USS Missouri

USS Missouri (BB-63) ("Mighty Mo" or "Big Mo") is a U.S. Navy battleship, and was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Missouri. Missouri is the final battleship to be built by the United States, and among the Iowa-class battleships is notable for being the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of World War II. Missouri was ordered on 12 June 1940 and her keel was laid at the New York Navy Yard in the New York City borough of Brooklyn on 6 January 1941.

During her career Missouri saw action in World War II during the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa, and shelled the Japanese home islands of Hokkaidō and Honshū. After World War II she returned to the United States before being called up and dispatched to fight in the Korean War. Upon her return to the United States she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the "Mothball Fleet" in 1955. She was reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and participated in the 1991 Gulf War.

Missouri was decommissioned a final time on 31 March 1992, having received a total of eleven battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf. She was maintained on the Naval Vessel Register until January 1995, when her name was struck. In 1998 she was donated to the Missouri Memorial Association, and is presently a museum ship at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Displacement:	45,000 tons (45,700 t)
Length:	887.2 ft (270 m)
Beam:	108.2 ft (33 m)
Draft:	28.9 ft (8.8 m)
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Complement:	1,851 officers and men
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-49 Air Search Radar AN/SPS-67 Surface Search Radar AN/SPQ-9 Surface Search / Gun Fire Control Radar
Electronic warfare and decoys:	AN/SLQ-32 AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Decoy System 8 × Mark 36 SRBOC Super Rapid Bloom Rocket Launchers
Armament:	9 x 16 in (406 mm) 50 cal. Mark 7 guns 20 × 5 in (127 mm) 38 cal. Mark 12 guns 80 x 40 mm 56 cal. anti-aircraft guns 49 x 20 mm 70 cal. anti-aircraft guns
Armor:	Belt: 12.1 in (307 mm) Bulkheads: 11.3 in (287 mm) Barbettes: 11.6 to 17.3 in (295 to 439 mm) Turrets: 19.7 in (500 mm) Decks: 7.5 in (190 mm)

World War II (1944–1945)

[edit] Shakedown and Service with Task Force 58, Admiral Mitscher

After trials off New York and shakedown and battle practice in Chesapeake Bay, Missouri departed Norfolk 11 November 1944, transited the Panama Canal 18 November and steamed to San Francisco for final fitting out as fleet flagship. She stood out of San Francisco Bay 14 December and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii 24 December 1944. She departed Hawaii on 2 January 1945 and arrived in Ulithi, West Caroline Islands, 13 January 1945. There she was temporary headquarters ship for Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher. The battleship put to sea 27 January to serve in the screen of the Lexington carrier task group of Mitscher's TF 58, and on 16 February her aircraft carriers launched the first air strikes against Japan since the famed Doolittle raid, which had been launched from the carrier USS Hornet in April 1942.^[4]

Missouri then steamed with the carriers to Iwo Jima where her main guns provided direct and continuous support to the invasion landings begun 19 February. After TF 58 returned to Ulithi 5 March, Missouri was assigned to the Yorktown carrier task group. On 14 March Missouri departed Ulithi in the screen of the fast carriers and steamed to the Japanese mainland. During strikes against targets along the coast of the Inland Sea of Japan beginning 18 March, Missouri shot down four Japanese aircraft.^[4]

Raids against airfields and naval bases near the Inland Sea and southwestern Honshū continued. During a Japanese attack, two bombs penetrated the hangar deck and decks aft of the carrier Franklin, leaving her dead in the water within 50 miles (90 km) of the Japanese mainland. The cruiser USS Pittsburgh took Franklin in tow until she gained speed to 14 knots (26 km/h). Missouri’s carrier task group provided cover for Franklin’s retirement toward Ulithi until 22 March, then set course for pre-invasion strikes and bombardment of Okinawa.^[4]

Missouri joined the fast battleships of TF 58 in bombarding the southeast coast of Okinawa 24 March 1945, an action intended to draw enemy strength from the west coast beaches that would be the actual site of invasion landings. Missouri rejoined the screen of the carriers as Marine and Army units stormed the shores of Okinawa on the morning of 1 April. Planes from the carriers shattered a special Japanese attacking force led by battleship Yamato 7 April. Yamato, the world's largest battleship, was sunk, as were a cruiser and a destroyer. Three other enemy destroyers were heavily damaged and scuttled. Four remaining destroyers, sole survivors of the attacking fleet, were damaged and retired to Sasebo.^[4]

