Version # 1. Brilliant victory
East China Sea, 100 miles southwest of the Japanese island of Kyushu. Here on April 7, 1945, a real naval tragedy broke out: a Japanese squadron led by the battleship Yamato was killed under the blows of the US Navy carrier-based aircraft. The superlinker with a total displacement of 70 thousand tons was ingloriously sunk two hours after the start of the air attack.
On that day, the Japanese lost 3,665 sailors. American losses amounted to 10 aircraft (four torpedo bombers, three bombers, three fighters) and 12 pilots - a microscopic price for the destruction of the largest warship in the history of Mankind. In principle, more paradoxical situations are known in the annals of maritime history, for example, the incredible return of the Seydlitz or the miraculous rescue of the brig Mercury. But the sea battle on April 7, 1945 became a truly significant event - a fat point was put in a long dispute between an artillery ship and an aircraft carrier. From now on, it became clear to the most stubborn skeptics who is the ruler of the seas. The war in the Pacific, which began with the battleship pogrom at Pearl Harbor, ended with the triumphant sinking of the most powerful battleship on the planet. Deck aviation was amazingly effective in dealing with any enemy on the coast and in the open ocean.
But let's return to that legendary naval battle, which has haunted the lovers of sea stories for 70 years. According to the plan for the suicidal operation Ten-Go, "Yamato", despite the many times superior enemy forces, had to break through to the island of Okinawa, where to throw themselves aground and turn into an impregnable fortress. To prolong this Odyssey as much as possible, the battleship was given an escort from a cruiser and 8 destroyers:
Light cruiser "Yahagi". Full displacement of 7500 tons. Armament *: 6 x 150 mm guns, 2 twin 76 mm anti-aircraft guns, 62 anti-aircraft guns, forty-eight (!) 610 mm torpedoes. Reservations: belt - 60 mm, upper armored deck - 20 mm. Fast and strong ship, ideal for the role of the flagship of a destroyer division.
Two specialized air defense destroyers "Suzutzuki" and "Fuyutzuki". Both ships were much larger than conventional destroyers, and their size corresponded to the legendary Soviet leader Tashkent. The cruising range reached 8,000 miles (18 knots), which in theory allowed them to cross the Pacific Ocean and return back to Japan without replenishment of fuel supplies. The main armament of the destroyers: 8 x 100 mm highly automated anti-aircraft guns, 48 anti-aircraft guns of 25 mm caliber. Guided by the radar beam, the Suzutsuki and Fuyutzuki guns were supposed to create an insurmountable wall of anti-aircraft fire.
Six "regular" destroyers. Each armament: 6 x 127 mm universal guns, 25 - 30 anti-aircraft guns, torpedoes, depth charges. For their time, Japanese destroyers possessed high speed (35-40 knots) and excellent seaworthiness.
And, in fact, the battleship itself "Yamato" (the ancient name of Japan). 70 thousand tons of full displacement. Speed 27 knots (50 km / h). The crew is 2500 people. Armor belt - half a meter of solid armor. Impenetrable and unsinkable. The main caliber is 460 mm (nine guns in three turrets).
The battleship was protected from attacks from the air by 24 universal naval guns of 127 mm caliber and 162 (one hundred and sixty-two!) Automatic anti-aircraft guns of 25 mm caliber. The fire control systems included 5 radar stations of various ranges.
In total, the American aviation was opposed by up to 100 barrels of medium-caliber artillery and over 500 automatic anti-aircraft guns, not counting the large-caliber machine guns and the monstrous "Sansiki-Type 3"? 460 mm anti-aircraft ammunition created by Japanese engineers. At a given height, multi-meter tongues of flame were hit from the projectile, and it turned into a ball of thousands of striking elements. The stunning fireworks turned out to be in fact an ineffective weapon, and the terrible shots with the main caliber prevented the crews of the anti-aircraft guns from firing.
As expected, the naval pilots paid no attention to the deadly anti-aircraft fire and boldly attacked the squadron from all directions. The torpedo pilots tried to get into the starboard side of the Yamato - they wanted to return to their native aircraft carrier as soon as possible and get a portion of ice cream, so it was decided to hit only one side with torpedoes - this way the battleship would roll over faster. Indeed, less than two hours later, the Yamato lay on its side and suddenly turned into a bright flash of light. The explosion mushroom was many kilometers long and could be seen from tens of miles away.
By the way, such a strange victory did not impress the American sailors, and the sinking of the Yamato was never given much importance. There was a battleship, then it sank.
