Operation Ten-Go - The bigger they come, the harder they fall
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- čas přidán 10. 03. 2020
- Today we look at an overview of the last major fleet operation of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Operation Ten-Go
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Pinned post for Q&A :)
If the Yamato has radar on it how come it’s anti air gun is still visual guided instead of radar guided? Is it because they don’t have the technology or they just don’t want to for what ever reason
biscuit
They had search radar (air search and surface search), not targeting radar.
If the planes were not launched how many US battleships would reasonably have been lost against Yamato?
Hawker Hellfire
Probably just one or two (though some of the others would get damaged). Numerical superiority is a massive advantage in most naval engagements.
Drach,
My grandfather grew up on the island of Aruba, and was in his early teens during world war two. Aruba did a lot of oil refining of Venezualan oil (at least at the time), and my grandfather told me at some point in the war two U-boats were dispatched to attack the refineries and shipping. According to his story, one U-boat turned back due to engine trouble and never reached Aruba, and the other blew up their deck gun by failing to remove the water plug during a test-firing on the way down, so they were only able to torpedo a few ships. Any idea how true this story is, or is it down to local folklore?
"Capital ships were decorating the bottom of the sea."
"The water-damage control station ... had be redistributed at high speed to a number of other parts of the ship."
You can turn a phrase.
Robert Catesby remember there are more planes on the bottom than submarines in the sky although I got my wings for broaching from pair-a-scope depth them I moved back aft and chopped holes in the ocean
Is that sarcasm? His English is execrable . Schoolboy standard. He is a lingual version of the Yamato with a Captain too fond of sake. All over the place and without anyone brave enough to tell him to shape up. Banzai.
Great use of the language. Well done.
Real Thailand I think he’s funny at times, but that as they say is history
@Real Thailand That's just how British people tend to be. Even when discussing something very serious we won't say it seriously.
US WWII sub names are so funny. They were named after fish but they quickly ran out of fish that most people know about so the early ones were like "Marlin" and "Pompano," and by the end of the war they were like "Threadfin" and "Hackleback"
i like the sub named Wahoo
I like the submarine Silversides
Guitarro👍
Well they were producing shitloads of them so I can see why lol
Shiny
Much respect to the captain who saw his bow was missing and said “Crank this bitch in reverse, I may be strict but not inflexible - the time to be stern has ended.” And yeeted his ship back home having provided a rebuttal to the austere and rigid views of ship anatomy. Take a bow, my man. No one needed one more than him.
i think you'll find that a ship with no bow is *very* stern
Suzutsuki survived the war too, and after the war was used as part of a breakwater alongside her sister ship Fuyutsuki and the Momo-class destroyer Yanagi. The top of Yanagi's hull can still be seen above ground (and walked on) but the two Akizuki-class sisters are entirely entombed under concrete. It's hard to find English references to this, but searching 軍艦防波堤 (which is something like "military ship breakwater") gives a bunch of results.
@@nottherealpaulsmith best comment yet.
Wikipedia had a edit war to hide Yamato sinking itself
Please, puns are the lowest form of humor. Well said.
Interesting fact: The commander of the light cruiser Yahagi was Captain Hara Tameichi.
He was probably Japan's most successful destroyer skipper. Hara participated in 13 major actions during the war. He was also extremely lucky. His ship, the destroyer Shigure survived a number of harrowing encounters. No sooner was Hara transferred to the Yahagi than the Shigure's luck ran out and she was sunk at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Hara was a tough minded and independent officer. He sent a letter sent to the emperor in late 1943 urging the sovereign to fire Japan's navy and army chiefs and then sue for peace. Hara survived the war and his memoires "Destroyer Captain" is must reading for students of naval history of WWII.
Thank you for that - I'm adding that book to my collection!
read that one back in the `80s good book.
I would like to see the Japanese Navy name a new destroyer "Shigure. If I remember correctly, Hara's Shigure ran afoul of a US submarine.
"Hara was a tough minded and independent officer. He sent a letter sent to the emperor in late 1943 urging the sovereign to fire Japan's navy and army chiefs and then sue for peace."
Which shows he actually had a brain alongside brass cojones large enough to anchor the ship he commanded. Going against your superiors in Japan is heresy to begin with, but questioning the Emperor (at that point in time)? It's amazing he wasn't busted down for that. Japan is still highly structured and hierarchical today (often times still annoyingly disturbingly and detrimentally so even today), but take that up to 11 and add in the fanaticism and nationalism and boy howdy was it a terrible working environment for anyone with independent thought or someone that wasn't a blind sycophant and saw the writing on the wall.
Bonus points: This is kinda what the Japanese hoped for to begin with with opening the strike on Pearl Harbor, crippling the fleet, and forcing America to capitulate to either an agreement/ceasefire or suing for peace. Somehow, all of the top brass and the Emperor himself thought that the Americans would just go, "Oh no... How terrible..." and be shell shocked and incapable of fighting and readily accept any diplomatic measures over war. Anyone that thought that Americans would take the attack of Pearl Harbor that well and be that forgiving, however, clearly didn't understand America culturally even if they did understand it economically and militarily (which to be fair to the Japanese, they did).
Just imagine if you will, Had the Emperor taken his advise, It would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and there would have been no need for the atomic bombs
Unfortunately for the Yamato, their chances were dashed when they recieved a mysterious radio transmission asking if they "Spotted any Torpedo Boats"
Wikipedia had a edit war to hide Yamato sinking itself.
The Kamchatka returns!
"We sent you to the bottom!"
"Oh you can't get rid of me that easily. ...Do you see torpedo boats?"
@@markingraham4892Well, it did sunk itself... by it's magazine detonating after being blasted by 300 US naval planes.
So the Yamatos best AA armament was her own magazines exploding?
essentially... i am not sure if that's the worst insult to those useless 25mm or a testament on just how much powder charge she carried that blew up...
@@IonoTheFanatics I would say both
It's the return of fire ships.
If the war had gone on much longer, I could almost imagine the Japanese having made a tactic out of this. They were already at the point that, when their Kamikaze attacks were being mostly intercepted, they send an airborne unit on a suicide attack on allied airfields to temporarily neutralize the fighter cover. When you're launching suicide attacks to try and support your suicide attacks, you're pretty far gone.
@@bificommander ships kamikazeing planes sounds like a great reversal
@@bificommander they actually were experimenting with kamikaze speed boats and midget submarines. Basically a small, one person, fast attack craft with a 1 ton bomb inside and a contact detonator in the bow...
They say, as the Yamato exploded, for just a moment, a single old boat could be seen in the distance. It flashed a single message: "Do you see torpedo boats?" before disappearing in the smoke.
@Patrick Cossack look at Drach's two videos about the Russian 2nd Pacific Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War, up to the Battle of Tsushima, for an enthralling story, and the foundation of a standard Drachinifel inside joke, which James Koch referred to.
It was the ghost of the Kamchatka.
Didn't they throw a set of binoculars at Yamato before the explosion?
@@nk_3332
Wrong ship.
This being the Japanese Navy in 1945, the phrase "and then thing got worse" was in full effect.
It is likely that the Emperor had only a vague idea how outclassed the IJN is by this time because he was only fed the rosiest of reports by his subordinates. It is not good to have someone whose authority cannot be contradicted and also is kept sheltered from reality.
Hmmm. He'd have to be pretty stupid to believe rosy reports when they were talking about the invasion of Okinawa.
"Your highness, we are kicking the fucking shit out of the Americans."
"Yes. I see you have knocked them all the way back to...Okinawa?"
@@ajalvarez3111 the reports likely would have just been making it seem not as bad as it actually was
The emperor had little to do with the war, in terms of starting or stopping or strategy. The Japanese Generals made most of the calls.
I can't believe the emperor didn't realize how truly bad the situation was. You'd think someone would say, your highness we have 3 ships..
@@ajalvarez3111 you could describe it as a trap. "My lord we have drawn them to okinawa for a big surprise attack." That sort of thing
So all these men died just because someone want to look good in front of their boss
biscuit
Pretty much. Nobody actually thought Ten-Go had a chance of success.
