As touched in the video, Yahagi's loss is not well documented. I wanted to touch on a different ship that participated in Ten-go rather than revisiting Yamato. All the escorts are a footnote in general research and retelling of the operation while each held the same objective and were met with the same resistance. I will eventually touch on the destroyers involved to give them some time in the spotlight.
Great video. The captain at the time of Yahagi's sinking was Tameichi Hara. He survived and went on the writh the book Japanese Destroyer Captain. A really good read.
Great book. The destroyer Sigure was his longest command. She was sunk by a US sub shortly after he left her. Hara is noted to be the only Japanese destroyer captain to survive the entire war.
You can read a first hand account of the sinking of IJN Yahagi by checking out the book "Japanese Destroyer Captain" by Tameichi Hara who was the commader of Yahagi when she went down. The book offers an excellent perspective on the pacific war in general.
Tameichi Hara,which wrote the excellent "Destroyer Captain" book, described the final engagement.It was his first command of a cruiser after commanding destroyers since 1937.He also noted that 20 minutes of fighting was all that the cruiser could give,since they were dead in the water,when that torpedo struck.
My father was in one of the SB2C's that made bomb hits on the Yahagi"s. My father received an Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross for this action. The documentation, which I still have, that come from the Dept. of the Navy gave a detailed description of each bomb hit from every plane in his squadron, whether the bombs hit the shop or along side in the water. He flew in VB-9 on the USS Yorktown. So if any if this information is any help in your research, Ill be glad to share copies of it with you. Interestingly, there is a well known documentary on Ten-go that names all the ships that launched planes in that attack but did not even mention Yorktown, which I know for a fact huge mistake. My father and his pilot Lt jg Leo Martin both told me independently that in addition to the bombing of Yahagi they also witnessed the explosion of Yamato. Sadly, of the few planes lost that day, my father's best friend was killed by antiaircraft fire. His name was Earl Ward and his pilot Lt jg Worley, one of the few US aircraft lost on that day.
That was awesome, most people get drawn in by the Yamato and focus all their efforts on that one ship. You took the time to bring in the some of the other ships and crews that were a part of that operation. Gold Star work.
Yahagi and the destroyers do often get forgotten about when talking about this mission. The thing about the Agano class has always been their age. I always thought they were contemporaries to the British Arethusa class but they're 6 years more modern which often makes me wonder why the IJN built something so lightweight when there were no treaty restrictions.
I believe they were descendants of the 5500 ton light cruisers, as such they were envisioned as destroyer flotilla leaders rather than muscular cruisers. None of these ships had a balanced firepower/protection design, they were built to withstand only American destroyer gunfire (4 inch for the 5500 tonners, 5 inch for the Aganos) rather than against their own main batteries. There is a logic to the Japanese thinking here-providing a bit of muscle to to outgun American destroyers and allow the Japanese destroyers to focus on going after the American fleet. And the old 5500 ton classes certainly performed far in excess of what their age, armament and armor would have suggested; but as a whole the war never really saw them employed in that fashion in any consistent fashion. The Aganos sure did look cool though, plus I’ve always wondered how effective their 3 inch AA battery was, it definitely had a higher rate of fire and a handier mount than the 5/40 guns used on heavy cruisers and battleships. Obviously with a much smaller shell and (to me anyway) unknown quality of their fire control arrangement.
@@dennisfox8673 That does make more sense if they were the new generation of Destroyer Leader cruisers. I do agree, the Agano's were a good looking class
@@dennisfox8673 Seems the Agano class would have been useful sending supplies down The Slot to Guadalcanal. The IJN had one of the greatest destroyer men in Admiral Tanaka.
Great little video on the "forgotten" escort, Crosser. Looking forward to the video on the destroyers. I very much doubt we'll ever get to see Yahagi. Underwater exploration seems to be pretty much dead in the water. With Bob Ballard being a senior citizen now and Paul Allen gone, there doesn't seem to be much steam in that boiler. Especially considering today's costs. Wish I had half of Bezos' money. I'd search for so many ships and submarines. Surcouf in the Caribbean. ORP Orzel in the North Sea... We can only dream, mate. Innit? Cheers.
Excellent video that dives into a lesser-known subject, it gave me much more knowledge and i really think RV Petrel should search for this wreck. I have been wondering about the wrecks of the ships that sunk with Yamato that day. Yahagi's wreck is likely mangled, much like Yamato's and maybe the Shokaku's. I might add more information on the Yamato's wreck to its Wikipedia page. I read the Japanese Wikipedia page; it is interesting.
Glad you did report on Yahagi. I am pretty sure that the 7 torpedo's and 12 bomb hits were almost certainly exaggerated. Yahagi was only 6600 tons standard and that load of hits (with the first torpedo totally catastrophic) just was not going to be sustained. Would be an interesting project to compare the number of hits reported by attackers to the number of hits reported by the attacked throughout the second world war.
