H-044-3: Operation Heaven Number One (Ten-ichi-go)the Death of Yamato, 7 April 1945. SUZUTSUKI takes a 500-lb GP bomb hit to starboard, abreast her No. TG 58.1, commanded by Rear Admiral J. J. Isokaze, which had her steering disabled by a near miss, suffered 20 dead and 54 wounded, and had to be scuttled by gunfire from Yukikaze. Of firing 3,220-lb shells over 26 miles pilots and eight aircrewmen were missing and presumed dead how many planes were lost sinking the yamato. It said the wreck was in two main pieces, a bow-to-midships section about 560 feet long, and a 264-foot-long stern section. 3s upper powder magazine. Anatomy of Yamato They shadowed the Japanese and relayed their position to the American fleet. In addition, sick sailors and also the oldest sailors were sent to shore. Although born a U.S. citizen, he had been studying in Japan when the war broke out and had the choice of execution or serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy.). The Yamato, completed in Kure in December 1941, was the largest battleship in the world at the time. Helldivers from BENNINGTON and HORNET attack from port. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ , When the U.S. invaded Okinawa on April 1, 1945, the Japanese had, So, the admirals concocted what they termed, Operation Ten-Go (Operation Heaven One). At 1107, Yamatos Type 13 air search radar detected a large aircraft formation inbound at the radars maximum range of 63 nautical miles, and noted the aircraft formation was splitting into two groups. Altogether more effective were Japan's aerial suicide weapons. The Imperial Japanese Navy ceases to exist as a fighting force. Later that day, the battered destroyers ISOKAZE and KASUMI are scuttled and sink. Only 10. [1][5], At 12:32 on 7 April 1945, Yamato was attacked by a first wave of 280 aircraft from Task Force 58, taking three hits (two bombs, one torpedo). Very interesting or happy to read about the Yamoto sinking as I was there as radioman aboard an Avenger off of the USS Langley. One Avenger is shot down but her barrage is largely ineffective because each AA battery fires independently without coordination. Experts believe that a fire raging in the Join SOFREP for insider access and analysis. The Imperial Japanese Navy's super-battleship Yamato, shown here during pre-commission running trials in the Bungo Strait between the Home Islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, 20 October 1941 (NH 73092). 276 men are rescued including Rear Admiral Morishita Nobuei, Chief of Staff, Second Fleet (and former YAMATO skipper). Less than three and half years after Pearl Harbor, American industrial might was on full display. Thank you to all the brave men and women of the US armed forces! [27] While navigating the Bungo Strait, Yamato and her escorts were spotted by the American submarines Threadfin and Hackleback, both of which notified Task Force 58 of Yamatos position. 2023 The SOFREP Media Group. You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. At that point, the crews would go ashore to fight and die to the last man along with their army comrades. A bomb impact in the dispensary killed many of the wounded who had been gathered there, along with many of the medical personnel. TG 58.4 had just finished refueling and would arrive just in time. The Musashi and its sister vessel, the Yamato, were two of the largest battleships ever built. Her waterline armor belt was 16 inches thick. At 1017, Yahagi commenced jamming the Mariners communications, but by then it was too late. Now I know a little bit. When Yamato sank, marking the last Japanese Yamato was essentially doomed by a question from Emperor Hirohito during a briefing on 29 March about plans for Japanese air opposition to expected landings on Okinawa. Yamato would have appeared indestructible. Posted August 23, 2013. this photo from 1941 shows the construction details of the Yamato's rear aircraft deck, side 6-inch guns that were replaced by AA guns later in the war, as well as the aft superstructure and main turret #3. Yamato The destroyer Isokaze rushed to aid Yahagi and take off Rear Admiral Komura, but got pummeled by bombs before she got close. Baka claimed its