot of resources
4:28 I finally get the joke in kantai collection anime. I didn't even realize it was a joke at the time. I learned something about history and didn't even realize it.
Did you fire your co host? Not seen him in a while
I think he's still writing. I don't miss him in front of the camera, to be honest. His pronunciations were really grating.
Sadly I think people were too mean, they got a lot of downvotes for people disliking his "gayish" voice, can't say that's the reason, but I think it's a pretty good guess, a shame, I kinda liked him.
@@Imdor he was too much of a soy boy.
A co-host? I never saw he had a co host. Could you link a video?
The one ship that survived Yamato's last ride was the lucky destroyer Yukikaze, which had survived the war without a scratch despite being in the thick of most of the action.
The Yamato in a nutshell like my fat useless friend
The Montana class battleship proposed by the US Navy would have have had a larger total main armament (9x18.1 for the Yamato vs 12x16) but it was (rightly) canceled to make way for more aircraft carriers. The Montana was also more heavily armored than the Iowa and would have made for a fearsome rival to the Yamato class.
Montana class was to use 16 inch guns aswell
@@syaondri The Montana class was very close to being built, but the US Navy decided to build aircraft carriers (the correct decision) as well as the Iowa class which could keep up with the Essex class carriers. The Montana would have been left behind.
Well Midway's Hull design was based off the Montana Class. So Midway is as you could say the closest thing to a Montana Class Battleship. Similar to the way Shinano was a Yamato Class Converted Super Carrier (except Midway was actually useful and operational).
i just looked at the wiki it says it was proposed for 12 16" guns housed in 4 turrets
Right in my wheelhouse. Really enjoyed this one. Have you ever done a "TIFO" on the actual Musashi? He was basically a talented swordsman and dualist in Japanese lore (serial killer?).
Battleships: One of the technological casualties of WWII. Back in 1941, Nazi Germany tried to get the Bismarck (at the time, the biggest battleship ever) into the greater Atlantic, and it was effectively killed by a torpedo bomber made out of wood and paper.
(tl;dr: the torpedo left Bismarck stuck in a circular pattern outside the range of Luftwaffe support.
0:24 - you should state three, not two. Just because Shinano was converted to an aircraft carrier (which you mention), it was started to be the third sister. The reason they converted Shinano was due to the loss of the the various CVs at Midway and the losses in the Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands.
19 torpedoes and 17 💣 is a heck of a lot to get hit by before sinking it shows that the musashi and yamato ships were well built and tough but not unsinkable yet to take all that damage and still be reluctant to sink is stunning if they had been better equipped to handle air defense they might have had a fair chance of survival but they still took a extremely harsh beating before going down in terms of damage taken they were quite resilient
My American grand father was the one who found the Yamato on its way to Okinawa for her last mission.
He first thought it was a island, until he saw escorts and wave behind it.
Funny story is my Japanese grand dad’s classmate’s father was captain of Yamato.
He was in Imperial naval academy when war ended.
Also he didn’t know the name “Yamato” until his skipper later informed him.
4:05 ONLY 6 knots? Someone needs to do some more research about what is classified as "fast" on the high seas.