@@bkjeong4302 Nobody thought the Alamo would work either. They did the job. Delay and bleed the Enemy. Buy the troops on Okinawa some time. And honor the Emperor.
I doubt that was the only time it has ever happened.
The Navy knew it was a suicide mission but they hoped to draw away the US carrier planes onto themselves to allow the Kamikazes to hit the US Carriers. It was a desperate plan given the huge disparity in Naval and Air forces.
Apparently not being the laughing stock of the IJA was a big deal for the IJN, big enough to throw the pride of its fleet into the jaws of the USN.
US Navy carriers: Hey, remember what the Japanese did on Pearl Harbor? *Let's do the same. But against one ship.*
The 225677th Fragment of the Man-Emperor of Mankind
No kill like overkill....
Then let's do it again
At kure
Twice
Goddamnit Exeter, spooking me even in drachinifel's comment section
@Reagan James Exactly.
"And we'll not be leaving it in shallow water for easy salvaging. We want it gone and we want it to stay gone."
After the Yamato sank, Yukikaze's captain (Cmdr Masamichi Terauchi) demanded that they abandon the survivors and continue their suicide charge towards Okinawa. The other destroyer captains basically went "Fuck that!"
Wikipedia had a edit war to hide Yamato sinking itself
He was in command of the unsinkable destroyer with plot armor. He could afford to give such suggestions.
I mean it IS the yukikaze
A number of Japanese Admirals objected to this suicide mission. The commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy did everything he could to prevent cadets from sailing with this fleet operation telling them it was their duty to live to rebuild Japan.
"Nah, death is as light as a feather! Don't you remember teaching us that sensei?"
@@Shenaldrac and duty is as heavy as a mountain, do you forget that? no one dies before accomplishing their duty
@@aliemreazgn3634 You're missing the point of the quote. It's encouraging Japanese servicemen to be willing to lay down their lives in the pursuit of their duty. That duty is more important than their lives So naturally they wouldn't think to avoid doing something suicidal, if it was their orders. Remember, at this point plenty of them ARE committing suicide via kamikaze. This isn't much different.
Imperial Japan's culture was incredibly fucked up, and helped lead to this kind of madness.
@@Shenaldrac this quote was used in 1882 imperial rescript to servicemen in order to raise their morale and bring back warriors' culture that was dead after restoration and Satsuma rebellion. Japanese saw that in satsuma rebellion that japanese concscripts were good at fighting but lacked the high level morale that Satsuma samurai had. Therefore after they cleaned up samurais, they borrowed their ideas and culture and implemented that to their military. Thats not fucked up or thats not madness thats just warriors' culture in japan and is a symbol of individualism's loss to Collectivism in Japanese society. It's affects are still seen in Japan in Japanese companies and their workers
@@aliemreazgn3634 Yes, it is madness when it leads to atrocities such as Nanjing When it turns into killing your own civilians so that they won't be taken captive by US soldiers.When the idea of dying is preferable to surrender. There was so much fucked up and wrong about the culture of Imperial Japan, of how utterly twisted and mad things had become. And yes, you do still see this kind of thing in Japan, you're right! And it's really awful! Or do you think the corporate culture of Japan is good and healthy? Because the rate of suicides by their businessmen would disagree with you
"Will you take them or shall I?" kinda drives home how much of a non-issue the IJN had become by that point.
Their death was certain. It was only a question of how. The fact the US Navy could theoretically hold a casual conversation as to how this voyage of the damned will die is a testament to how brutally overpowered they had become.
By the way, the Battleship force that would have been sent is terrifying. Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Indiana, I think Washington, some of the standards, along with Alaska and Guam. I believe the Brits even threw in King George V. It would have been the largest Battle line ever assembled. But that would have been a dignified death for a very undignified operation.
Garrett Wood
Actually the battleships Spruance had in mind were just the Standards. Everything else would have to be sent as backup.
It also showed that the US Admirals were not vain glorious. A similar thing happened at Midway when Frank Jack Fletcher handed tactical control over to Spruance after the Yorktown was hit the first time and he moved his flag to the Astoria.
@VonFrag Esq Spruance did show vainglorious tendencies at Truk, when he forced Mitscher to call off the last of his air attacks just so the Iowas would ever get to shoot at some much smaller vessels (one of which was a fucking training ship)-and this made things worse for there Americans because it allowed a destroyer to escape. On top of this, there is some indication that Iowa actually missed her shots against the training ship and that said training ship was sunk by one of the escorting American cruisers.
@@bkjeong4302 You don't get it do you? Just because you miss the target doesn't mean that it isn't fun to shoot the guns.
Hearing ‘given their lives in the service of the god emperor’ is so odd outside of a warhammer 40k video
The emphrah would be proud. Or at least the inquisition. Sacrificing everything in a doomed campaign against the forces of freed- chaos.
It doesnt. Not to any monarchist anyways.
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 To a capitalist libertarian like me, it sounds very very strange
@@stuglife5514 Would saying lets us give our lives for McDonalds sound normal to you?
@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 The days of divine right and the Mandate of Heaven are long gone. Even the monatchists would find it odd.
It's unbelievable that Suzutsuki lost its bow and reversed all the way to Japan
*STRONK NIPPON STEEL* actually works for once.
Didn't at least one USN ship do that all the way back to America?
Reversing like a boss
@@misterthegeoff9767 Yeah the USS Minneapolis
edit-it was the USS New Orleans
Returning to port arse first... such are the oddities of war.
The _Yamato_ would've done a lot better if it hadn't been for one of their fleet auxiliaries signalling "Do you see torpedo boats?" at a critical moment.
Sonar analysis has revealed that it wasn't a radio message, but a sound coming from below the water, from somewhere north west of Yamato's position at the time. A search for the source turned up empty, except for a pair of binoculars lying on the sea floor.
Is this a Kamchatka reference?
Enty CV-6 everything is a Kamchatka reference.
😂
Even i as casual viewer crack up laughing at this comment.
Gold
The funny thing is that even if she made it to Okinawa and beached herself, she would've been *literally* blown into pieces within a day since now that she wasn't moving, she was a easy target for B-29s dropping dozens upon dozens of bombs.
That was the expected result had she actually made it to Okinawa. They were under no delusions that the _Yamato_ would have survived.
grondhero
This. Nobody seriously considered this ship to survive the operation, or even get to Okinawa.
Just shows how tragic it was that they couldn't surrender and give up and go home.
That's assuming she can survive the 4 angry Iowa's and God knows how many other battleships that's where being sent her way incase the airstrikes somehow failed
They wouldn't have used B-29's to bomb her.
My father's Annapolis classmate, Hugh Wood, is credited with getting the first two hits on the Yamato. Lt. Cdr. Hugh Wood, as commander of the USS Bennington's dive-bomber squadron, launched in his SB2C with his XO as wingman, accompanied by 4 or 5 other aircraft. The Yamato's anti-aircraft guns could elevate to something like 72 degrees, so Cdr. Wood and the rest of his flight had to fly directly over the ship and then come straight down in a near-vertical dive. During violent maneuvering to avoid AA fire and to get into the perfect dive-bombing position, Cdr. Wood was separated from the rest of the formation (or, to be more precise, most of the formation was separated from Cdr. Wood), with the exception of his XO who stuck to his wing like glue. They began their dive from 30,000 feet (I didn't think the SB2C could attain that altitude but apparently it could in the hands of an exceptionally capable pilot). Cdr. Wood scored two hits, while his wingman scored at least one. They then flew back to the Bennington, landed, rearmed and relaunched to repeat the process. For his efforts, Cdr. Wood received his second Navy Cross. Sadly, Hugh was killed in the early 50s while test piloting some Grumman counter-rotating monstrosity called the Skyshark. RIP and God bless you, Cdr. Wood.
CaesarInVa A horribly undignified end, to be killed in the Skyshark.
Thank you for sharing the story
Interesting, only the Skyshark was produced by Douglas with the designation A2D (Attack-2-Douglas), not Grumman the A2F (later A-6) Intruder was the Grumman Aircraft with the closest designation and was Jet powered and served in the US Navy for over 30 years.
