I bring to the attention of all fans of military history the next series of the detective "Sea Battle: Aviation against battleships." The previous story about the sinking of the battleship Yamato caused a lot of criticism: readers questioned the possibility of destruction of such a large and well-protected ship by limited forces of carrier-based aircraft. Probably, it is worth recalling the main points of that dispute:
The largest warship in history, the Imperial Navy battleship Yamato, was killed in battle with the US Navy's 58th Operational Formation carrier-based aircraft. In general, there are no doubts and questions here, the outcome of Ten-Go's suicidal operation was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese went into that unequal battle, guided by their ancient code of Bushido - the way of the warrior.
Another thing is that 5 heavy and 4 light aircraft carriers of the US Navy acted against the Japanese squadron (battleship, cruiser and 8 destroyers). Nine aircraft carriers against one battleship! The ratio is impressive. Of course, this is a war, not a street fight - talk about honesty is inappropriate here, the one with the most strength and resources wins. And yet, this casts a shadow on the carrier-based aircraft - it turns out that its capabilities, to put it mildly, are exaggerated?
Upon careful analysis, the following facts arise: 227 aircraft took part directly in the attacks on the Japanese battleship (a total of 280 aircraft were sent, of which 53 did not hit the target). It should also be noted that a third of the carrier-based aircraft were fighters, whose participation in the operation was rather limited by psychological pressure on the Japanese sailors - 50-caliber bullets did not pose a threat to the battleship's half-meter armor. As a result, two hundred carrier-based aircraft sank the entire Japanese squadron in 2 hours - the pilots did not even have to return for a second strike.
In view of the above, the following facts appear:
1. The forces of the Americans were clearly excessive. Each aircraft carrier sent only one squadron of the four available. At the same time, even 227 aircraft were more than enough to complete the task.
2. Two hundred aircraft did not attack simultaneously, but in several "waves", the largest of which consisted of 150 aircraft.
3. Based on the conditions of that situation, the Americans had at least 12 hours of daylight time in reserve. The Japanese compound was discovered at night, at a distance of 300 miles from the aircraft carriers (550 kilometers). The Yankees slept well, had a hearty breakfast and, at exactly 10:00, their first deck aircraft took off. By 2 o'clock in the afternoon it was all over - "Yamato" lay on its side and prepared to die. The battleship exploded at 14:23.
Obviously, the pilots still had plenty of time left - if necessary, they could refuel and repeat the attack.
4. During the raid on the Yamato, the losses of the Americans amounted to 10 aircraft (four torpedo bombers, three bombers, three fighters). About 20 more vehicles were damaged by anti-aircraft fire, but were able to return to their ships. I do not presume to judge the severity of their damage and the possibility of quick repair - let's assume that all of them are out of order. 30 out of 227. Quite adequate losses.
Summarizing these 4 points, we can conclude that, purely theoretically, two Essex-class aircraft carriers were enough to quickly destroy the Yamato and its escort. Indeed, at that time about 100 carrier-based aircraft were based on each "Essex", brought together in 4 squadrons (two fighter, bomber and torpedo). The ship's tanks contained 230,000 gallons of aviation gasoline (more than 800,000 liters), and the refueling system provided 3750 liters of fuel per minute to the flight deck. The bunkers of the aircraft carrier contained 625 tons of ammunition: thousands of bombs and rockets, fifty torpedoes, a million rounds of ammunition for aircraft machine guns.
The aircraft carrier "Essex" was equipped with two pneumatic catapults and 8 compressors: the technical production rate of aircraft reached 42 seconds - of course, in real conditions it was several times lower. But what is noteworthy: according to statistics, 60% of launches from the deck of the ship took place without the help of catapults - fighters and bombers of the war years did not yet need help at the start. All this greatly simplified the launch procedure and made it possible to quickly lift the strike group into the air.
In the last article, I suggested that to destroy a well-protected battleship-class target with powerful air defense and an escort of a dozen destroyers, a strike group of 100-120 aircraft would be required - the battleship, most likely, cannot be sunk in one sortie, but the number of aircraft, fuel and ammunition allowed the two aircraft carriers to repeat the strike many times and achieve the death of the battleship. This statement aroused mistrust among many readers and a fair question: “Is it possible? The battleship's anti-aircraft gunners will shoot these hundreds of aircraft like a flock of chicken flu, and there will be nothing to repeat the raid - the materiel and the pilots will die in the first attack …"
I must admit that last time I slightly overestimated the required number of aircraft in the first "wave" - in fact, a group of 30-40 aircraft is enough to attack a battleship squadron. It's hard to believe, but during the Second World War, the ship's anti-aircraft weapons were not able to repel the attack of even so many aircraft.