A Japanese Zero about to hit the Missouri

On 11 April Missouri opened fire on a low-flying kamikaze plane which penetrated the curtain of her shells and crashed on the starboard side just below her main deck level. The starboard wing of the plane was thrown far forward, starting a gasoline fire at 5 inch (127 mm) Gun Mount No. 3; yet the battleship suffered only superficial damage, and the fire was brought quickly under control.^[4] The remains of the pilot's body was recovered on board the ship just aft of one of the 40 mm gun tubs. Captain William M. Callaghan decided that the young Japanese pilot had done his job, to the best of his ability and with honor and that he deserved a military funeral. Not all of the crew agreed with that decision —the pilot was still their enemy and had tried to kill them —but the Captain's orders were respected and the following day the pilot was buried at sea with military honors.^[7]

About 23:05 on 17 April 1945, Missouri detected an enemy submarine 12 miles (22 km) from her formation. Her report set off a hunter-killer operation by the light carrier Bataan and four destroyers, which sank Japanese submarine I-56.^[4]

Missouri was detached from the carrier task force off Okinawa 5 May and sailed for Ulithi. During the Okinawa campaign she had shot down five enemy planes, assisted in the destruction of six others, and scored one probable kill. She helped repel 12 daylight attacks of enemy raiders and fought off four night attacks on her carrier task group. Her shore bombardment destroyed several gun emplacements and many other military, governmental, and industrial structures.^[4]

[edit] Service with the 3rd Fleet, Admiral Halsey

Missouri arrived Ulithi 9 May 1945 and thence proceeded to Apra Harbor, Guam, 18 May. That afternoon Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander 3d Fleet, broke his flag in Missouri.^[8] She passed out of the harbor on 21 May, and by 27 May was again conducting shore bombardment against Japanese positions on Okinawa. Missouri now led the 3rd Fleet in strikes on airfields and installations on Kyūshū on 2 June and 3 June. She rode out a fierce storm on 5 June and 6 June that wrenched the bow off the cruiser Pittsburgh. Some topside fittings were smashed, but Missouri suffered no major damage. Her fleet again struck Kyūshū on 8 June, then hit hard in a coordinated air-surface bombardment before retiring towards Leyte. She arrived at San Pedro, Leyte, on 13 June 1945, after almost three months of continuous operations in support of the Okinawa campaign.^[4]

Here she prepared to lead the 3rd Fleet in strikes at the heart of Japan from within its home waters. The mighty fleet set a northerly course on 8 July to approach the Japanese mainland. Raids took Tokyo by surprise on 10 July, followed by more devastation at the juncture of Honshū and Hokkaidō on 13 July and 14 July. For the first time a naval gunfire force wrought destruction on a major installation within the home islands when Missouri closed the shore to join in a bombardment on 15 July that rained destruction on the Nihon Steel Co. and the Wanishi Ironworks at Muroran, Hokkaido.^[4]

During the nights of 17 July and 18 July Missouri bombarded industrial targets in Honshū. Inland Sea aerial strikes continued through 25 July 1945, and Missouri guarded the carriers as they struck hard blows at the Japanese capital. As July ended the Japanese no longer had any home waters. Missouri had led her fleet to gain control of the air and sea approaches to the very shores of Japan.^[4]

[edit] Signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender

Main article: Japanese Instrument of Surrender

American and British sailors and officers watch General of the Army Douglas MacArthur sign documents during the surrender ceremony aboard Missouri on 2 September 1945. The unconditional surrender of the Japanese to the Allies officially ended the Second World War.

Strikes on Hokkaidō and northern Honshū resumed on 9 August 1945, the day the second atomic bomb was dropped. On 10 August 1945, at 20:54, Missouri's men were electrified by the unofficial news that Japan was ready to surrender, provided that the Emperor's prerogatives as a sovereign ruler were not compromised. Not until 07:45, 15 August, was word received that President Harry S. Truman had announced Japan's acceptance of unconditional surrender.^[4]

Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser of the Royal Navy, the Commander of the British Pacific Fleet, boarded Missouri on 16 August and conferred the order Knight of the British Empire upon Admiral Halsey. Missouri transferred a landing party of 200 officers and men to the battleship Iowa for temporary duty with the initial occupation force for Tokyo on 21 August. Missouri herself entered Tokyo Bay early on 29 August to prepare for the signing by Japan of the official instrument of surrender.^[4]