Huge Wood is right.
@@adamdubin1276 You are quite correct. I stand corrected. But, regardless of the manufacturer, the Skyshark was still a death trap. Something about the counter rotating propellers. The interesting thing is, the Skyshark's counter-rotating propeller system had caused problems during a previous flight, necessitating an impromptu emergency landing on the Muroc desert bed (now Edwards AFB). I think, emphasis on "think" as my memory is fuzzy, Cdr. Wood was the pilot on that test flight as well. After one close shave, you never would have gotten me back in that aircraft's cockpit, but such was Cdr. Wood and men of that era.
For once, the phrase "cool story, bro" can be used un-sarcastically.
Makes me wish CZcams could have been around decades earlier, so we could get interviews with these people. So many stories, so little time. Thanks for sharing.
So basically Yamato was a fish and the US navy was that flock of seagulls from Finding Nemo.
Mine? Mine??
MINE
wayne vreeland mine?
Mine!
Mine!
22:14 "But, the water damage control station, which would have primarily controlled this effort,
had been redistributed, at high speed, to a number of other parts of the ship courtesy of a Helldiver's bomb."
It's a credit to the British, their dry sense of humour...
@@All2Meme What do you expect? When my beloved Royal Navy had a ship that was burning out with fires in the magazines and sinking fast, the surviving crew gathered on the bow and started singing "Always Look On the Bright Side Of Life"
@@Trek001 that was in the Falkland war at the crew of the cruiser ex-USS Phoenix
@@sander6438 No it was not - it was the crew of HMS Sheffield
@@Trek001 That was HMS Sheffield after the Exocet hit at the Falklands in 1982. Then repeated by the crew of the Coventry, a sister ship, when she was bombed and being abandoned a month later.
The song touched a chord with the British trait of stoicism and the "stiff upper lip" in the face of disaster, and became immensely popular. When the destroyer HMS Sheffield was struck by an Exocet cruise missile on 4 May 1982 in the Falklands War, her crew sang it while waiting to be rescued from their sinking ship,[9] as did the crew of HMS Coventry,[10] with the line from the song "Worse things happen at sea, you know" being especially ironic.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always_Look_on_the_Bright_Side_of_Life
Admiral spruance: ah yes let's give Yamato a fair chance
Carriers: that's not very American of you
Well it's more like it was Mitscher who was the one who denied the fair fight as he was the one who ordered the massive air strike
There's no such thing as a fair fight in war.
@@michaelnewton1332 And if you find yourself in one, somewhere you made a mistake.
To be fair to Spruance, with that many Standards the Japanese force would have been lost anyways.
But to be even more fair to Spruance, Yamato could very well have taken one of the Standards down with her and probably damaged several more, and Mitscher had the right call in not letting her fight back at all.
Last time I was this early, the Japanese were sending torpedo boats after the Kamchatka.
A man of culture I see
last time I was this late, the USA had just entered ww1
"How many aircraft should we send?"
"Yes."
I'll take your entire stock.
The funny thing is that this was a fairly measured attack. They kept plenty back for air cover, hence that hundred-plane Japanese attack on the fleet that happened at the same time being beaten down. To intercept Yamato they sent the planes of Task Groups 58.1 and 58.3. In reserve they still had Task Group 58.2 which was the freaking Enterprise and 2 others, and 58.4 with another 2 fleet carriers. They launched more power than the Japanese had at Pearl Harbor in a single strike, and it was still less than half of their strength.
Yeah thinking about the smaller buzzings early war around Guadalcanal or Midway e.g. B17's attacking in 2's, etc, hearing 95 dive bombers or 110 torpedo bombers etc is crazy!
It appeared everyone wanted a piece of the action. It's not every day you get to kill a battleship.
"And how many torpedoes will we need?"
"All of them...plus six."
7 aircraft were knocked out of the sky by Yamato’s explosion. That’s still a lot.
whats ridiculous, is that this was the majority of destroyed aircraft. At this point iot would have been more effective to send Yamato alone loaded with nothing but explosives and fuel.
Shows how utterly useless Type-3 shells and a bazillion Type 96 25mm actually were as an AA umbrella.
@@christianmatthe1 Ah, the famous reverse kamikaze strategy!
Ozraptor4
The 25mm was just useless.
The Type 3 was WORSE than useless, because it suppressed the 5-inch and 25mm AA guns when fired, thus REDUCING the level of AA firepower available.
@@bkjeong4302 They couldn't fire any of the guns simultaneously with the main guns? Is that due to the disorientation of the shockwave?
Number of Japanese aircrafts at Pearl Harbor: 353 from 6 carriers.
Number of US aircrafts thrown at the Yamato: 386 from 8 carriers.
And they sent them to attack _one_ target, not an entire fleet.
I mean, it is America afterall.
America was pumping out more carriers than they knew what to do with, so yeah, USN admiralty was like "hey, task force, here, have 3 of these brand new fleet carriers, have fun"
Your point?
And the Allied force was *detached* from the fleet invading Okinawa.
what did they have to do otherwise? Idle hands and all that., probably wanted to make sure no one got up to any mischief. Besides a moving target is always good practice
According to the book "A Glorious Way to Die," by Russell Spurr, there was one Japanese naval staff officer who thought sending the Yamato on this insane mission was a fantastic idea. He was incredibly enthused and helped organize the mission. We often think of the WW2 Japanese military as being total fanatics. This individual was, but no one else on IJN naval staff agreed with him. The Japanese are legendary for often keeping their true thoughts and feelings to themselves, but reading between the lines it appears everyone else thought this officer was an idiot. After the Yamato was reported as sunk Admiral Ryūnosuke Kusaka said this officer's name out loud and said, "Why didn't we send (that guy) on the Yamato?"
That's hilarious....
Kwolfx “oh I didn’t think it was a good idea, it was this other guy” they’re hardly going to own up to such a stupid and unsuccessful plan are they?
Just goes to show it is fairly easy to THINK an idea is a good, but if they're not willing to put it into action themselves, that's what they call a clue
@Ryke Haven - I reread "A Glorious Way to Die" and I found that I totally mis-remembered what the book actually said about Captain Shigenori Kami, the officer who was largely responsible for Operation Ten-Go. He wasn't an idiot, and he wasn't the only the only IJN staff officer in favor of sending the Yamato to Okinawa. I've found several other sources which mention Captain Kami and they all say the same thing. He was highly emotional and would often argue his positions in a passionate manner. He could really grate on other people's nerves. On the positive side, it was his recommendation to Admiral Gunichi Mikawa to counterattack the Guadalcanal invasion that led to the Battle of Savo Island. He also analyzed a possible invasion of Hawaii and determined that Japan lacked the transport needed to supply an invasion force, even if they succeeded in taking the islands. On the negative side, he argued for a large air attack on the Panama canal, which was a highly unrealistic idea. He was a staff officer the entire war and never saw combat. At the time of Ten-Go Captain Kami was Chief of Operations (planning).
The IJN Combined Fleet staff was divided over what to do with their surviving ships. There was a faction that opposed sending the Yamato to Okinawa. They wanted to hold her and any remaining ships back until Japan itself was invaded. So you could say they favored a different suicide mission for the Yamato. They correctly pointed out that no surface ship could survive the submarines and air attacks they would face on the 350 mile trip to Okinawa. The faction in favor of sending Yamato had a counter argument which was also a good one. The Americans wouldn't leave the Yamato untouched. They would destroy any surviving Japanese ships at anchor before the invasion of Japan itself. They were both right, the Yamato and her crew were screwed no mater what the IJN ordered her to do. Though it's likely that far more crew members would have survived her sinking in port. There was an Admiral from outside Combined Fleet HQ who recommended demobilizing all remaining 2nd fleet ships (Yamato and all of her escorts) and sending their crews and any weapons which could be removed from them (most likely small AA guns) ashore to aid in the land defense when the expected invasion of Japan became a reality. It was said after the war that Admiral Ito agreed with this suggestion; though we can't know if this is true. This proposal went nowhere and I'm sure you can guess why. It would have been like saying that the surviving IJN ships were pointless; which would have been true, but truth wasn't popular in Japan at this time. It might have also been seen as admitting that building the Yamato had been pointless.