You also did a nice job on your Yahagi, from Tamiya, I still haven't had the time to build mine. I like the Agano class light cruiser, and also it's distant cousin, the Oyodo class. Royal Naval Studies seems to be having trouble, he's down to one video, would it be too much an imposition to ask you to cheer him up? I know how supportive he's been on your channel, and he had such interesting videos. Take care, and all the best.
Thank you. Royal Navy Study has not been around for awhile, so I'm not certain as to what's wrong unfortunately. I do appreciate his support and am glad for his subsequent enthusiasm, but my hand is limited in this case. Thanks again, take care as well.
Definitely. A survivor of Yamato, Mitsuru Yoshida said in a book, named Requiem for Battleship Yamato, that this Operation Ten Go will go down as being one of the most reckless naval sorties in history.
@@johnnyallen843 Perhaps but few generals, admirals, or senior government officials killed themselves after the surrender, guess honor only goes so far.
Main isue with 2nd dary targets or optional how ever ther listed the main focus was the CVs and Yamoto. You wont even hear much abought the Taffy 3 fought agisnd just the Cruisers escapted the few losses and Yamoto runnin away.
Nothing, which is why they didn’t bother. WWII (especially the Pacific side of things) is the war that proved the battleship was obsolete; 99% of the time they were forced into supporting roles they were just too expensive to be built for (the American fast battleships being a good example).
@@bkjeong4302 Generally, I agree with you but there are a few examples where the super battleships could have played a key role. Remember in 1942/43 the USN torpedoes did not work correctly so they would have a hard time sinking the battleships in a night action. So if the Japanese had rushed them to the lead at Midway and especially at Guadalcanal they could have been effective. In the battleship actions at Guadalcanal the South Dakota was taken out of action early in the battle and if the Yamato had been there to fight the Washington the battle would have been a lot different. Same thing in the later battles in the Solomons when the US carriers were all out of action. The super battleships could have driven the USN out.
@@Purvis-dw4qf How do you expect the Yamatos (or just Yamato, since Musashi was a couple months away from entering service) to actually do anything at Midway even if they were with the Japanese carriers? The American carriers were too far away for them to even find, even discounting the fact they ran east to evade. The Yamatos getting involved at Second Guadalcanal would have been a serious game-changer for that one engagement, but they would have been pointless overkill for the other Solomons surface actions, and there’s also the issue of fuel and the dangers of bringing in capital ships into such confined spaces (the Japanese were initially reluctant to risk even the Kongos for these reasons until high command forced the issue, and the Americans likewise only brought in Washington and SoDak because they’d run out of everything else).
@@bkjeong4302 If Japan wanted to win they had to throw the dice as it turned out the super battleship were wasted at when the war was lost. If they had been employed when the war was winnable they could have made a difference. At Midway, the US Navy had no way of sinking a battleship. The Japanese could have charged ahead with them to seek out the US fleet and destroy them. They could have left most of their bomber at home at double the number of Zero fighters on their carriers to protect the battleships.
@@Purvis-dw4qf The problem was that the superbattleships also had no way of sinking the US fleet at Midway either, because battleships literally couldn’t shoot far enough to pose a threat to carriers. That’s the entire reason why battleships became obsolete once carriers came along-battle ranges had become so extended thanks to airpower that battleships literally couldn’t participate.
It would be nice if the Japanese government spent some money to find these ships from that operation. And recover some artifacts to put into an museum for that operation.
![โอ้เธอช่าง... - บี้เดอะสกา ft. ต๋อง เทวัญ (Prod. by ป๋าเพชร) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zbWhiLFmVL0/mqdefault.jpg)
As touched in the video, Yahagi's loss is not well documented. I wanted to touch on a different ship that participated in Ten-go rather than revisiting Yamato. All the escorts are a footnote in general research and retelling of the operation while each held the same objective and were met with the same resistance. I will eventually touch on the destroyers involved to give them some time in the spotlight.
Indeed.
Why not? You're reasoning is fine.
Great video. The captain at the time of Yahagi's sinking was Tameichi Hara. He survived and went on the writh the book Japanese Destroyer Captain. A really good read.
Great book. The destroyer Sigure was his longest command. She was sunk by a US sub shortly after he left her. Hara is noted to be the only Japanese destroyer captain to survive the entire war.
I agree.
He was the captain off IJN destroyer Amatsukase during the 1st battle off Guadalcanal
read that myself it was very good.
The audio book is also a great listen!