first victim, the destroyer USS Abele, in the seas off Okinawa on April 12. Had Yamato ever encountered an Allied battleship group, she could have floated safely out of range, while destroying each ship in turn. VT-17 (1943-45) With nearly all of her anti-aircraft guns out of action, the Avenger torpedo planes wreaked havoc. Aruga receives a rare double promotion posthumously to Vice Admiral on the request of Admiral Toyoda. These were 50 aircraft from Essex and Bataan. USS Iowa Class Battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, This slowed Yamato down to 10 knots and made her a sitting duck. Having already counter-flooded to starboard, the only option Yamato had was to flood her starboard engine and boiler rooms. 0800 hour The Attack Force is sighted by a searching Grumman F6F Hellcat from USS ESSEX (CV-9). (The actual U.S. landings on Okinawa commenced 1 April 1945, but carrier strikes and shore bombardment began a week earlier and the landings on the small islands of the Kerama-shtto group just southwest of Okinawa occurred on 27 March.). The second penetrates the port side of the aft Command station and explodes between the 155-mm gun magazine and main gun turret No. How many planes were lost attacking the Yamato? (Based on erroneous San Jacinto report, Samuel Eliot Morison misidentifies this ship as Hamakaze, but a photo shows a Yugumo-class destroyer, which would be Asashimo, and which was also the one lagging behind.). He gave the go-ahead for the strike but ordered the battlewagons to proceed in the event the Japanese fleet got through the airstrike. So, the admirals concocted what they termed, Operation Ten-Go (Operation Heaven One). Eight Japanese destroyers and one cruiser, the Yahagi (left), tried to assist Yamato in fending off her attackers. One of the final photographs of the supership shows her severely damaged hull April 7, 1945 Sinking of the Battleship Yamato. YAMATO turns hard to port. 10 aircraft Yamato was still more than 300 nautical miles from Okinawa when she went down. Forced to wait out much of the war due to her vulnerability to air attack, Yamato was committed in a last, desperate gamble during the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945. The ship captains were then assembled on Yahagi and briefed. Yamato lies on the floor of the East China Sea, 200 miles north of Okinawa, blown apart by one of the most massive explosions ever to occur at sea. Thirty-four Hellcats, 22 Helldivers and one Corsair attack YAMATOs escorts. YAMATOs No. Sieber was officially credited with two bomb hits on the Yamato and received the Navy Cross for his part in helping sink the huge ship that day. battleship's aft secondary magazine caused tons of ammunition to ignite almost simultaneously, It would not be enough. However, three-quarters of these (128 boats) were lost during the conflict, a proportion of loss similar that experienced by Germany's U-Boats. Vice Admiral Ito and Captain Aruga went down with the ship. This was taken as a yet another bad omen. Musashi and her sister ship, Yamato, were by a wide margin the largest battleships ever built. On 19 March 1945 Yamato came under heavy attack when American carrier aircraft from Enterprise, Yorktown and Intrepid raided the major naval base of Kure where she was docked. Laid down in May 1940 as the third of the Yamato-class battleships, Shinano ' s partially complete hull was ordered to be converted to an aircraft carrier following Japan's disastrous loss of four of its original six fleet carriers at the Battle of . Thus, its possible Aruga was selected, but not yet promoted. In keeping with Japanese practice of posthumous promotion for death in battle, he was promoted to vice admiral after Yamato was sunk, that much is fact. Twenty Avengers attacked from the port side (concentrating torpedo attacks from the port side was deliberate, with the intent to capsize the ship). The final phase of the Pacific war during World War II saw a terrible new tactic: massed kamikaze attacks on American ships by Japanese planes. 