High-ranking military officials of all the Allied Powers were received on board on 2 September, including (but not limited to) Free French General Leclerc, Republic of China General Hsu Yung-Ch'ang, Soviet Lieutenant-General Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko, Australian General Sir Thomas Blamey, Canadian Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, Netherlands Vice Admiral Conrad Emil Lambert Helfrich, and New Zealand Air Vice Marshal Leonard M. Isitt. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz boarded shortly after 08:00, and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allies, came on board at 08:43. The Japanese representatives, headed by Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, arrived at 08:56. At 09:02 General MacArthur stepped before a battery of microphones and the 23 minute surrender ceremony was broadcast to the waiting world.^[4]

During the surrender ceremony the deck of the Missouri was decorated with just two American flags. One had flown on the mast of Commodore Perry's ship when he had sailed into that same bay nearly a century earlier to urge the opening of Japan's ports to foreign trade. The other U.S. flag came off the battleship while anchored in Tokyo Bay (it had not flown over the White House or the Capitol Building on 7 December 1941; it was "...just a plain ordinary GI flag"). ^[9]

By 09:30 the Japanese emissaries had departed. In the afternoon of 5 September Admiral Halsey transferred his flag to the battleship South Dakota, and early the next day Missouri departed Tokyo Bay. As part of the ongoing Operation Magic Carpet she received homeward bound passengers at Guam, then sailed unescorted for Hawaii. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 20 September and flew Admiral Nimitz's flag on the afternoon of 28 September for a reception.^[4]

USS Missouri

Battleship Tirpitz

Tirpitz was the second Bismarck class battleship of the German Kriegsmarine, sistership of Bismarck. She was named after Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. She saw very limited action. In fact, she never fired a single shot against an enemy ship, but spent almost the entire war in various bases in Norway, where her mere presence was a great threat to the Allies, tying up huge naval and air forces to make sure she could be dealt with if she ever made an offensive sortie. Due to her role and bases of operations she was dubbed the "Lonely Queen of the North" ("Den ensomme Nordens Dronning") by the Norwegians.

Operational history
The ship was launched 1 April 1939 and was to be deployed in a manner similar to Bismarck, as a commerce raider to be sent against Allied merchant shipping in the North Atlantic. However, the fate of Bismarck and other commerce raiders led to Hitler losing faith in the surface navy, and she was instead ordered to be used for limited sorties.
Following the inception of the Arctic convoys and the Commando raid on Vågsøy, Tirpitz was sent to northern Norwegian waters in early 1942, where she spent most of World War II in the fjords. She acted mainly as a fleet in being, tying up Royal Navy resources. She made three offensive sorties during her stay in Norway, two in 1942 and one in 1943. Despite her very limited offensive use, the armed forces of United Kingdom had a great fear of the potential for destruction the Tirpitz represented to Allied shipping and decided to sink her while she was in port. Many operations were launched with this objective in mind, but none were successful in sinking her until she was bombed and capsized on 12 November 1944.

[edit] Offensive actions by the Tirpitz

[edit] Operation Sportpalast
Operation Sportpalast was an attempt to interdict the convoys PQ-12 and QP-8 in early March 1942. PQ-12 sailed from Iceland on 1 March 1942, and QP-8 sailed from Murmansk at about the same time. On 5 March 1942 Tirpitz, escorted by three destroyers, left her base and made a sortie into the Arctic Ocean in the area around Bear Island. During the following days the German force had no luck finding either convoy. Only a single merchant was found and sunk by one of the screening destroyers. On 9 March 1942 Tirpitz was spotted by aircraft from the carrier HMS Victorious, and the German commander, Admiral Otto Ciliax, made the decision to abort the operation following unsuccessful British air attacks.

