Beaching the Yamato questions

The same Info is on WIKIPEDIA concering Feifer, The Battle of Okinawa.


despite obeying orders to prepare for the mission, Admiral Seiichi Itō, commander of the Ten-Go force, still refused to actually order his ships to carry it out, believing the plan to be futile and wasteful.

On WIKI they Refrence Feifer book 3 times that I can see, and it's a major problem that I refrenced his Book.


References

• Feifer, George (2001). "Operation Heaven Number One". The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-215-5.

^ Feifer, The Battle of Okinawa, 410–430.

^ Feifer, The Battle of Okinawa, 17–25.

^ a b Feifer, The Battle of Okinawa, 7.

Operation Ten-Go - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This is my First Post, I cut and pasted which is the Same info as in another 4 Web Sites.

Supposedly this is a Myth, Widespread rumors that the ship was only given enough fuel for a one-way trip are false; "Feifer" debunks this.
The Japanese had a plan to beach the Yamato on Okinawa's shore and use it as a land battery. What good would these be on land?


Battle of Okinawa See the link is there to what I cut and pasted.


As far as I'm Concern the Ship went on a Suicide Mission to sink as many US Naval ships before it got sunk.

 

Ok Got you, Nice Graphics JugHead. I C It has a big Recoil Dampener I can Load pages like that with movement Great something I didn't know.


I guess the Bombs from the Planes would of done the Job Quickly once Beached.

 

The aviators wouldn't like it, but the best way to finish her off might be battleship gunfire, delivered at extreme range so the shells would descend at the steepest possible angle. If I recall correctly that's about 53 degrees; the guns would be elevated to 45 degrees, but thanks to air resistance the downward part of the arc is a bit steeper. That would be 2700lb armor-piercing shells descending from about 20,000 feet, which probably exceeds the deck penetration of any bombs we had available, even land-based (anyone know the biggest US AP bomb of the period?). Stationary target with radar ranging - she'd probably ground far enough from shore to make a distinct echo - and air spotting.

 

I bet even the cooks and bakers would have taken a crack at it

 

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGy5ApynvBw&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

Looks like the first shot hit the Yamato front Turret, while it was moving, If beached in no time It would of light up the Skies like the 4th of July, from the Bombers.



http://www.privateletters.net/PHOTOS_PTO/pto160.jpg




http://www.knowledgerush.com/wiki_image/f/f7/Yamato_battleship_explosion.jpg



http://www.uss-bennington.org/pics/phznh62582-yamato450407.jpg

 

With regards to American detection of the Yamato and her little fleet.

According to John Prados in his "Combinded Fleet Decoded", he lists two ULTRA intecepts in the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean(JICPOA) summary from April 5th. The first regarded the request to fuel Yamato and her escorts at Tokuyama, and the second was that the Japanese force would arrive in the area east of Okinawa at dawn on April 8th. He also notes that this summary contained Spruance's message, dated April 6th @ 0030 hours, to his ships saying "You take them on!" Which would be some fifteen hours before the Yamato even left Tokuyama. Furthermore, Captain Frank W. Scheible's recon B-29, on the morning of April 6th, detected and photographed Yamato and her escorts at the Tokuyama. April 6th also saw OP-20-G achieve the final solutions on messages containging the Yamato's sortie. JICPOA summary for April 6th contained notice of four more ULTRA intercepts with changes to Admiral Ito's mission, as well as, instructions for Air Group 951 to increase its ASW patrol of Bungo Strait. The Yamato's force was also spotted at 1930 hours on April 6th by submarine USS Threadfin, she followed the formation until contact was lost between 2025-2030 hours. Orders to clear all contacts with Pearl Harbor before firing torpedoes prevented her from firing, and the clearance did not come until 2020 ours when the Yamato was out of range. At roughly the tmie USS Threadfin lost contact, the submarine, USS Hackleback gained radar contact. USS Hackleback closed to about 8 miles before being spotted and chased by a Japanese destroyer. Japanese destroyers prevented the Hackleback from achieving a firing position and she lost contact with the Yamato around 2207 hours.


With regards to the debate about the one-way trip of Yamato between Spaniard and mikebatzel.