1000 hour - The Attack Force sights two large Martin "Mariner" PBM flying boats. WORLD WAR II. All Rights Reserved. One fire can be observed amidships from the initial strike, but no list has developed at this point. after the Yamato first took to the sea. The engagement was an unmitigated disaster for the Japanese. While YAHAGI jams their sighting messages, YAMATO receives a report from a Japanese scout plane that Task Force 58 has been located east of Okinawa, 250 nautical miles from the Attack Force. She slips under followed by an underwater explosion. While still a token of national pride, the sinking of Yamato also symbolized the sad end of the once invincible Imperial Japanese Navy. The force would transit to Okinawa on 7 April (with only a few hours of minimal air cover), to arrive in daylight hours in the U.S. transport area off southwestern Okinawa on 8 April. Mitscher ordered all four of his carrier task groups to proceed as soon as possible to launch positions northeast of Okinawa with the intent to destroy Yamato before it got anywhere near Okinawa. The Mariners were subordinate to Patrol Bombing Squadron 21 (VPB-21), operating from the tender Chandeleur (AV-10), which had arrived at Kerama Rettoon 28 March. With the steering locked to port and the ship doomed, Admiral Ito at 1402 hours ordered the crew to abandon ship. John Carter, was in a perfect position to watch what unfolded. Aruga would be posthumously promoted to vice admiral and Ito to full admiral. 1,187 crewmen of DesRon 2s light cruiser YAHAGI and the four destroyers are also lost. 1000 hour The Attack Force sights two large Martin Mariner PBM flying boats. At 1234, Yamato opened fire with her two forward main battery turrets, lobbing sanshikidan shells at the U.S. aircraftto no effect. At 1830, destroyer Isokaze sighted Threadfin on the surface. About 120,000 were held at 10 camps because of fears that Japanese Americans were enemy sympathizers. Japanese lookouts spotted the American air armada at 1232 hours and soon opened fire with Yamatos 18-inch guns firing San Shiki anti-aircraft shells that were wildly inaccurate. Her nine 18.1-inch guns firing Sanshikidan beehive shells, twenty-four 127-mm. By noon, the Corsair and Hellcat fighters arrived over the Yamato group, looking for fighters protecting the Japanese, and finding none waited for the dive bombers and torpedo planes to arrive. A U.S. PBM Mariner also rescued several Japanese survivors. 1200 hour A lookout spots three Japanese troopships on bearing 0250 heading for Amami-Oshima. But the mission was approved and the Japanese ships set sail for Okinawa. YAMATO and YAHAGI open fire, increase speed to 24 knots and commence a series of sharp evasive maneuvers. At 1417, she took an eighth and ninth torpedo, both to port. The first attack wave retires. One of the torpedo planes took a hit in the wing, pulled up in flames, then plunged into the sea. At about 1237, U.S. aircraft commenced attack runs, with strafing and rockets from fighters (which quickly began decimating Japanese anti-aircraft gunners), and then bombs and torpedoes. One of the surviving destroyers did not have a bow. [26] Heavy antiaircraft defensive fire and the heavy upper-deck armour plating on Yamato also prevented any significant damage to the vessel. . TOKYO Seventy-six years ago, on April 7, 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy vessel Yamato, the world's largest battleship, was sunk by U.S. military aircraft. As later described by the captain of Yahagi, Captain Tameichi Hara, the meeting was quite contentious. The only time Yamato fired her main guns at enemy targets was in October 1944, but was ordered to turn back after attacks by destroyers and aircraft of the Taffy light escort carrier task groups managed to sink three heavy cruisers during the Battle off Samar. Relive the super battleship's last moments in photographs. The largest battleships ever built were Yamato and Musashi of the Imperial Japanese Navy. At 1017, Yamato opened fire with several of her special main-battery anti-aircraft shells (sanshikidan or beehive shells, somewhat like a giant shotgun shell), at the Mariners, which was equally futile, although the Mariners ducked back in the clouds. The morale aboard Yamato was described as not being very good, especially after the crews were informed they were on a one-way mission. I hope