[edit] Operation Rösselsprung
Operation Rösselsprung was an attempt to intercept the Arctic convoys during the summer of 1942. A naval force consisting of Tirpitz, Admiral Hipper, Admiral Scheer and 9 destroyers were assembled and held ready to move on the convoys passing by. The most famous incident during this operation was the near destruction of Convoy PQ-17 in July 1942. PQ-17, which departed Iceland on 27 June 1942, was heavily escorted, and there was also a powerful Task Force operating in the area. On 4 July 1942 Tirpitz and her escorts left port to sail to a new base. This was perceived by the British Intelligence as an offensive sortie, and the Admiralty made the decision to scatter the convoy, due to the intense threat they regarded the Tirpitz as against a closely packed convoy. Following this the German U-boats and aircraft had a field day against the scattered, unescorted merchantmen and 12 ships were sunk. The Tirpitz did make a brief sortie on 5 July 1942 after the Germans learned about the convoy scattering, but due to the efficiency of the U-boats and aircraft in dealing with the convoy the sortie was aborted and Tirpitz returned to port.
There is a claim made by Russian sources that the Tirpitz was attacked and damaged by a Russian submarine during the short sortie. The fleet was attacked by Russian submarine K-21, commanded by Hero of the Soviet Union N. A. Lunin, at 71°22′2″N 24°34′3″E / 71.36722, 24.5675 (45 miles from North Cape, Norway). Lunin fired four torpedoes at the Tirpitz and heard two detonations.[1] There is a degree of controversy on this case: since 1960s most German and British historians deny any torpedo hit, but in Russia this case is studied in naval schools as an example of canonical submarine attack. On 6 July the Tirpitz and her escorts were spotted from the air going south, towards Norway at slow speed (12 knots as opposite to 20 in normal circumstances). From July 8, 1942 to September 6, 1943 the Tirpitz stayed in graving-docks in Trondheim and Narvik (Norway), supposedly under repair.

[edit] Operation Sizilien
Operation Sizilien was a raid on Spitsbergen in September 1943. German troops landed on the island, and supported by naval bombardment from the Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and nine destroyers the Germans occupied the island from 6 September–9 September 1943. This was the only operation in which Tirpitz fired her guns on enemy targets.

[edit] British attempts to destroy the Tirpitz

[edit] Operation Source
The first attempt to destroy Tirpitz was a very risky operation. As part of Operation Source, British X class midget submarines planted explosive charges beneath Tirpitz in September 1943. Lieutenant Basil Place commanding HMS X7, and Lieutenant Donald Cameron commanding HMS X6, both received the Victoria Cross for their part in the action. The submarines had to travel at least 1,000 miles from base, negotiate a minefield, dodge nets, gun defences and enemy listening posts. Having eluded all these hazards they finally placed their 4-ton Amatol side-charges underneath the ship where they detonated an hour later, doing so much damage that Tirpitz was put out of action for several months.
The story of this attack is told in the 1955 film Above Us The Waves.

[edit] Operation Tungsten

Crew members camouflaging the stern section of the ship in case of air attack.
By April 1944, Tirpitz had been repaired and posed a renewed threat. In response, the British executed Operation Tungsten, an attack by carrier-borne aircraft of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. A significant part of the Home Fleet took part, including 2 battleships, 2 fleet aircraft carriers, 5 escort aircraft carriers, 2 cruisers, 16 destroyers with support from 2 oilers. Steps were taken, including phoney wireless traffic, to hide their departure from Scapa Flow. The air attack was launched on 2 April, a day earlier than planned, catching Tirpitz while she was preparing for departure on trials.
The air attacks were in two waves of Fairey Barracuda torpedo bombers with escorting fighters. A variety of bombs were carried: anti-submarine bombs that would cause damage even if they exploded in the water around her, armour piercing bombs capable of penetrating deck armour, smaller bombs that could penetrate superstructure armour, and general purpose bombs that would be effective against the crew and the anti-aircraft weapons they were manning. The defences were poor and ill-organised, and the attack faced little effective opposition. Some of the fighters contributed by strafing the decks with machine gun fire. The first attack was at 05:30. By 08:00 the Royal Navy had landed all but three planes that had been lost. Tirpitz had lost 122 crew, with a further 300 wounded, but damage was limited to the superstructure. The ship's armour was not penetrated, though near misses caused some flooding. Overall the damage was significant and took two months to repair.

[edit] Operations Planet, Brawn, Tiger Claw and Mascot
The threat remained and further operations were planned. Three air attacks (Operations Planet, Brawn and Tiger Claw) were cancelled, in April and May 1944, due to poor weather.
The next carrier-borne attempt was Operation Mascot, in July 1944. By this time, however, the Germans had set up effective warning and smoke systems which effectively obscured Tirpitz from the attacking aircraft. Apart from one near-miss, the raid was a failure.