Captain Kami's arguments were much more flowery and over-the-top. He claimed that sending the Yamato would restore the honor of the Imperial Japanese Navy. He used words like honer and glory to buttress his arguments and did so frequently. Here's one quote that sums up the type of arguments he made when it was pointed out how unlikely that his faction's plan could succeed. "A show of spirit! That's what we want! The spirit of our glorious ancestors! The spirit of the Yamato people! The Gods will come to our aid!" Any counter argument would cease at this point, because it could be seen as questioning Shinto-ism; the national religion, and could be viewed as an act of treason. How would you like to argue with someone when he makes a statement that makes you into a traitor if you question it?
The officers in favor for sending Yamato to Okinawa drew up their plans one to two months in advance. However, the plan wasn't approved until two days before the Yamato actually sailed. One evening Captain Kami had a private meeting with Admiral Soemu Toyoda, the Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy. This occurred during an air-raid while all the other staff officers went below to a bomb shelter. For several hours the two men talked and drank. When it was over, Admiral Toyota had approved operation Ten-Go. This wasn't known by the rest of the officers until the next morning when Captain Kami announced it at a staff meeting. Apparently, even the other supporters of the plan were surprised.
The reason why Admiral Ryūnosuke Kusaka so disliked Captain Kami are clear when you understand his position. Admiral Kusaka was the IJN Chief of Staff and he worked directly for Admiral Toyoda. He should have known about the meeting between Captain Kami and Admiral Toyoda. It's possible that Captain Kami should have approached Admiral Kusaka in order to set up the meeting. Admiral Kusaka should have had oversight into the final planning of operation Ten-Go. None of these things happened. Admiral Kusaka was on an inspection tour of the naval air stations from which the kamikaze missions to Okinawa were going to be launched, so he wasn't even at the staff meeting when Ten-Go was announced.
So put yourself in Kusaka's place. A subordinate staff officer has gone behind your back and jumped the chain of command to get his desired mission approved. But the real kicker is the way Admiral Kusaka found out about this. Shortly after the staff meeting had occurred, Admiral Kusaka received a phone call from Captain Kami informing him of the approval of Ten-Go; and this is the good part, Captain Kami gave Admiral Kusaka his orders to go see Admiral Ito; a personal friend of Kusaka, and the other officers of 2nd Fleet, to tell them that they were being sent on a suicide mission. And if this wasn't enough, Captain Kami told Admiral Kusaka that he would soon receive a packet containing the plans for operation Ten-Go and that he should study them before seeing Admiral Ito. It was as if the subordinate became the commander and not only starting giving orders, but told the new subordinate how to do his job.
@@Kwolfx No wonder they hated him. The junior officers of Imperial Japan have something of a reputation for disregarding their superiors, but this takes it to a whole new level.
Japanese radar detects the incoming American airstrike:
"Today, we shall fight in the shade..."
I mean, that's not funny, man. But that's really funny.
I reckon in the time taken to destroy the Yamato, the US aircraft manufacturing industry replaced all the aircraft lost in the effort to sink the ship.
Considering that at the height of production US shipyards were pumping out an entire Liberty ship every 3 days...I wouldn't doubt it...
@joanne chon Many (most?) shot down American aircrews were recovered and put back into the fight. Also America had assembly line training of air crews and was churning them out. Unlike the Japanese who lost their experienced crews and didn't have the ability to train new ones quickly enough.
In 1944, the United States built 96,270 aircraft of all types, or about 264 planes per day. It produced a total of 38,848 fighters in that year, or about 106 fighters per day. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aircraft_production_during_World_War_II
@@bf945 The American system was to take their experienced aircrews and have them train new recruits. If you have enough trainers, training aircraft and output of fighters, you can keep sending reasonably trained flyers to get more experience.
The mobilization of US production pretty much guaranteed the outcome.
@Santina Murphy A racist rant incorrect in every respect.
As an American with relatives who fought in that theater I have no sympathy for the Imperial Japanese forces generally, but this was just sad and wasteful. Over 4000 guys who should've lived to help rebuild Japan had their leaders not foolishly sent them to a horrible meaningless death.
"At the cost of slightly depleting the US ammunition stocks" very humbly put. "All participants in war have a cost". Even if its a few cents
That is like spending 1 million dollars just to have the enemy spend10 dollars
@@user-ro9zf9kz1h Stonks
Ammunition often cost more than the targets.
@@wolfgangpagel6989 10 tons of explosives, 100,000 tons of steel
Halsey: "We've got to give those Marines more time. Concentrate all fire on that IJN Super Star Destroyer!!!"
Halsey was not there. I know you are injecting humor but still he was not there.
"Admiral ! We have lost the water damage control station !"
"Intensify the AA batteries fire, I don't want anything to get through !"
@@spirz4557 US Aviator: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”
@@TheSp0kesman "Too late !"
*BOOM*
*wait it works*
The USN took to heart the first rule of warfare: never engage in a fair fight if you can avoid it.
By the time the IJN finally got to force their battleship confrontation with the USN's major battle groups, they'd already had all their capital ships shot out from under them by submarines and carrier air strikes.
OOPS
In the case of Capital ships: mostly by torpedoes and gunfire.
shingshongshamalama yeah, I guess I’ll remember that.
Exactly, a fair fight is for suckers. Or, as my dad used to say "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying."
George Crabb I would never agree with you on that but I guess that’s what I have to do.
Fair fights are for sport, not war.
"Don't worry I promise a fair fight... and by that I mean one totally stacked in my favour!" - The Joker
IJN Staff: How about we send the world's biggest battleship on a suicide mission?
Imperial Staff: Cool, we could knock down 7 Yankee airplanes when it explodes.
The fact that *THAT* explosion did more damage than the *ENTIRE* AA firepower possessed by the entire fleet is a testament to how low Japan has fallen, since sending your aces and competent members on one-way trips for the most unrealistic and beyond-fantasy plans really started to show. And when they started essentially supporting their suicide attacks with *_more_* suicide attacks, you know this nation was as gone as Malaysian Airlines by then, smdh
0_o
wow
when your ship exploding does more damage to the enemy's aerial attackers than your entire antiaircraft suite...
behold the absolute uselessness of the Type 96 AA gun. And the IJN 5in Dual-Purpose weapons weren't much better.
Not just the ineffectiveness of the Type 96 20mm machinegun, not just the (less staggering) failure of the 5" dual-purpose mount, but probably most importantly the visual only fire control for their anti-aircraft weapons and the IJN's jaw-dropping failure to make good on their 1930s lead on radar technology.
@Jonathan Stiles That project was quickly cancelled.
@@youmukonpaku3168 Well "jaw-dropping failure to make good on their lead in *insert thing here*" could just as well be the motto of the Japanese military during world war 2. Granted Germany was about as bad at wasting resources and a technological advantage on things that would be useless or worse.
Also unless Japan was able to cripple or occupy the US west coast ports, winning the war would be pretty much impossible for Japan due to US such a massive advantage in industrial capacity and that capacity being more or less safe from air raids due being mostly so far in-land that no Japanese bomber would have the range to get there.
@Leonardo's Truth proximity fuses and radar guided AA will give you that edge
Japanese officer: Men we need to hold back some planes for the invasion of Japan.
Manhattan Project: (chuckles in secret weapons)
Japan: Refuses to surrender even after the nukes, needs the added pressure of the Russians invading Manchuria to finally convince the Emperor to give in.
LOL!
@@Shenaldrac Russia, jumping into a fight that was already won to try to snag territory from the dying empire of Japan.
@@kyle857 Agreed. Japan already knew about Russia before the Fatman was dropped. Japan was stalling so they didn't have to take an unconditional surrender.
Needless to say they took the unconditional surrender after the second nuke.
@Logan Deathrage It wasn't quite unconditional afair. Didn't the americans agree to some of the emperor's demands, one of them being that he stays in power?