you enjoy the video! She had suffered minor damage in the bridge area from a bomb hit by a Helldiver dive-bomber off Intrepid (CV-11) during U.S. carrier strikes on Kure and the Inland Sea on 19 March, but was fully fit for battle. YAMATOs list increases to about 15 degrees and her speed slows to 12 knots. Yamato produced the mushroom cloud seen here shortly before she sank. An attack of 36 Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes against the heavily protected USS Hornet with her escorts took down over 20 Japanese planes. She rolls slowly over her port side on her beam ends. Aircrews were astonished at the size of the ship, which had seen very little naval action during the war. Yamato and her sister ship Musashi, sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, were, at 65,000 tons displacement (72,000 tons fully loaded), the largest battleships ever built. Weighing 72,800 tons. Ito was posthumously promoted to full admiral. guns ever mounted at sea. [1] When the 1st Battleship Division was deactivated once again on 10 February, Yamato was reassigned to the 1st Carrier Division. As Yamato continued to list to port, her starboard armor belt came out of the water and her vulnerable underside became exposed. Both the U.S. Fifth Fleet commander, Admiral Spruance, and Vice Admiral Mitscher (commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force, TF 58), who had access to the Ultra communications intelligence and were expecting the sortie, immediately reacted to the submarine reports. This is a movie Yamato 2005. About 1,620 survivors of Yamato, Yahagi, Hamakaze, Isokaze, and Kasumi were rescued by the surviving Japanese destroyers. The explosion was heard over 120 miles away. Both ships cease firing. 129 Japanese soldiers were killed. Mitscher, CTF 58, was embarked on Bunker Hill. A report that had been delayed for 25 minutes by ransmission and decoding, is received finally. Her main armament consisted of three triple 18.1-inch gun turrets that could hurl a 3,200-pound shell (compared to 2,700 pounds for the U.S. 16-inch shells) to a range of just over 22 miles. Fuyutsuki was hit by two dud rockets. Although 16 warships were hit, Yamato sustained only minor damage from a number of near misses and from one bomb that struck her bridge. The Attack Force turns towards Sasebo. Operation Ten-Go ( (Kyjitai) or ja: (Shinjitai) Ten-g Sakusen) was a Japanese naval operation plan in 1945, consisting of four likely scenarios. 1). seven torpedo hits within two hours of battle. Design commenced in 1934, construction began in 1937 (in great secrecy) and Yamato was commissioned in December 1941 just after Pearl Harbor. Around 3,700-4,250 men from Yamato and her escort ships were dead. Not long after the Hellcat sighting, two PBM-3 Martin Mariner flying boats began shadowing Yamato, maintaining discreet contact for the next five hours while mostly hidden in the clouds. But the Americans also had a battle group of eight aircraft carriers (Hornet, Bennington, Belleau Wood, San Jacinto; TG 58.3 Essex, Bunker Hill, Hancock, and Bataan) that were covering the landings. Meanwhile, the dead-in-the-water Yahagi had soaked up at least 12 bombs and seven torpedo hits before she finally capsized and sank at 1405. Six Yorktown Avengers attacked from the starboard side, with their Mark 13 torpedoes re-set for a 20-foot depthseveral hit. YAMATO has taken a total of four torpedo hits. XIV: Victory in the Pacific by Samuel Eliot Morison, Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1969; Japanese Destroyer Captain by Tameichi Hara, New York: Ballantine Books, 1961; Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II by John Prados, New York: Random House, 1995. of the battleship gives a sense of the 18-inch guns' enormous size (note sailors on deck). Yamato was still more than 300 nautical miles from Okinawa when she went down. None of the captains was afraid to diethey just objected to the sheer folly of attacking in daylight without air cover, believing that they wouldnt get anywhere close to Okinawa. By 1408, Yamato had clearly begun to capsize and the ship was being abandoned. FRUPAC had the message that the air cover would end at 1000, which was