[edit] Operations Goodwood I, II, III and IV
Tirpitz underwent sea trials in early August 1944, and three weeks later the Fleet Air Arm launched more attacks. These had mixed success, none dealing the hoped for coup-de-grace.
Operations Goodwood I and Goodwood II took place on 22 August. Low cloud obscured Tirpitz and there were no hits.
Goodwood III, on 24 August, successfully confused the air defences by its approach tactics and scored 2 hits on the Tirpitz. One caused damage to a turret. The other pierced the ship's armour belt but failed to explode—'an exceptional stroke of luck'. Had it done so, the German report said: '... the effects of that explosion would have been immeasurable.' It is likely that Tirpitz would have sunk.
The escort aircraft carrier HMS Nabob returned to Scapa Flow after being seriously damaged by a torpedo hit from the U-boat (U-354).
The final Fleet Air Arm attack was Goodwood IV, on 29 August. Once more, low cloud prevented any hits. After this, the fleet withdrew on convoy duties and Tirpitz was left to the Royal Air Force.

[edit] Operations Paravane, Obviate and Catechism

Tirpitz in Norway, 1944
The Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces proposed several schemes to attack Tirpitz using Mosquito fighter-bombers, Short Sunderland flying boats or B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, but none came to anything.
There were three attempts by the RAF. The first attempt, "Operation Paravane", was launched on 15 September by Avro Lancasters of 617 and 9 Squadrons, from a temporary base at Yagodnik, near Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union. They were equipped with Barnes Wallis' 5-tonne Tallboy bombs and experimental 5,000 pound "Johnny Walker" underwater "walking" mines. On this occasion, a smokescreen protected Tirpitz from all but one of the bombs, although one of No. 9 Squadron's bombs disabled the ship to the extent that she was no longer a threat to Allied shipping. A German report stated: It was eventually decided at a conference on 23 September 1944 at which the C-in-C and Naval Staff were present, that it was no longer possible to make Tirpitz ready for sea and action again.... However, this was kept secret from the British, who believed that repairs were 'possible', and so the attacks continued.
In October, as Tirpitz was no longer considered to be a major warship, she was moved further south to Tromsø, to act as a floating gun battery against the expected Allied invasion of Norway. She was now within range of air operations from Scotland.
"Operation Obviate", with Lancasters from Lossiemouth in Scotland carrying Tallboy bombs, took place on 28 October. At the last moment, sea-clouds hid Tirpitz, and there was only one near-miss that bent a propeller-shaft.

The Tirpitz capsized in 1945.
The smokescreen was not active on the third attempt—"Operation Catechism". Tirpitz was finally sunk immediately to the west of Tromsø, in the bay of Håkøybotn, on 12 November 1944 by 617 and 9 Squadron Lancasters with Tallboys on their third attempt. The ship was struck by three Tallboys. One glanced off turret armour, but the other two pierced the ship's armour and blew a 200 foot hole into her port side. Soon after, internal fires set off a magazine and blew off "C" turret. Tirpitz capsized within minutes of the attack, and close to 1,000 German sailors, out of 1,700 aboard, died.
The Luftwaffe failed to intercept the British bombers (some reports say that one bomber was shot down, but British sources ascribe this to anti-aircraft fire) [2]. The aircraft used, the Lancaster B.1 Special, had had one turret (the mid-upper) and some armour removed, so they would have been highly vulnerable to fighter attack. The reasons cited for this failure are contradictory. The approach route of the bombers may have suggested an attack on the airfield at Bardufoss, and Luftwaffe responses to Tirpitz's calls for help claimed that there were aircraft "overhead". The local air defence systems may have been inadequate and the German pilots had not yet been fully trained on their new Focke-Wulf 190 aircraft. Major Heinrich Ehrler, who both led the defensive sortie in the area of the Tirpitz and was also the commander of the Luftwaffe forces in Norway (Jagdgeschwader 5), was charged with negligence of duty following the sinking—and sentenced to death. His sentence was later reduced to three years of fortress imprisonment and he was stripped of his command and transferred to a fighter unit in Germany.

[edit] Tirpitz as scrap
Postwar the wreck was sold off and broken up in situ by a Norwegian company. Nearly the entire ship was cut up and hauled away. However, a large portion of the bow remains where it sank in 1944. Amongst other things, the ship's electrical generators were used for a temporary power station, supplying the fishing industry around Honningsvåg with electricity. Near the wreck-site there are artificial lakes along the shore - bomb craters from Tallboy bombs that missed their target. To this day, sections of Tirpitz armour plates are used by the Norwegian Road Authority ("Vegvesen") as temporary road surface material during roadwork[3]. Additionally, a large chunk of the armour plating is held at the Royal Naval 'Explosion!' museum in Gosport, Hampshire.