Couple of things
1) Not just the cadets and the sick were offloaded - the much older and mainly married men also got orders to leave the ship just prior to sailing from the Mitajiri anchorage to the fueling station at Tokuyama Oil Depot. I don't know if Ito knew, but certainly Ariga, commanding Yamato, did and did his upmost to reduce the number of deaths that would be upcoming.
2) in full knowledge and complete disobedience of the orders, the local officials elected to give the entire fleet enough fuel to get there, sink the Americans and return home - at least Yamato and Yahagi both knew about this
The damage of Yamato meant that it's so mangled that it would have been thoroughly impractical to make it into a "space senkan" in a certain media franchise.
Yamato was thought to be sunk with a relatively intact hull before the wreckage was found in 1985 (why people thought it would be the case even though the ship suffered main magazine explosion is anyone's guess), a decade after the anime show was aired. This discovery was incorporated into the 2012/2013 remake which the space battleship was built underneath a purpose-built Yamato look-alike camouflage instead.
13:44 "Around 150 carrier aircraft spotted'"
Cpt Aruga: "Itó sama, how was that story with that Leonidas fighting in shadow?"
i can imagine the growing "oh crap" as more and more planes began circling like vultures.
@@ericyt7589 In the movie, several AA crews just freeze. They LITERALLY CAN'T HANDLE seeing this many planes.
@@evanhunt1863 on wave 1, much less do that again 2 more times and die in the process
It’s amazing hearing just the number of ships that were sent to take out stragglers, the sheer production capabilities of the USA during WW2 were amazing
Realistically unless something truly strange happened the Japanese never had a chance. Once the USA decided to fight its fate was sealed. I mean the USA was also fighting other Axis powers and was supplying weaponry to everyone in sight and could still churn out naval vessels and high quality crews at a staggering rate.
Of course, that's hindsight. For the fighting men at the time it was an existential war.
On 7 December 1941, the USN had 7 carriers in commission (Langley having been converted into a seaplane tender; Hornet was on sea trials. Of those, all but Saratoga, Ranger and Enterprise had been sunk by the end of 1942.
By August of 1945 the USN had 96 aircraft carriers of all sizes, and had built several more for Allied forces. More carriers were cancelled as redundant than were available at the start of the war.
Yamamoto himself said, "A swarm of ants can overcome any serpent". This is pretty much a case in point.
Edit: WOW! So many likes!? Thanks!
The only exception being that these were less ants and more other, larger, angrier serpents.
@@The_Crimson_Fucker Don't understand, sir. He said this before Pearl Harbor. What do you mean? By ants he meant aircraft.
@@benlaskowski357
I mean exactly what I said, in the end the fight between the US navy and Japanese navy was less a swarm of ants overrunning a serpent and a swarm of serpents overrunning a serpent.
I was commenting on the situation, not his statement directly.
Ben Laskowski
The aircraft itself may be an ant, but the carriers launching aircraft are much deadlier serpents than any battleship ever.
@@The_Crimson_Fucker I'm sorry; I was using Yamamoto's statement as a metaphor. He was very much against the Yamatos' construction: he considered the superbattleships white elephants, believed a carrier force could easily overcome them. And that's what happened here. Didn't live to see it, though: Operation Dillinger saw to that. Still he was right.
IJN Yahagi was captained by Tameichi Hara, author of post-war "Japanese Destroyer Captain."
I would love to see you do a feature video on his remarkable exploits commanding IJN Shigure and IJN Amatsukaze -- as the ONLY surviving IJN destroyer captain of the war.
His notable pre-war contribution was in the development and refinement of long lance torpedo attack doctrine.
Many thanks for all your excellent videos!
Finally someone knows taimichi hara and his ship shigure
Hara was certainly a hero of Japan, but the only surviving destroyer captain of the war? Is there a qualifier with that, like the only one still commanding a destroyer at the end of the war or something like that? Because Kohei Hanami, who was commanding Amagiri when it ran down PT-109 survived, and attended Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.
@@jacktyler2880 please be noted to take a grain of salt on this because I MAY be wrong and entirely not sure as kohei hanami bio and record is obscurrd as it can be on record of him in ww2, what there trying to say when taimichi hara is the last DD captain of ww2 of ijn is because taimichi hara was assign as a captain shortly before eruption of ww2 meaning he was the very last remaining original ww2 destroyer captain of the IJN, kohei in the other hand may or may not be original as many destroyer captain tend to come from instructing teacher, promoted sailor to captain and other stuff, so its possible that kohei mightve been assign in to IJN Amigiri around 1942 as many captain tend to lose control and eventually be replaced by anothet captain in a ship similar to taimichi hara losing control of shigure when he was sent to a torpedo school in the early 1944, but like i said take this as a grain of salt as this information backing taimichi being the last original dd captain CAN BE WRONG if information of other werent obscured as it can be.
@@sankyu3950 Thank you for the clarification. I'm not trying to call anyone out here, but I've been aware of Kohei for many years because of the Kennedy connection, and just wondered why he wasn't included. Seems to be because he only took over a destroyer after the war began, so he wasn't a commander for the full duration? Thanks again, I just wanted to understand what I was reading. BTW, to finish the story, Amagiri was mined off Singapore in 1944, and I lose track of Kohei for the last year of the war. He may have gone to another ship type, or a shore installation, which would indeed mean he wasn't a full-time destroyer captain.
Hibiki and Yukikaze also survived the war
Operation ten-go, like the charge of the light brigade and pickets charge, a gesture of futility and face saving, clad in honor and glory by those who weren't there.
Saving face for bastards who weren’t here...
Its staggering the amount of times historically this happens...Across cultures and dialects there is always futually and curseably romantic chargest of pointless futility...
Not counting those above, the Wehrmacht threw their entire airforce at the West, and watched it be liquified by at that point far more numerious and better designed for the war Allied Planes. Waterloo too, as it was a testamount of Naplonion’s failure at keeping his empire...
I could go on, but the point stands...
Why you wrote Pickets charge and not Burnsides attack at Fredericksburg/Mayres heights, in case of face saving desasters Burnside is more guilty then Lee, Lee at least attacked in strenght and they had at least a low% chance while Burnside did it peacemealwise
@@Sturminfantrist In all three cases, men knowingly went to their doom against impossible odds, and were glorified for it by later generations. It doesn't matter who sent them or why, only that they went knowing that most of them would never return. That is Courage, but there is nothing honorable about a useless death.
@@Sturminfantrist
Because Burnside's charge did not cost the union the war. Picket's kind of did. Also, Lee was well aware at that point, that he was fighting a war with almost no reserves and could not afford the casaulties, of such a risky gamble going wrong.
@@josynaemikohler6572 The Confederacy had just as much chance of winning the American Civil War as the Axis did winning WWII (so, not a chance), possibly even less of one. Picket's Charge only hastened the inevitable.
I like to think a successfully beached Yamato would have the crew suppressed by carpet bombing. It’s guns blown apart by the battleship fleet and then marines storm the wrecked smoking hulk to raise the American flag on whatever bit of smoking metal is tallest because all three groups wanted the distinction of being the unit that defeated the largest battleship afloat.
Similar to the Prince of Wales sinking in that only a few degrees list was needed to completely throw out ANY accurate AA aiming combined with bombs damaging the range finders
It's a shame both Yamatos were sunk, they were absolutely beautiful and awe-inspiring ships. Imagine if the Japanese could've turned one of them into a museum.
Aye, or if the US had taken one home as a war trophy (pretty hard to top that for size of visible achievement).
If one did survive it most likely would have been used in the bikini atoll nuclear tests.
@@tarn1135 Sadly this is likely, they would have joined Nagato.
Theoretically. What the USN would have done with an intact Yamato class is anyone's guess, as unlike Nagato she wasn't a WWI era ship.
@@jimtaylor294 nah I guess it would be use in operation cross road.
Imagine trying to sink a battleship for hours only to get yeeted out of the sky when it explodes
At least you did your job right as it did sink
Hehe magazine explosion go boom
Imagine spending millions building a super battleship to beat all battleships and...