also known to senior U.S. Navy commanders. A Corsair from ESSEX drops a 1000-lb GP bomb that hits the superstructure in the port bow area. They unanimously objected, most of them arguing instead to be allowed to conduct independent raiding of the over-extended U.S. supply lines. Naval Academy, The Sullivan Brothers and the Assignment of Family Members, Historic Former U.S. Navy Bases and Stations, The African American Experience in the U.S. Navy, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Navy, Contributions of Native Americans to the U.S. Navy, The World Cruise of the Great White Fleet, Navy Underwater Archaeology Return Program, Annual Navy History and Heritage Awards - Main, Research Permits for Sunken & Terrestrial Military Craft, Scanning, Copyright & Citation Information, Obtain Duplications of Records and Photos, H-003-2 Japanese Offensive and Navy Response, H-010-2 The Battle of the Eastern Solomons, H-010-5 Plaque from Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), H-011-1 Guadalcanal: Victory at Cape Esperance, H-011-3 Santa Cruz (Japanese Pyrrhic Victory), H-014-1 The Seizure of USS Pueblo (AGER-2), H-017-2: Operation Rolling Thunder Overview, H-019-4 "Black May": Battle of the Atlantic 1943, H-019-5 "Black Sunday": U-Boats off U.S. East Coast 1918, H-020-4: Submarine AL-2 Versus U-Boat UB-65, H-024-1 Bougainville and Victory in the Solomons, H-025-1 Operation GalvanicTarawa and Makin, H-028-1 Vietnam 1969 Navy Medal of Honor Awards, H-032-1 Operation Forager and the Battle of Philippine Sea, H-Gram Special Edition: Passing of Supreme Court Justice Stevens, H-045-3: 50th Anniversary of Apollo 13 Mission, H-046-1: Kamikaze Attack on USS Aaron Ward, H-048-1: Kamikaze Attacks on U.S. Flagships, H-048-2: Naval Battle of Okinawa (Continued), H-049-2: LCDR George Street's Medal of Honor, H-052-1: The U.S. Navy and the Atomic Bomb, H-053-1: The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, H-053-3: Operation Desert Shield, September 1990, H-054-1: Inchon Landing and Naval Action in the Korean War, September-October 1950, H-054-2: Operation Desert Shield, October 1990, H-055-2: Operation Desert Shield, November 1990, H-055-: Attack on USS Cole (DDG-67) October 2000, H-056-2: Operation Desert Shield, December 1990-January 1991, H-057-1: Operations Downfall and Ketsugo November 1945, H-057-2: Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night, H-058-1: Operation Desert Storm in January 1991, H-058-2: Korean War - Communist China Offensive, H-059-1: Operation Desert Storm in Feb-Mar 1991, H-059-2: 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War, H-061-1 Korea: U.S. Navy Operations, March-July 1951, H-061-3 Desert Storm: Sealift, Seabees, Navy Medicine, H-063-3: The Battle of Shimonoseki Strait, H-064-1: Close Quarters Antisubmarine Warfare (Part 1), H-064-2: Close Quarters Antisubmarine Warfare (Part 2), H-064-3: Close Quarters Antisubmarine Warfare (Part 3), H-069-1: "The Covered Wagon: USS Langley (CV-1), H-070-1: The Vietnam War Easter Offensive, Part 1, H-071-2: U.S. Navy Surface Ship Accidents Since World War II, H-071-3: The Sacrifices of USS Neosho and USS Sims, H-074-1: The Vietnam War Easter Offensive, Part 2, H-075-1: U.S. Navy vs. Soviets Overwater Dogfight, H-075-2: Short History of U.S. Navy Accidents and Non-Combat Losses. Of Yamato's crew of 2,747, all but 23 officers and 246 enlisted men were lost. I have his flight logs (as he never talked about the war except the death of his brother and his friends) so it is nice to get the big picture of this action. The American invasion fleet had, besides a heavy battleship contingent consisting of six battleships (Massachusetts, Indiana, New Jersey, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Missouri), seven cruisers (including the large cruisers Alaska and Guam) and 21 destroyers. Light cruiser YAHAGI, hit by 12 bombs and seven torpedoes sinks exactly one minute after the last bomb hits. 1 magazine causing a huge explosion with a mushroom smoke cloud that was visible for 100 miles away. Spruance was informed of it only after the aircraft had taken off. This photograph was taken in December 1941, shortly The light cruiser YAHAGI, without headway, drifts