Today I will not carry out any complicated calculations and make rash statements. I will give an example of a real case - a naval battle on October 24, 1944. On that day, the 38th US Navy Task Force shredded a squadron of Japanese battleships and heavy cruisers. In the course of many hours of naval combat, carrier-based aircraft sunk the first ship of the Yamato class - the inimitable Musashi, the super-battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
The death of "Musashi"
Without going into long details of the Pacific theater of operations and the reasons for the appearance of the Japanese squadron in the Sibuyan Sea (Philippines), we immediately note that the Japanese operation was doomed to failure - left without fighter cover, the 2nd Fleet of Admiral Takeo Kurita would certainly have met with American aircraft carriers …
The Japanese squadron included:
Superlinkers Yamato and Musashi. The largest and most powerful warships on the planet. The total displacement is 70 thousand tons (for comparison: the modern heavy nuclear missile cruiser "Peter the Great", the flagship of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy, has a total displacement of about 26 thousand tons)!
The main caliber of the gigantic ships is 460 mm. The weapons and mechanisms of the battleships were reliably protected by dead metal - the thickness of the armoring of the wheelhouse reached half a meter of armor steel, the turret of the main caliber - 650 mm! An impenetrable 65 centimeters steel sheet - can you imagine that?
Anti-aircraft weapons of superlinkers - 12 twin installations of 127 mm caliber and 130 automatic anti-aircraft guns (34 single and 32 triple installations of 25 mm caliber). In addition, there were 6 medium-caliber guns (150 mm) and 2 coaxial machine-gun mounts. *
Who was able to resist such ships?
The battleship "Nagato". A steel monster, undefeated even by an atomic explosion (nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, 1946). 20 years before the events in the Sibuyan Sea, "Nagato" was the best battleship in the world, the Japanese were the first to dare to install cannons with a caliber of more than 400 mm on the ship. The Nagato received eight 410mm guns, setting a new standard for Main Caliber around the world. In addition, the battleship's armament included:
18 х 140 mm medium-caliber cannons, 8 x 127 mm anti-aircraft guns, 98 barrels of anti-aircraft guns.
As before, the invincible Nagato instilled terror in his opponents. What harm could small, fragile airplanes do to an impenetrable monster? Hundreds of anti-aircraft artillery barrels will rip to shreds anyone who dares to attack a Japanese battleship from the air. At least that's how it seemed to the Japanese …
Many interesting ships were in the Japanese squadron: the old, but still combat-ready battleship "Haruna" (not quite the correct expression - "Harune" at that time was barely 30 years old, a normal age for many modern ships), heavy cruisers "Tone", Chikuma, Mioko … only 7 battleships, 11 cruisers and 23 destroyers!
Each Japanese cruiser carried up to 100 barrels of anti-aircraft guns, the destroyer - more than 30. All this, in theory, was supposed to create an impenetrable wall of anti-aircraft fire. Even despite the lag of the Japanese in the design of anti-aircraft artillery and fire control systems, it would be logical to assume that the number of installations should have certainly turned into quality. And yet, things took a dramatic turn much sooner than might have been expected.
Massacre
The enemy of the Japanese squadron was no less serious. 38th US Navy Task Force (aka Task Force 58). As already noted in the previous article, Task Force 58 (in this case it had the index "38", but not the essence), despite its quite common name, was the most terrible squadron that ever plowed the oceans. Two dozen strike aircraft carriers under the cover of fast battleships, cruisers and hundreds of destroyers.
On October 24, 1944, there were heavy aircraft carriers in the Sibuyan Sea: Essex, Intrepid, Franklin, Lexington and Enterprise, as well as 5 light aircraft carriers: Independence, Cabot, Langley, San Jacinto "and" Bellew Wood ".
Having received a message about the approach of the Japanese squadron, the naval pilots of the US Navy, as usual, slept well, had a hearty breakfast, and at 9 am they lifted their torpedo bombers and dive bombers into the air.
1st attack. 12 bombers and 13 torpedo bombers under the cover of 19 fighters from the aircraft carriers Intrepid and Cabot. The Japanese squadron met them with an avalanche of fire, the distraught pilots quickly dropped torpedoes on the nearest target and, having lost three aircraft, rushed to quickly leave the dangerous area.