Well, at least she went out with a bang.
@@KatyushaLauncher but not satisfied with how it end up
@@ajalvarez3111 atleast she sunk an escort carrier that's better
In the photo shown at 10:00, I (inexactly) counted about 82 US vessels... As one US Carrier pilot said at the invasion of Saipan " The fleet covered the ocean as far as the eye could see. It was a testament to one of the most monumental misjudgments in history by the Japanese government and, boy, were they gonna get it now...!"
When a magazine explosion is better anti-aircraft than your dedicated guns.
Yamato: okay so I have over 125 AA guns. I should be able to shoot down tons of planes.
*sinking and the magazine explodes taking more planes than the AA guns*
Yamato: bruh....
Starting with a bottle of Bordeaux, classic misdirection tactic..
He wants to distract us while he sucks up our essential fluids!
My grandfather was on a troopship at Okinawa (USS Karnes, APA-175 for the record): I didn't put it together until years after he died, when I was reading a book called "A Glorious Way to Die" About the final mission of Yamato, but he made a comment once, just offhand, about the day Yamato sortied.
"Hell, we woke up that morning and we knew something was up: everybody in the anchorage was lighting off all their boilers." The troopships usually only had enough steam to power their electrics and move if they must: they were going to full working pressure so they could run for their lives if Yamato was still floating by day's end. He was also there when USS Birmingham was hit by a Kamikaze: "The flak was so thick it turned the sky black," in his own words. In fact it was sort of surmised by his ship's crew that what happened was they shot the pilot with their 40mm guns and that caused the plane to flip over and crash into the cruiser.
He kept a record of where his ship went during his time aboard, on the back of a single-page calendar, usually with a comment on the date they sailed away. for Okinawa it just said "HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE. CHILDREN!!" I can't imagine what he must have seen.
Possibly the women and children jumping off cliffs because they were told they would be raped and tourtured by American service men If they surrendered. In reality they would have been well treated and fed and given medical attention.
War propaganda is tragic.
おそらく、お父様は。特攻機「Kamikaze」の若い搭乗員の遺体を見たか、聞いたかしてコメントを書いたのだと私は思います。当時の特攻隊員の多くは航空機、水中特攻の人間魚雷「回天」、水上特攻の小型ボートを含めて16歳～20歳前後の若者でした。
それから、当時の日本軍には、IJAは有りません、米軍と同じ様にIJNAとIJAAが有りました。
航空隊と海軍は敵対していませんでした。但し海軍と陸軍が予算の取り合いの為に仲が悪かったのは事実です。
@@81c239 Whatever.
Emperor Hirohito: "Gentlemen, we need a meme before memes become a thing."
Japanese Admiralty: "How about we send Yamato and a few escorts to their inglorious demise?"
Emperor Hirohito: "Make it so!"
Memelord Mimohito
The captain ordered a ship to come alongside to evacuate the ship's crew, and a portrait of the Emperor. Bloody hell, who painted the portrait, Picasso?
It's all symbolic and tradition, like preserving a ship's bell in the West
The portraits were also all removed from the Japanese carriers to destroyers at Midway.
Had Picasso painted it, no one would have known the subject of the painting was the Emperor.
I'm not sure those Kamikaze pilots would have been much help defending Yamato. Most of them were poorly trained and inexperienced. The American pilots would have made another turkey shoot out of them.
Shorter distance from airfuelds to targets. Also the ground clutter by mountainous landscape of Japan would mask a part of the the approach to USN radars - all in all - less response time for USN fighter directors. Many more airfields compared to mostly small islands invaded by the US thus far (with exception of the Philippines) - far fewer Japanese planes could be destroyed in pre-invasion strikes percentage wise. Greater numbers. Japanese also planned to strike the more vulnerable transport ships rather than warships this time to maximize damage. Toss in Shinyo and Fukuryu suicide explosive speedboats as well as kaiten suicide torpedos and the invasion of Japan would have been far costlier than even Okinawa. USN was aware of this and there were proposals to send a fake invasion fleet of empty ships bristling with AAA to bait the kamikaze into wasting themselves on them before the real, loaded invasion fleet was finally sent in...
@@VersusARCH Actually...
Kamikazes: "Try to stop us now USA!"
Little Boy: "Try to stop ME!!!"
As opposed to experienced, veteran kamikaze pilots.
The Army hated the Navy, and the Navy despised the Army. It would never have crossed the Army's mind to help with CAP. It would never cross the Navy's mind to debase themselves by asking the Army to provide it.
Drach' you failed to mention the raising of _Yamato_ and it's conversion into a space-going battleship, complete with a complement of . . .
"Emily! That was just a sci-fi animated TV show!"
"Oh." Nevermind.
The wreck looks like an airplane crash, what is there to even raise?
"Fire the gun, Wildstar.... Fire the gun." - Leader Desslok
@@muznick Man now i feel old for watching that way back when.
@@jonmcgee6987 If you watched in the early '80s as I did, you ARE old. :)
@@muznick There is a remake (it is excellent) know as Yamato 2199 (or Star Blazers 2199 since it has been dubbed into English, though with the Japanese names this time around). It can be pointed to as an example of how a remake is suppose to be done. The sequel series has also been done known as Yamato 2202, with a third series, known as Yamato 2205, due to come out next winter.
there's a video on the number of ships both sides built during the war. During latter years, the US was churning out at least several DDs a day. The production rate was so lopsided it wasn't even funny.
Exactly as Yamamoto predicted before Pearl. Ships, subs, tanks, Aircraft, trucks, hundreds of acres of steel mats to build improvised runways. Even floating drydocks which were towed across the Pacific in order to repair battle damaged ships close to the fighting.
Ed Frawley And on top of that, enough excess industrial capacity to repair or even totally rebuild, in shockingly little time, the ships damaged by not only the Japanese but the Germans. Not just American ships either, but British, French, etc. And then *still* had industrial capacity to spare.
And in addition to the lopsided production rate, the US was rotating it's existing ships for upgrades. And if that wasn't enough, Japan was not just a threat to be eliminated, they were also public enemy number one. Almost like a herd of enraged bull elephants out to get a 19th century safari hunter who is stuck on foot with 2 bullets left in his rifle.
The US alone could easily carry the war. WW2 was a war of resources, and the US had all they ever need, and then some.
@@franciscodetonne4797 we pretty much did.
In memory of
Sgt Lofstrom N.R. U.S.M.C.
KIA 25 May 1945, during the Battle for Okinawa.
He had been wounded during the day. The Japanese came out that night and bayoneted him. He had been wounded before. During the Marshal island campaign.
I've seen a short interview filmed in the mid 1970's with one of the American squadron commanders on this mission. (It might have been in an episode of The World at War.) He may have been the commander of his carrier's air group or CAG. He was directing the attacks of either the second or third wave of American planes. Even 30 years after the war this guy had a "kill em all, let god sort em out" attitude. He said he regretted how sloppy the American attacks were, that too many planes went after the Yamato. He was disappointed that all of the ships escorting Yamato weren't sunk, which would have left no survivors. I believe he's also referenced saying the same thing in the book, "A Glorious Way to Die," by Russell Spurr, which is a pretty good account of Operation Ten-Go.
A countervailing point of view can be found in the book "Requiem for Battleship Yamato" by Yoshida Mitsuru; who was a junior officer stationed on Yamato's bridge. Near the end of the final American attack wave, he felt that he and his comrades were being given a lesson by experts.
This battle really shows how the gap in power between the US and Japan expanded exponentially
they were already stuck in a stalemate in the yearslong war with china
attacking the US was the most suicidial thing ever.
@@Blei1986 1. the war in China was not a stalemate. 2. Attacking the US would not have been suicidal if the Pearl Harbor attack had been both planned and executed better. The IJN could have gained a serious upper hand if the Pearl Harbor attack had targetted the proper ships or they had targetted the fuel storages. Unfortunately, the pride of the Japanese pilots led to them targetting the incorrect ships and not targetting 'boring' fuel tanks. No pilot wants to return to say they blew up a fuel tank, you want to return and say you helped sink a capital ship. Which was exactly the mentality that cost them in the end.