helplessly behind the main force. Senior U.S. Navy commanders in the Pacific, including Admiral Raymond Spruance, Commander U.S. Fifth Fleet, knew what the battleship Yamatos mission was before almost anyone on Yamato did. The Yamato sank during a fierce battle for Okinawa on April, 7 1945. The others kept coming. The Attack Force briefly sights seven Hellcat fighters, but they are not seen by the escorting Zekes. The attack of hundreds of US air force against Japan made Japan's biggest battleship Yamato sink. Also interviewed is an American dive-bomber pilot who took part in the attack. Itos chief of staff, Rear Admiral Nobuei Morishita, was the senior survivor of Yamato. One of the largest battleships ever built, Yamato entered service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in December 1941. Spruance gave orders to Rear Admiral Morton Deyo, commander of the Bombardment Force, to take his six old battleships and set up a blocking force northwest of Okinawa (as Yamato was circling around in that direction with the intent to stay as far from TF 58 as possible). The chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka, flew in from Tokyo to ensure that Ito would comply with Admiral Toyodas orders. Baka, essentially a piloted cruise missile, made its debut at Okinawa. The element of surprise was gone for the Japanese. Combined with Yamato, about 4,242 Japanese sailors gave their lives for the emperor on 7 April. But in 'one of history's greatest salvage jobs,' many of the sunken ships rose to fight the Axis. As Yamato and escorts were transiting the Bungo Strait between the Home Islands of Kyushu and Shikoku on 6 April 1945, submarine Threadfin (SS-410) sighted the force at about 1745 and issued a contact report in the clear that was intercepted by Yamato. US warplanes sank the Musashi on 24 October 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, believed to be. Surrounding Japanese ships lost an additional 1,167 men. The visibility was highly variable, but often not very good due to cloud cover. Instead, Yamato was obsolete the day she was launched, as the Japanese themselves proved at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere by sinking Allied battleships with airpower. At 0823, a Hellcat fighter off Essex (CV-9) sighted Yamato, a contact that the battleship reported at 0832. Submarine Hackleback (SS-295) then picked up surveillance, issuing four contact reports during the night as Yamato transited southwesterly along the coast of Kyushu. Additionally, aircraft damaged most of the . one-third of which were torpedo bombers that hit from low altitudes. She was blasted by 12 bombs and six more torpedos. Pearl harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941,hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. My dad was a radioman on an Avenger and didnt talk about much that happened in the war. The ships were to sink as many troop transports as possible, then beach themselves and continue firing as long as they had ammunition. YAMATO turns towards the planes and opens fire unsuccessfully as does cruiser YAHAGI. Captain Hara on Yahagi reported that the large formations of aircraft circled around the task force just outside anti-aircraft range for a number of minutes, some in clockwise rotation and some in counter-clockwise rotation, as strike leaders organized strikes on particular targets free of interference from Japanese fighters. Yamato's remains were located and examined in 1985 and again examined, more precisely, in 1999. A torpedo strikes HAMAKAZE starboard, aft of amidships and she jackknifes. Yahagi was commanded by Captain Tameichi Hara (the only Japanese destroyer skipper at the start of the war who was still alive at the end of the war), with Rear Admiral Keizo Komura, commander of Destroyer Squadron 2, embarked. This time all the attacks are concentrated against the battleship. 