[edit] Commanding Officers
Construction Indoctrination - KzS Friedrich Carl Topp, 15 January 1941–25 February 1941
KzS Friedrich Carl Topp, 25 February 1941–24 February 1943
KzS Hans Karl Meyer, 24 February 1943–1 May 1944
KzS Wolf Junge, 1 May 1944–4 November 1944
KzS Robert Weber, 4 November 1944–12 November 1944 (KIA)

Musashi

Musashi (武蔵), named after the ancient Japanese Musashi Province, was a battleship belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was the second and final ship of the Yamato class to be completed as a battleship. With her sister ship, Yamato, she was a member of the largest and most heavily armed and armored class of battleships ever constructed.

[edit] History

In June of 1937, executives from the Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard, including Director Kensuke Watanabe and yard engineer Kumao Baba, were ordered to begin preparations for construction and fitting out of one of the new series of battleships. Expansions of the Number 2 slipway had originally inspired naval executives to issue Nagasaki Shipyard the lucrative contract. Floating cranes of 150 and 350 metric tons capacity were built for heavy lifts. Built under the strictest of security, including the erection of large screens to hide the construction from the U.S. consulate across the bay, the battleship was launched November 1, 1940, and spent the better part of eighteen months fitting out. The completion date was revised to accommodate the changes requested by the Navy, including strengthening armor on the 15.5 cm turrets, and the installation of extra communications gear.

Commissioned on 5 August 1942, she proceeded to Truk Lagoon, where Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto made Musashi his flagship. After he was killed on 18 April 1943 (having been shot down by a special U.S. Army Air Forces operation) in the Solomons theater of operations, Musashi returned to Japan carrying his ashes. Musashi returned to Truk on 5 August 1943, and remained there until 10 February 1944. Her only activity during this time was a sortie toward the Marshall Islands, which resulted in no contact with American forces. On 29 March 1944, Musashi was hit by one torpedo from the submarine USS Tunny, and had to return to Japan for repairs and modifications to her anti-aircraft armament.

She formed part of Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita's Centre Force along with Yamato at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. During this battle on 24 October 1944, she was attacked in the Sibuyan Sea by American carrier-based aircraft: first at 10:27 AM by eight SB2C Helldiver dive bombers from the USS Intrepid armed with 500-lb (227 kg) bombs. Wave after wave of American aircraft from the USS Intrepid, Essex and Lexington eventually scored 17 bomb and 20 torpedo hits and 18 near misses. Most of the ship's destruction was due to David S. McCampbell and Air Group 15. The Musashi capsized to port, and sank at 7:25 PM on October 24, taking more than 1000 of her 2399 crew with her; 1376 of the crew were rescued by the destroyers Kiyoshimo and Shimakaze. That battle was the only time that the Mushashi had fired her guns in anger, using the "San Shiki" (the Beehive) Model 13 anti-aircraft shell.[1]

For more details on this class of ship, see the entry for Yamato.

Bismarck

Bismarck
Displacement:
41,700 tonnes standard50,405 tonnes full load (1943)
Length:
250.5 m overall241.5 m waterline
Width:
36.0 m waterline
Draft:
9.3 m standard10.2 m full load
Armament:
8 × 380 mm/L48.5 SK-C/34 (4×2)12 × 150 mm/L55 SK-C/2816 × 105 mm/L65 SK-C/37 / SK-C/3316 × 37 mm/L83 SK-C/3012 × 20 mm/L65 MG C/30 (Single)8 × 20 mm/L65 MG C/38 (Quadruple)
Armor:
Belt: 145 to 320 mmDeck: 50 to 120 mmBulkheads: 220 mmTurrets: 130 to 360 mmBarbettes: 342 mmConning tower: 360 mm
Aircraft:
4 × Arado Ar 196 A-3, with 1 double-ended catapult
Propulsion:
12 Wagner high-pressure;3 Blohm & Voss geared turbines;3 three-blade propellers, 4.70 m diameter150,170 hp (121 MW)
Speed:
30.8 knots (57.0 km/h)
Range:
8,525 nautical miles (15,800 km) @ 19 knots (45 km/h)
Complement:
2,092: 103 officers 1,989 men (1941)