@@KeiwaM 1. sure, japan had good positions along the coast, but it was simply too much chinese and too much land to invade and occupy. IF they ONLY focused on china, maybe they had succeeded, but in this state to occupy most of se-asia was just too much. 2. afaik japan didn´t want to invade and occupy pearl harbor - so, no matter how devestating the attack would have been, it would have just delayed the result.
@@Blei1986 kinda like what happen to Germany in the operation barbarossa
@@thescarlethunter2160 true, if the germans didn't attack, then the soviets would have (attacked them) sooner or later.
the war was pretty much lost the moment the allies declared war, resulting in a 2 front war (again)...
Drach, small correction: the Yamato's heavy AA was 5" (127mm), and the secondary battery was 155mm (6.1"), not 5.1" and 6" respectively.
Small, all right. Quibbling over a tenth of an inch make you feel better?
@@stevengabriel3269 did using such a hostile tone over something this small make you feel better?
Yes, the triple 6.1 inch turrets were taken from the Mogami class heavy cruisers when they upgraded to dual 8 inch turrets.
@@stevengabriel3269 I hope you are not an architect or engineer.
@@kohinarec6580 I'm not building any thing... I'm watching TV.
Can you imagine the awe of coming up on that big monster for the first time as a pilot and then the subsequent joy at having such a meaty target (not to mention prestigious) to attack. I cant even imagine the different emotions the pilots must have felt in this battle
Yeah, the Japanese army diverting resources to provide cover for a navy operation wasn't going to happen.
It's incredible how much they hated each other 😅
I imagine if Imperial Japan somehow got nukes, the IJN would nuke the Kwantung Army while the IJA nuked either the Kido Butai or the battleship anchorage at Hashirajima.
@@LukoHevia well from today japan pop culture that I watches, make fun of IJA is fine and no one triggered while make fun of IJN and see bunch of triggered japanese run towards you
@@bkjeong4302 LOL.My eyes are hurting from the laughing.
@@LukoHevia When your army hates your own country's Navy so bad that they build their own submarines and aircraft carriers.Was there ever a funnier competition between armed branches of the same country?
There is a wonderful book, titled, "A Glorious Way to Die," that details in great depth this Japanese sortie. I read it years ago and found it to be most remarkable. I was amazed at just how many torpedoes etc. it took to sink the IJN Yamato...there is first hand accounting in this book from at least one of the very, very few survivors from off the IJN Yamato. Its one of the best history books I have ever read. :) T U so much Drach, for this presentation.
A Glorious Way to Die. I'll have to read that. Thank you. I have seen some heroism which cost men their lives, but there was certainly no glory in the moment of death. There was fear, and stink and tears and apologies and questions. Anyway, thanks for the book title.
Fabulous! Really excellent recounting of these events. My Uncle, Private Conrad Wann Jr. USMC 1st Marine Div. went ashore at Okinawa. It started easy but got bloody and I wonder how different it might have been if this operation by the Japanese had turned out closer to what the plan sought to accomplish. RIP Uncle Connie. He made it home, but the War never left him...
Beaching a ship and turning it into a fortress sounds like a great bombing target
Even high flying B-29s couldn't miss such a large target.
@@kaletovhangar quite true, you could Shell a Beached Yamato from 25 miles and land accurate shots on her, Strategic bomb her using any bomber, or even get a nuke, lob it at her, and it will land on her, or failing that, land near her
You know, the amount of damage the battleship sustained is actually VERY impressive. You have massive air attacks coming at the ship in all directions and it STILL held out for quite some time. If it had air cover, the bloody thing might have actually survived to do some damage.
Japanese air cover wouldn't have lasted long, you do know the state of the pilot training in Japan? Near non-existant in 1945.
@@jonathanbaron-crangle5093 I hear ya man. Thats why I said "if" hahah
I can’t even imagine how big japan’s fighter escort would have had to have been to defend against almost 400 planes
This makes me want to make some kind of naval montage
Oh no
World of warships?
If only wt had battleships, could've set up custom battle with dozens of player-controlled planes swarming one
I can only imagine Yukikaze and her crew awkwardly looking on with someone saying three for three Yamato's and we still haven't taken notable damage.
when the detonation of your ship does more damage to the enemie than its cannons
*Kamikaze level 100*
The Yamato was such a beautiful ship
Yup, I'm sad neither it or Musashi could be preserved as a museum, but I understand that preserving an enemy ship in live combat is the last thing any opposing fleet would ever think about, so I don't fault the USN at all. It shows the overwhelming advantage carriers became, and the sheer one-sidedness of the war at that point when All that could be assigned to escort the Japanese flagship was a single light cruiser and a few destroyers....
They all were
On all sides of the war
Was.
To be honest, while all of the 29 battleships built in WWII were aesthetically pleasing to look at, I can't get much joy out of them due to the fact all 29 were built in the carrier era, and were pointless and obsolete from the start. It's the worst military procurement disaster in history.
Bk Jeong Like HMS Vanguard. Now that was a beauty. Finished too late for the war😂
OttoVonSkidmarck
Not only built too late for the war, she was obsolete when laid down, and it was obvious she was obsolete when she was launched.
Of those 29 pointless and obsolete battleships, Vanguard is easily the most pointless.
When we were transiting back to Japan from -- our captain gave us the history of the battle as we sailed over the exact place where it happened.
If you must sortie, go on Yukikaze, never with her. She is lucky like runabout USS Rio Grande, but she is a curse to her fleet mates.
kek
nanoda!
The Rio Grande was a German Blockade Runner and was sunk
Absolutely fantastic work sir, always love your videos.
If the Yamato had managed to get close enough to Okinawa and the Allies had been forced to form a gun line to stop that. That would have been the party of the century. Even the older dreadnoughts would have wanted in on the festivities. They'd have been pushing their engines to the breaking point to keep up with their newer cousins.
All that being said, it's sad that so many Japanese sailors and officers died for basically no reason.
War is a terrible thing indeed.
And its also a little sad that one of the most impressive warships ever built was sent to the bottom in such a way.
Edit- I can't imagine being trapped deep inside the Yamato as she sank to the bottom. That's the stuff that nightmares are made of.
"Even the older dreadnoughts would have wanted in on the festivities." Did I miss something? Per the video, they were supposed to form the battle line while the newer BBs stayed with the carriers, so they would have been first to the party.
@@glennricafrente58 do you seriously believe that if the Yamato presented a real threat to Okinawa that the US Navy would be ok with using modernized Standard battleships as its primary means to stop her ??
Yamato was designed to eat Standards alive, you'd have been asking 2 to 3 American sailors and officers to die needlessly.
The newer battleships stayed with the carriers because of the kamikaze threat. They would have been pulled away and formed into a gun line if Yamato made a serious threat to the fleet.
@@admiraltiberius1989 Nothing I said stated or implied what I believed or would have preferred. Sending the standards was apparently what Spruance planned, per Drach. Your OP seemed to contradict this, so I asked if you knew something to the contrary.
@@glennricafrente58 I've read in more then one source that after the airstrikes were launched that Spruance ordered Deyo to form a surface action group if the planes didn't sink her.
Consisting of between 6 to 7 of the modern battleships, multiple cruisers and destroyers.
And then Deyos bombardment group would attach itself if need be.
And Drach didnt mention it cause frankly it doesnt matter, just filler and not important to the overall story.
@@admiraltiberius1989 That surface action group was the Standards.....
6:40 Nothing is impossible, when you are not the one ordered to do that task.
"Hi, Yamato-san! You ever hear of Pearl Harbor? Let us show you what it felt like." >:)
The Yamato was designed to fight a fleet action against multiple Battleships. It may have been the finest battleship ever to take to the waves 🌊 but for one thing; she was being used in the era of Aircraft carriers!
She was effectively the finest sword made in the era of machine guns.
Personally wouldn't call the Yamato the finest battleship ever, I can name a few others more fitting of that. It was the biggest, not the best, and one of the least successful. Doesn't lend itself to be the finest.