1400 hour Three bombs explode port amidships, five minutes later a torpedo hits her starboard side amidships. At 1000 hours he launched a total of 386 aircraft consisting of fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers. He saw four Avengers go in low, dropping their torpedoes in a spread on Yamatos beam. sent to engage Yamato made it into position above her and soon began to Ito and Captain Aruga went down with the ship. They had already lost the battles of the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, and Iwo Jima. A Curtiss Helldiver bomber like the one seen at right Workers are gathered around the gaping opening that will house main turret #2. The destroyer Isokaze attempted to come to her aid but was heavily damaged and driven off. Deyo had just received a cheery send-off from his immediate boss: "We hope you will bring back a nice fish for breakfast." Hatsushimo suffered only three wounded on 6 April, but, on 20 July, struck a mine and was the last Japanese destroyer sunk in the war. Suzutsuki suffered 57 dead and 34 wounded, but, despite having her bow blown off, made it back to Sasebo, Japan, steaming in reverse the whole way; she was never repaired. They were also given the option of not participating, an option none of them took. Lieutenant J.G. VA-25 (1959) Air Group VI (6) Torpedoes dropped from their bellies, slashing through the water toward Yamato. The submarine radio traffic transmitted in the clear, reporting Yamato by name, and reported by Japanese radio intelligence, did nothing to improve the sense of foreboding felt by the senior officers on Yamato. Asashimo went down with all 330 hands. Mitscher correctly assumed that the Japanese were operating without air cover and would be sitting ducks for his huge airwing. 7, 1945 south of Kyushu. Yamato fired her 18-inch guns at approaching American aircraft, The aft secondary battery fire control, secondary gun turret and the air search radar are knocked out. Vice Admiral Ito and YAMATOs skipper Captain Aruga and 3,055 of 3,332 crewmen are lost. The Americans lost 10 aircraft, while one aircraft carrier, one battleship, and one destroyer were damaged. Executive Officer Nomura Jiro reports to Captain Aruga that his damage control officers are all dead and that counter-flooding can no longer correct the list. According to the plan, Yamato, light cruiser Yahagi, and eight destroyers would form a Surface Special Attack Force (the term special attack was understood to mean suicide) and sortie on 6 April 1945. U.S. losses were 10 aircraft and 12 pilots and aircrewmen. 3s USS ESSEX (CV-9), BUNKER HILL (CV-17), BATAAN (CVL-24) and CABOT (CVL-28). Kasumi, which had her steering disabled by two bomb hits, suffered 17 dead and 47 wounded, and was scuttled by two torpedoes from Fuyuzuki. My dads name is Ronald R. LeFebvre (Ding). At 2144, the submarine issued a detailed contact report with an accurate force disposition. It had been deployed on a Surface Special Attack Force suicide mission to drive back U.S. forces that had landed on Okinawa. . Yamato had been fitted with multiple air and surface search radars, as well as radio-intercept capability. Light cruiser Yahagi steered away from Yamato in an attempt to draw attention away from the battleshiptoo successfully. The destroyers were an assortment of different classes (what was left in operation, since the Japanese would lose 120 destroyers during the war), but all were armed with powerful Type 93 Long Lance 24-inch torpedoes. They eventually fell in line when informed that this was what the emperor wanted, that the force would serve to support the mass kamikaze air attack, and that it was an order. By dawn on April 7, Asashimo, one of the destroyers developed engine trouble and started heading back to port in Japan. Heavy antiaircraft defensive fire and the ship was being abandoned trouble and started back., essentially a piloted cruise missile, made its debut at Okinawa also the oldest sailors sent... Time all the attacks are concentrated against the battleship Isokaze and KASUMI are scuttled and sink 7,,... Captains were then assembled on Yahagi and take off Rear Admiral Morishita Nobuei, Chief of Staff, Second (. Iowa Class battleships Versus IJN Yamato Class, this slowed Yamato down 10! She went down was blasted by 12 bombs and seven torpedoes sinks exactly one after. Three Japanese troopships on bearing 0250 heading for Amami-Oshima CVL-24 ) and CABOT ( CVL-28 ) happy to read the. 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