Design of the ship started in the early 1930s, following on from Germany's development of the pocket battleship Deutschland class cruisers and the Gneisenau class "battlecruisers". Construction of the second French Dunkerque class battleship made redesign necessary, and Bismarck's displacement was increased to 42,600 tons, although officially her tonnage was still only 35,000 tons to suggest parity with ships built within the limits of the Treaty of Versailles. Fully laden, Bismarck and her sister-ship Tirpitz would each displace more than 50,000 tons. The prototype of the proposed battleships envisaged under Plan Z, Bismarck's keel was laid down at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg on 1 July 1936. She was launched on 14 February 1939 and commissioned on 24 August 1940 with Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann in command.
This formidable ship was intended primarily as a commerce raider, having a broad beam for stability in the rough seas of the North Atlantic and fuel stores as large as those of battleships intended for operations in the Pacific Ocean. Still, with eight 15 inch main guns in four turrets, substantial welded-armour protection and designed for a top speed of not less than 29 knots (she actually achieved 30.1 knots in trials in the calmer waters of the Baltic, an impressive speed when set against any comparable British battleship), Bismarck was capable of engaging any enemy battleship on reasonably equal terms. Her range of weaponry could easily decimate any convoy she encountered. The plan was for Bismarck to break through into the spacious waters of the North Atlantic, where she could refuel from German tankers and (the Germans hoped) remain undetected by British and American aircraft, submarines and ships, while attacking the convoys.

The Japanese Yamato

Yamato (大和), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was the first built (the lead ship) of the Yamato class. She and her sister ship Musashi were the largest, heaviest battleships ever constructed, weighing 72,802 tons at full load. She carried the heaviest armament ever fitted to a battleship: nine 460 mm (18.1 inch) guns.

The Yamato class was designed in the post Washington Naval Treaty period. The treaty had been extended by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 which limited the signatories to no battleship production before 1937; the Japanese withdrew from the Treaty at the Second London Conference of 1936. Design work on the class began in 1934 and after modifications the design for a 68,000 ton vessel was accepted in March 1937. The Yamato was built in intense secrecy at a specially prepared dock to hide her construction at Kure Naval Dockyards beginning on 4 November 1937. She was launched on 8 August 1940 and commissioned on 16 December 1941. Originally it was intended that five ships of this class would be built, but the third ship of the class, Shinano, was converted to an aircraft carrier during construction after the defeat at the Battle of Midway, the un-named "Hull Number 111" was scrapped in 1943 when roughly 30% complete, and "Hull Number 797", proposed in the 1942 5th Supplementary Program, was never ordered. Plans for a "Super Yamato" class, with 50.8 cm (20 inch) guns, provisionally designated as "Hull Number 798" and "Hull Number 799", were abandoned in 1942.

The class was designed to be superior to any ship that the United States was likely to produce. The 46 cm (18.1 inch) main guns were selected over 40.6 cm (16 inch) because the width of the Panama Canal would make it impractical for the U.S. Navy to construct a battleship with the same caliber guns without severe design restrictions or an inadequate defensive arrangement. It should be noted, however, that while Yamato was being built, the U.S. Navy was designing the Montana class which would have been too wide for Panama. The Montanas, never built, would have had 12 16 inch (40.6 cm) guns and would have thrown a heavier broadside than the Yamatos. To further confuse the intelligence agencies of other countries, Yamato's main guns were officially named as 40.6 cm Special, and civilians were never notified of the true nature of the guns. Their budgets were also scattered among various projects so that the huge total costs would not be immediately noticeable.

At the Kure Navy Yard, the construction dock was deepened, the gantry crane capacity was increased to 100 metric tonnes, and part of the dock was roofed over to prevent observation of the work. Arc welding, a relatively new procedure at that time, was used extensively. The lower side-belt armor was used as a strength member of the hull structure. This was done to save weight, an important concern for the designers, despite the lack of treaty limitations.