Version number 2. Mandatory fly in the ointment
The Yamato sank the 58th US Naval Forces Task Force. Behind this quite everyday name is the most powerful squadron of warships that has ever plowed the vast oceans. Two dozen strike aircraft carriers under the cover of fast battleships, heavy cruisers and hundreds of destroyers. The air group of each aircraft carrier was equal in size to two Soviet aviation regiments of the 1945 model.
Task Force 58 was the favorite tool of the American command - with this "club" anyone who dared to offer any resistance was beaten. During the landing on Kwajalein Atoll, aircraft carriers and battleships hammered this piece of land for a week, until not a single tree remained on it, and by chance the surviving soldiers of the Japanese garrison were deafened and in shock. Yes, the Americans preferred to throw heavy bombs and 406 mm shells at the enemy, rather than the corpses of their conscripts (it is fair to say that this is a very correct approach to the conduct of hostilities). But, as one of the Voennoye Obozreniye forum visitors correctly noted, the American military was the only one who could afford it. The armies of other countries had to gain victories in bloody battles for life and death.
In early April 1945, the incredible Task Force 58, consisting of five attack aircraft carriers Essex, Hancock, Bennington, Hornet, Bunker Hill, as well as light aircraft carriers Bello Wood, San Jacinto, Cabot and Bataan, under cover of an escort of six Iowa and South Dakota-class battleships and countless submarines, cruisers and destroyers, patrolled 70 miles off Okinawa Island, waiting for the last remnants of the Imperial Navy to take a chance go out to sea. Such a desperate ship turned out to be the Yamato …
All things considered, the sinking of the Yamato squadron looks like a "beating up of babies." The Americans deployed a dozen aircraft carriers against one single battleship. Shame on the US Navy!
Version number 3. Neutral
Despite the impressive number of Task Force 58 ships, only carrier-based aircraft operated against the Yamato. American battleships and cruisers did not take part - the battle took place 300 miles west of the location of the main forces of Task Force 58.
Further, the attack involved only 280 carrier-based aircraft out of 400 available, i.e. it is reasonable to assume that not even all aircraft carriers were involved. Of the 280 aircraft, the Yamato squadron was actually attacked by 227 aircraft - the remaining 53 were lost on the way and did not reach the target (it must be admitted that the raid took place in bad weather, and there were no GPS systems at that time). But even this amount was enough in abundance.
The planes did not attack all at once, but in several waves. The first, the largest, consisted of 150 vehicles. After 20 minutes, a second group of 50 aircraft appeared over the Japanese squadron. The bombers entered strictly from the nose of the battleship and switched to a gentle dive, in this case their angular velocity was so high that the Japanese anti-aircraft gunners did not have time to deploy the barrels of their guns. The fighters swarmed over the squadron, pouring a.50 Browning lead downpour on the decks. The torpedo bombers continued to methodically destroy the starboard side of the Yamato. The battleship was hit by at least 15 bombs and 13 torpedoes.
Together with the battleship, the cruiser "Yahagi" was killed - the modest ship received six torpedoes one after another. Of the 8 escort destroyers, 4 survived. All of them received damage of varying severity, and the destroyer "Suzutzuki" managed to escape with the nose part torn off.
From the results of the battle, it is clearly noticeable that the Americans clearly overdid it and sent an excessive number of carrier-based aircraft. For example, out of more than two hundred vehicles of the strike group, only 97 were torpedo bombers, and about a hundred more aircraft were F4 Corsair and F6F Hellcat fighters, whose presence was limited only by moral influence on the enemy. Initially, the declared number of aircraft - 280 units - could easily be provided by the air groups of three Essex-class aircraft carriers.
Do not forget that in the first (most numerous) wave the Japanese squadron was attacked by only 150 carrier-based aircraft. Therefore, purely theoretically, it can be assumed that the destruction of the Yamato and its squadron could be ensured by two heavy aircraft carriers, provided that returning aircraft were refueled and sorties repeated - they had enough aircraft, fuel and ammunition. In 1945, an average of 100 aircraft were based on the decks of the Essexes, sent to two large (36-37 aircraft) squadrons of fighter-bombers and two smaller squadrons of dive bombers and torpedo bombers (15 aircraft each).
With the use of two aircraft carriers, the result would have been the same, but, of course, such a course of events would take much longer - the Yamato would have been sunk until evening. In any case, a quite obvious conclusion follows from this story - aviation plays a decisive role in modern naval combat.
As for the super battleship itself, the Japanese still respect the death of the Yamato. 2500 people of the Yamato crew knew that they were going to certain death. Boldly going to sea and dying in an unequal battle, he repeated the feat of the cruiser "Varyag". And such an act was highly valued at all times.