The subject of the Yamato carrying more fuel than was needed for a one-way trip was first brought to light in Russell Spurr's "A Glorious way to Die", published in 1981. According to his research, the private records of the supply officers of Tokuyama Oil Depot reveal that the Yamato took on some 4000 tons of fuel, the Yahagi 1250 tons, and the 8 destroyers were provided with between 900 to 500 tons each. Given that the Yamato had about 600 tons in her tanks before taking on fuel, that would give her about 4600 tons of fuel, as opposed to her normal capacity of 6300 tons.


With regards to the beaching of the ships and using them as support for the Japanese forces ashore, I quote this passage from "A Glorious Way to Die", on page 107. It is when Vice Admiral Kusaka is explaining the operation to the senior officers of the Second Fleet.

 

Bombs from planes on a beached "Yamato" would have quickly destroyed her for a better reason....

"Her magazines, however, were loaded with explosives and incendiaries, and it was hoped that she could be sent careering into the midst of the Allied fleet in a manner reminiscent of the Kamikaze crashes onto the decks of Allied ships. The use of Yamato for a floating kamikaze mission was a measure of the desperation of the Japanese and their determination to combat their enemies by any means."...(Source...Ronald Heiferman)

Sounds very much like a one way voyage to me. As a shore battery, she would have expended her ammunition fairly quickly, then sat there waiting to be destroyed.

"Yamato" would have made for a fine post-war tourist attraction, if nothing else.

 

The video provided above is a confusing mish-mash of footage. Most of the shots of battleships are of Fuso class ships with pagoda masts, something the Yamato did not possess.

Not surprising that the footage of Yamato is not very prevalent. Photographs and footage of her were strictly verbotten. When she was announced to the Japanese people, a picture of a "Tone" class cruiser was supplied as a sop for the press, who, in their ignorance, would not have known the difference.

It seems to be a standard for producers of television documentaries, especially those coming out of the United States. General comments will be interlaced with any old footage, as is the case here. I don't trust American television producers in the slightest to care a fig about accuracy, in their quest for "filling" footage to flesh out the airtime, and with frequently grandiose and superficial commentary.

British television does a much better job; more authoritive and careful about detail, not some mass produced program for cable. I am beginning to associate American accents in narration of documentaries as a sign of a 'rush job', and tend to switch off, waiting for something worth watching and paying attention to.

 

Actually Volga Boatman,

There are very few shots, if any, that are of Fuso class, most are of the Nagato class. Seeing that all Japanese battleships except the Yamato had "pagoda" masts, you need to look at other details to identify the ships. For instance the Nagatos were the only Japanese ships to carry casemate secondary guns on two levels.

As for documentaries in general, you need to look at who is making said doucumentary. When I used to watch cable television, PBS And Arts&Entertainment produced very good documentaries, whereas the History channel produced lower grade/class documentaries. I don't know what its like today, but the trend of channels seems to have gone to more the History channel type.

The BBC, to me, seems to be more hit or miss. I have seen some very good and very bad docos from them.

P.S. I did find the shot at 1:37 interesting. What appear to be Japanese "Kate" torpedo bombers with American markings. I have never seen that one before.

 

Seeing as there were only two ships in the Nagato class, what you are actually saying is that those shots are either the Nagato or the Kirishima, yes?

Touche' old boy! Well corrected, and exactly the type of thing that I'm on about...attention to the details, rather than grand sweeping commentary that we've all heard before.

 

Nagato's sister was Mutsu.

Kirishima was a unit of the Kongo class, along with Haruna and Hiei (anyone know how to pronounce that?). They were originally battle cruisers, but after interwar reconstruction increased their protection they were rated battleships. Hiei was largely disarmed as a training ship under the Washington Treaty but was restored to full combat status in the late 1930s. She also pioneered the tower superstructure used on the Yamato class.

The Nagato and Kongo classes were similar in appearance, with four twin turrets, the two aft ones spaced rather far apart. This was because the engine rooms were located between them.

 

Tha-yanks!

 

Opana's corresponds pretty closely to what I've heard. However if you want to be sure there was a proposal at one time to have one of the Japanese speakers over on the ijn board post sound files of the how to pronounce a number of such words. Here's a link to the boards but I have no idea where or if the files actually exist:
Japanese Ships & Navy Message Board