You can read a first hand account of the sinking of IJN Yahagi by checking out the book "Japanese Destroyer Captain" by Tameichi Hara who was the commader of Yahagi when she went down. The book offers an excellent perspective on the pacific war in general.
excellent book
Tameichi Hara,which wrote the excellent "Destroyer Captain" book, described the final engagement.It was his first command of a cruiser after commanding destroyers since 1937.He also noted that 20 minutes of fighting was all that the cruiser could give,since they were dead in the water,when that torpedo struck.
My father was in one of the SB2C's that made bomb hits on the Yahagi"s. My father received an Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross for this action. The documentation, which I still have, that come from the Dept. of the Navy gave a detailed description of each bomb hit from every plane in his squadron, whether the bombs hit the shop or along side in the water. He flew in VB-9 on the USS Yorktown. So if any if this information is any help in your research, Ill be glad to share copies of it with you. Interestingly, there is a well known documentary on Ten-go that names all the ships that launched planes in that attack but did not even mention Yorktown, which I know for a fact huge mistake. My father and his pilot Lt jg Leo Martin both told me independently that in addition to the bombing of Yahagi they also witnessed the explosion of Yamato. Sadly, of the few planes lost that day, my father's best friend was killed by antiaircraft fire. His name was Earl Ward and his pilot Lt jg Worley, one of the few US aircraft lost on that day.
It is always nice to hear a new chapter to an old story.
Definitely!
That was awesome, most people get drawn in by the Yamato and focus all their efforts on that one ship. You took the time to bring in the some of the other ships and crews that were a part of that operation. Gold Star work.
Yahagi and the destroyers do often get forgotten about when talking about this mission.
The thing about the Agano class has always been their age. I always thought they were contemporaries to the British Arethusa class but they're 6 years more modern which often makes me wonder why the IJN built something so lightweight when there were no treaty restrictions.
I believe they were descendants of the 5500 ton light cruisers, as such they were envisioned as destroyer flotilla leaders rather than muscular cruisers. None of these ships had a balanced firepower/protection design, they were built to withstand only American destroyer gunfire (4 inch for the 5500 tonners, 5 inch for the Aganos) rather than against their own main batteries.
There is a logic to the Japanese thinking here-providing a bit of muscle to to outgun American destroyers and allow the Japanese destroyers to focus on going after the American fleet. And the old 5500 ton classes certainly performed far in excess of what their age, armament and armor would have suggested; but as a whole the war never really saw them employed in that fashion in any consistent fashion.
The Aganos sure did look cool though, plus I’ve always wondered how effective their 3 inch AA battery was, it definitely had a higher rate of fire and a handier mount than the 5/40 guns used on heavy cruisers and battleships. Obviously with a much smaller shell and (to me anyway) unknown quality of their fire control arrangement.
@@dennisfox8673 That does make more sense if they were the new generation of Destroyer Leader cruisers.
I do agree, the Agano's were a good looking class
I believe cost may have been a factor. The role they were built for was destroyer leader, which they performed quite well.
@@dennisfox8673 Seems the Agano class would have been useful sending supplies down The Slot to Guadalcanal. The IJN had one of the greatest destroyer men in Admiral Tanaka.
Great little video on the "forgotten" escort, Crosser. Looking forward to the video on the destroyers.
I very much doubt we'll ever get to see Yahagi. Underwater exploration seems to be pretty much dead in the water. With Bob Ballard being a senior citizen now and Paul Allen gone, there doesn't seem to be much steam in that boiler. Especially considering today's costs. Wish I had half of Bezos' money. I'd search for so many ships and submarines. Surcouf in the Caribbean. ORP Orzel in the North Sea... We can only dream, mate. Innit?
Cheers.
I have to agree, since there are still so many undiscovered shipwrecks out there.
I find it to be interesting to learn about the sinking of cruisers during WW2. Most of the focus seems to be on the aircraft carriers and battleships.
I couldn’t tell you why exactly I love these videos so much…. really have no idea what exactly it is…. but damn it, I do.
Really great video I hope they find it one day so they can be honoured for their sacrifice
The captain survived and wrote a book named Japanese Destroyer Captain “
Excellent summation video.
Thank you!! Great content, as always.
Great video. I'm glad I found this channel
I enjoy how you examine the Japanese perspective of the war.
The Panche of American Naval Aviation was delivered by brave American Hero's to this IJN Ship
Excellent photo finds. It appears that IJN Yahagi was going reverse during her final death throws.
Good Brief! I did learn a few new things. Thanks!
Outstanding detective work! 👍
Well done! Keep up the good work-
Amazing that almost 600 crew survived...
Excellent video that dives into a lesser-known subject, it gave me much more knowledge and i really think RV Petrel should search for this wreck.
I have been wondering about the wrecks of the ships that sunk with Yamato that day. Yahagi's wreck is likely mangled, much like Yamato's and maybe the Shokaku's.
I might add more information on the Yamato's wreck to its Wikipedia page. I read the Japanese Wikipedia page; it is interesting.