The "immediate target" was the Musashi superlinker - he received his first torpedo on board. The damage was not great, the water flow was quickly taken under control. The second victim was the heavy cruiser Mioko.
2nd attack. Half an hour later, the Japanese were attacked by aircraft from the aircraft carriers Lexington and Essex. Only 30 cars, according to the Japanese. Musashi was hit by 2 bombs and a torpedo. The first bomb hit the forecastle, pierced the thin 25 mm deck, and, piercing the battleship's hull through and through, flew out through the side. The second bomb pierced two decks and exploded with such force that the mains in the boiler room burst from a mighty concussion.
3rd attack. The aircraft carriers "Enterprise" and "Franklin" entered the action - 80 carrier-based aircraft dealt a massive attack on the Japanese formation. Surprisingly, despite the lack of any coordination, Musashi again fell under the main blow - his nose was smashed by a torpedo.
At noon, the Yankees had a hearty lunch and continued to beat the Japanese fleet. The 4th in a row, the most effective and tough attack was carried out by the pilots from the aircraft carrier "Intrepid" - 14 "Hellcat" fighters, 12 "Helldiver" dive bombers and 9 "Avenger" torpedo bombers. The battleship "Musashi" was hit by three torpedoes and four heavy aerial bombs - the superstructures of the ship turned into flaming ruins, the ammunition load of anti-aircraft guns detonated. Many rooms in the underwater part of the battleship were flooded, including the hydromachines compartment, the Musashi's speed dropped to 16 knots - from that moment on, the ship was doomed. The Japanese order went far ahead, next to the dying Musashi there were only the Tone heavy cruiser and 2 destroyers.
5th attack. The aircraft carriers Essex and Lexington sent 27 torpedo bombers and 15 bombers under cover of 16 fighters. This attack bypassed the Yamato - planes fired at other battleships of the Japanese fleet. This raid was not so successful - some of the bombers carried 227-kg bombs, which were ineffective against super-protected floating fortresses. Five damaged aircraft barely reached their ships and landed on the water, the escort destroyers lifted the crews out of the water.
6th attack. The last attack that day was carried out by pilots from the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Franklin. The sinking Musashi was hit by 4 torpedoes and 10 aerial bombs, finally turning into ruins the Pride of the Imperial Navy. By 7 o'clock in the evening, the bow of the battleship was completely submerged in the water to the first tower, all engine rooms were out of order, and the electricity was turned off. The crew began to leave the ship. Half an hour later, 70 thousand tons of burnt rubbish, which was once the battleship "Musashi", capsized and went under the water. The day is over. Good for someone. For some, no. 1288 people were saved from the slowly sinking battleship, another 991 sailors died in the battle and were carried to the bottom in the hull of a huge ship.
In total that day, the victims of the American attack were:
- the super-battleship "Musashi", sank.
- superlinker "Yamato" - two bombs hit, one of them led to the flooding of the premises in the bow of the ship. The Yamato received 2,000 tons of water, the roll was straightened out, the speed decreased, and its combat effectiveness was preserved.
- battleship "Nagato", was seriously damaged. The explosions of two bombs destroyed the air intake of the boiler room No. 1, the radio station, the turret of the main caliber and 4 medium guns were out of order. The speed dropped to 21 knots, and large fires broke out in the cockpits. It is noteworthy that sometimes the damage to the "Nagato" is described as "minor". It may be so, however, the death of 52 people from the battleship's crew raises doubts about this. For example, during the sinking of the destroyer "Sheffield" from an unexploded missile (a favorite episode of all skeptics of the protection of modern ships), only 18 sailors died. But this is by the way.
- heavy cruiser "Mioko", torpedo hit. The water inflow was taken under control, the bank was straightened by counter-flooding of the compartments on the opposite side.
- the destroyer "Fujinami" - sank from a close explosion of an aerial bomb.
- the destroyer "Kiyoshimo" - a direct hit from an aerial bomb, all mechanisms and weapons in the middle part of the destroyer were destroyed.
- the destroyer "Urakadze" - the tightness of the hull was broken from nearby explosions, communication was out of order.
These are the main results of the naval battle on October 24, 1944. Among military historians, there is an opinion that after continuous many hours of air attack, the Japanese squadron retained its combat effectiveness, therefore, the Americans did not achieve the desired result. Maybe, maybe … But what about the sinking of one of the two largest ships on the planet? In any case, for me this episode of the war in the Pacific is of purely technical interest - the planes attacked the battleship squadron in small groups and achieved noticeable success.