The Missouri should likely hold that crown first and foremost. Served in WWII, and was in action nearly 50 years later (and technically had a 51 year existence with the Navy). Surrender was signed on it's very deck and the Iowa's while not as big as Yamato where quite possibly superior where it counted: effectiveness.
@@MongooseJakeNerf , I have far more respect for YUKIKAZE than for YAMATO. Any ship that comes out of a war with barely any damage at all is nothing short amazing. YUKIKAZE also has a number of kills to her name, I think the original USS LAFFEY was one of them (Big Night Battle at Guadalcanal).
YAMATO on the other hoof spent most of her time in ports, with the occasional escort duty, until the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Her only "kills" were just wounding a couple of Tin Cans before those same vessels sent her packing with a spread of torpedoes.
""The water damage control station... had been redistributed at high speed to a number of other parts of the ship " YES, a great comment...U.S. Airforce fighter pilots fighting over
North Viet Nam called themselves & the F-4 Phantom "The World's Leading Distributor of MiG Parts" ( ; )-My Father cut a piece of German propeller from a plane that attacked his base on Jan.1, 1945 (Operation Bodenplatte) and fashioned it into a cigarette lighter..."parts is parts" !
7:37 For some reason, this model made me comprehend more than any photo has just how much of a fortress the Yamato was. The only graphic that has impressed me more was the size comparison ship chart from the Samar Straights video.
Battle off Samar
"There's a lot of shells to dodge!"
But nobody says,
*"THAT'S A LOT OF DAMAGE!!!"*
Great video as always, those pictures were quite amazing. You can feel the chaos just by looking at the water.
Today's April 7. Rest in peace, Yamato.
Tiny quibble ... at 1:15, you state "Truk had fallen", which it had not, although it had certainly drooped. Like the other huge Japanese South Pacific base at Rabaul, it was bypassed after air attacks had rendered it incapable of interfering with Allied operations. When the war ended, it was found that the garrison had spent most of their time trying to grow enough food to stave off starvation.
My Grandfather served aboard the USS Charles S. Sperry DD-697. It was one of the destroyer class ships in the task force that participated in this battle. I am very proud of him, and have only recently delved into his ships history. He was drafted in 1944 and served until 1946. (He was 18 when he was drafted so he was quite a young man during all of this) He worked as both a chef and an anti aircraft turret operator. He is greatly missed like everyone from his generation, they truly were born different.
Very cool!
That was Incredibly Very Well documented and orated and held my interest the Full way through. Very Well Done!
I love your presentation style and your comments. I have been in love with the Pacific Naval War since I was a kid. I find your knowledge of the actions that took place to be rather keen and very helpful. It's always a pleasure to watch your videos. Because of that, I would just like to say "Thank you" for all that you do. Thank you for sharing your productions with us fans. It is always greatly appreciated immensely. Thank you!!!
Thank you Drach, always lovely content!
This is the best narrated, most detailed, well written analysis of a naval battle I've seen. Kudos to all involved. Thank you.
Poor Yukikaze, she had to watch as all three Yamato class ships she escorted were sunk.
I met a survivor of the crew of the Yamato many many years ago when I was a young teen, 1980 or 1981 I think. He had left the ship before Ten Go, if my hazy memory is correct. He was the uncle(?) of a Japanese pen pal (ancient history right there!) I had gone to visit in person. His house was a bit of a shrine to the Yamato with paintings, models and lots of photographs - some of which (if my imagination isn't isn't playing tricks on me) I've never seen published anywhere. I remember this uncle was treated with awe by my friend but I wasn't that interested.
I feel like if you remove the context in wicht the Japanese guided themselves, late war Japan was just suicide olympics. Ten-Go and after the parachute attack in wicht they crash landed to destroy US bombers (can't remember the name) was just meaningless loss of life. Like, imagine being a general in a war where most of your planned operations are not of any strategic value, you're just sending young man to die to prove that you're definitly loyal, and not tottally a coward.
Although the actual Kamikaze aircraft attacks were initially adopted because, get this, they saved lives.
Due to the low level of training the aircrews had a survival expectancy against late-war allied pilots rated in minutes, if not seconds. However the IJN realised that a suicide bomber that evaded the fighters and just ignored the flak would do far greater damage and as it carried a huge payload, and it was far more accurate than they could train their crews to achieve in such a time because they simply flew into the target rather than aimed a weapon at the target and more importantly, didn't have to survive the inevitable slaughter of the retreat as now the allied pilots and commanders new exactly where they were. This meant you could send less strikes for far greater damage.
However, as seen as was happening over in Nazi Germany, at the end of the war reason went out the window and high command only seemed to want to do damage to the enemy as they went under.
As an aside, if you get a chance look into the evolution of bomb sights during the war. It's actually a fascinating history and it puts a lot of the differences in the ability for aircraft to do damage as the war progressed into context.
Absolutely wonderfully done presentation. Thank you!!!
Excellent in-depth review of one of the climatic naval battles of WW2. Thank you👍
The low number of USN aircraft lost shows how ineffective IJN anti-aircraft truly was.
Those Japanese airmen who gave their lives attacking the Allied fleet while Yamato and her escort were being demolished by USN bombers and torpedo planes probably lacked the skill required to interfere with American pilots.
any air cover, even minimal and non effective ones likely would have helped Yamato and her fleet as at the very least, the hellcats would had to divert to engage them (which they were prepared for, that's what they were there for originally anyhow) so more of her AA likely would be intact when the strike aircraft begins their run.
but this likely would still not save Yamato, since there were many more waves sent and prepared to sink her, and Yamato was not going to come out of it alive against all of them... it just means that there would definitely be more casualties on US aircraft.
the bigger problem is that there is no way those japanese aircraft that attacked the fleet which were the IJA aircraft... would've helped IJN fleet...
this is IJA we're talking here... the idea that they'd protect and help IJN ships is absurd especially if they think that the opportunity provided by IJN ships as bait could help them successfully attacking US fleet...
@@IonoTheFanatics as I heard it said once: "The IJN/IJA relationship was fit for an episode of Jerry Springer."
The IJA and IJN appeared to be more at war with each other than with the USN.
The japanese airmen would've been better served by covering the yamato. By that point in the war, american warships had become extremely dangerous to approach from the air.
@@paulprovenzano1093 But approaching them from the surface was even more risky by a large margin.....
Great video, and awesome collections of still photos of the fight.
Excellent detail as always. Thanks, Drachinifel.
Not seen a lot of those pics before, thanks!
Isn’t it weird how war is so terrible yet so interesting? Like how we are all making jokes about the Yamato but at the same time feeling sorry for the immense loss of life that occured?
It really makes you think how insensitive world leaders were back then and even are today in willingly sending thousand and millions of men on their way to certified death only for idealogical differences and petty resources to build even bigger guns. I can only understand it if you are being attacked but as a aggressor it is completely illogical from a humanitarian perspective.
@@Christian-mt5jx i cannot help but to agree, quoting a historian.
"It is good that the soldiers are idle, it means that there is no war."
@@Christian-mt5jx a humanitarian perspective was not on Japan's mind when they butchered their way through China. It's sad that a catastrophic loss of life occurred, but stopping the Japanese and crushing their feudal fascist system was a necessary step for a better world
@@Christian-mt5jx I'll be honest, I remember a quote from the Anime Gate
"Peace is only a period to prepare for the next war"
And we humans have took that lesson to heart
I’m more infuriated at the fact Yamato tends to get singled out as a useless battleship when the reality is that none of the newly built battleship classes on either side of WWII were all that useful; yes, many of them were at sea more often, but that doesn’t mean they actually accomplished anything to justify their existence. Washington and Duke of York are the only two out of 29 battleships of the WWII generation to actually do anything worth the investment put in them-and even they had only one such success each.
Thank you posting. Very interesting and informative. I thoroughly enjoyed watching that.
I've enjoyed all the videos, live or taped. I like the "Citations," and passing on thanks to those whom aide / assist you; if even in the shadows, Well Done!