Glad you did report on Yahagi. I am pretty sure that the 7 torpedo's and 12 bomb hits were almost certainly exaggerated. Yahagi was only 6600 tons standard and that load of hits (with the first torpedo totally catastrophic) just was not going to be sustained. Would be an interesting project to compare the number of hits reported by attackers to the number of hits reported by the attacked throughout the second world war.
Great video.. love your channel
Great video !!!
Not as revealing as I had hoped, but not from any shortcomings on your part.
With as badly swarmed by USN pilots, I’m surprised it lasted so long.
Great content as usual. However, I personally prefer the much more.......detailed breakdowns of the respective ship designs and their history.
Can you do a video on IJN Haguro ?
Thank you !!!!!!
You also did a nice job on your Yahagi, from Tamiya, I still haven't had the time to build mine.
I like the Agano class light cruiser, and also it's distant cousin, the Oyodo class.
Royal Naval Studies seems to be having trouble, he's down to one video, would it be too much an imposition to ask you to cheer him up? I know how supportive he's been on your channel, and he had such interesting videos.
Take care, and all the best.
Thank you.
Royal Navy Study has not been around for awhile, so I'm not certain as to what's wrong unfortunately. I do appreciate his support and am glad for his subsequent enthusiasm, but my hand is limited in this case.
Thanks again, take care as well.
What a waste of lives, clearly the war was lost, sending those men to die was criminal.
Definitely. A survivor of Yamato, Mitsuru Yoshida said in a book, named Requiem for Battleship Yamato, that this Operation Ten Go will go down as being one of the most reckless naval sorties in history.
Pointless exercise, but it was for the glory of the Emperor. The Japanese mind thought it was criminal to not sacrifice one's self.
@@johnnyallen843 Perhaps but few generals, admirals, or senior government officials killed themselves after the surrender, guess honor only goes so far.
great vid! It seems that 1000 crew was alot? Why so many people?
Get RV Petrel upright and find this and other `missing` vessels, not just Warships! (Waratah springs to mind).
Main isue with 2nd dary targets or optional how ever ther listed the main focus was the CVs and Yamoto. You wont even hear much abought the Taffy 3 fought agisnd just the Cruisers escapted the few losses and Yamoto runnin away.
Thanks for the video. I wonder if Japan had employed its super battleships in 1942 or 43 what difference would that have made in the war?
Nothing, which is why they didn’t bother.
WWII (especially the Pacific side of things) is the war that proved the battleship was obsolete; 99% of the time they were forced into supporting roles they were just too expensive to be built for (the American fast battleships being a good example).
@@bkjeong4302 Generally, I agree with you but there are a few examples where the super battleships could have played a key role. Remember in 1942/43 the USN torpedoes did not work correctly so they would have a hard time sinking the battleships in a night action. So if the Japanese had rushed them to the lead at Midway and especially at Guadalcanal they could have been effective. In the battleship actions at Guadalcanal the South Dakota was taken out of action early in the battle and if the Yamato had been there to fight the Washington the battle would have been a lot different. Same thing in the later battles in the Solomons when the US carriers were all out of action. The super battleships could have driven the USN out.
@@Purvis-dw4qf
How do you expect the Yamatos (or just Yamato, since Musashi was a couple months away from entering service) to actually do anything at Midway even if they were with the Japanese carriers? The American carriers were too far away for them to even find, even discounting the fact they ran east to evade.
The Yamatos getting involved at Second Guadalcanal would have been a serious game-changer for that one engagement, but they would have been pointless overkill for the other Solomons surface actions, and there’s also the issue of fuel and the dangers of bringing in capital ships into such confined spaces (the Japanese were initially reluctant to risk even the Kongos for these reasons until high command forced the issue, and the Americans likewise only brought in Washington and SoDak because they’d run out of everything else).
@@bkjeong4302 If Japan wanted to win they had to throw the dice as it turned out the super battleship were wasted at when the war was lost. If they had been employed when the war was winnable they could have made a difference. At Midway, the US Navy had no way of sinking a battleship. The Japanese could have charged ahead with them to seek out the US fleet and destroy them. They could have left most of their bomber at home at double the number of Zero fighters on their carriers to protect the battleships.
@@Purvis-dw4qf
The problem was that the superbattleships also had no way of sinking the US fleet at Midway either, because battleships literally couldn’t shoot far enough to pose a threat to carriers. That’s the entire reason why battleships became obsolete once carriers came along-battle ranges had become so extended thanks to airpower that battleships literally couldn’t participate.
Wasn’t Yahagi one of the Wake Island Raiders? Payback….
Scrap metal now.
No. It was a relatively new ship.
No Yubari
Nope. It was built during the war.
It would be nice if the Japanese government spent some money to find these ships from that operation. And recover some artifacts to put into an museum for that operation.