The Yamato was designed by Keiji Fukuda and followed the trend of unique and generally excellent indigenous Japanese warship designs begun in the 1920s by Fukuda's predecessor Yuzuru Hiraga. The design of Yamato contained a number of unique features, some of which contributed to the striking appearance of the vessel. To begin with, like most of the designs of the 1920s and 1930s the Yamato's deck line was not level, but rose and fell through the length of the hull. The undulating line of the main deck forward saved structural weight without reducing hull girder strength. Tests of models in a model basin led to the adoption of a semitransom stern and a bulbous bow, which reduced hull resistance by 8%. The nine 460 mm main armament cannons were the largest ever fielded at sea, a major technological challenge to construct and operate. Their successful implementation in the Yamato class battleships constitutes a major achievement on the part of Japanese naval constructors. The exponentially higher blast effect of the main armament prevented the stowage of boats on deck or the stationing of unshielded personnel in combat. As a result, all anti-aircraft positions (even the smallest) were enclosed in blast shields as designed. Later in their career the anti-aircraft armament of both ships were considerably augmented by open positions of both light and heavy weapons. Presumably AA gun crews would evacuate the weather deck prior to the firing of the main armament. Incidentally this might be the reason for the Yamato's ineffectiveness at the Battle off Samar; the ship was under almost continual air attack and may have been prevented from firing her main armament at the risk of killing or disabling gunners in open positions. For similar reasons the superstructure of the ship was extremely compact, which reduced armored citadel length but also hampered anti-aircraft arcs of fire. Boats were stowed in below-deck hangars and launched via an unusual traveling crane arrangement mounted on both quarters. The quarter deck aft of turret 3 was paved with concrete, beneath which a hangar for the stowage of up to seven spotter aircraft was provided for via a wide elevator-like opening in the stern. Contrary to some descriptions the Yamato and Musashi did not have 'Pagoda' masts as did previous Japanese battleships, but modern tower bridge structures to house command and fire control facilities. The mainmast, funnel and tower bridge were all unique in design and appearance, differing markedly both from other Japanese battleships and from capital ships of other navies. There is a general 'familial' resemblance however between the architecture of the Yamatos and the Hiraga/Fujimoto designed series of cruisers of the 1920s and 30s, particularly the Takao and Mogami classes. The immense beam (breadth) of these ships made them perhaps the most stable of all battleships. Both ships were reported to be very stable even in heavy seas. However, the increased width of the hull also meant that loss of stability required a correspondingly greater righting-arm to correct in the event of significant flooding. The ship had one single large rudder (at frame 231), which gave it a small (for a ship of that size) turning circle of 640 meters. By comparison the US Iowa class fast battleship had one of over 800 m. There was also a smaller auxiliary rudder installed (at frame 219) which was virtually useless. The steam turbine power plant was a relatively low powered design (25 kgf/cm² (2.5 MPa), 325 °C), and as such, their fuel usage rate was very high. This is a primary reason why they were not used during the Solomon Islands campaign and other mid-war operations. There were a total of 1,147 watertight compartments in the ship.

Yamato was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto from 12 February 1942, replacing Nagato. She sailed with the Nagato, Mutsu, Hosho, Sendai, nine destroyers and four auxiliary ships as Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's Main Body during the attempted invasion of Midway Atoll in June 1942, but took no active part in the Battle of Midway. She remained the flagship for 364 days until February 11, 1943, when the flag was transferred to her sister ship Musashi. From 29 August 1942 to 8 May 1943, she spent all of her time at Truk, being underway for only one day during this entire time. In May 1943, she returned to Kure, where the two wing 15.5 cm turrets were removed and replaced by 25 mm machine guns, and Type-22 surface search radars were added. She returned to Truk on 25 December 1943. On the way there, she was damaged by a torpedo from the submarine USS Skate, and was not fully repaired until April 1944. During these repairs, additional 12.7 cm anti-aircraft guns were installed in the place of the 15.5 cm turrets removed in May, and additional 25 mm anti-aircraft guns were added.

She joined the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944. In October, she participated in the Battles of Leyte Gulf and Samar, during which she first fired her main guns in anger. She received two bomb hits from aircraft which did little damage. She returned home in November and her anti-aircraft capability was again upgraded over the winter. She was attacked in the Inland Sea on March 19, 1945 by carrier aircraft from Task Force 58 as they attacked Kure, but suffered little damage.

Her final mission was as part of Operation Ten-Go following the invasion of Okinawa on 1 April 1945. She was sent on a suicide mission (commanded by Admiral Seiichi Ito) to attack the US fleet supporting the US troops landing on the west of the island. On 6 April Yamato and her escorts, the light cruiser Yahagi and 8 destroyers, left port at Tokuyama. They were sighted on 7 April by American submarines as they exited the Inland Sea southwards. The U.S. Navy launched 386 aircraft to intercept the task force, and the planes engaged the ships starting at 12:30 that afternoon. Yamato took 8 bombs and 12 torpedo hits before, at about 14:23, she capsized to port and her aft magazines detonated. She sank while still some 200 km from Okinawa. Of her crew 2,475 were lost, and the 269 survivors were picked up by the escorting destroyers. Some reports claim that a number of survivors were machine-gunned in the water by U.S. aircraft.[1] Other Japanese survivors reported that U.S. aircraft temporarily halted their attacks on the Japanese destroyers during the time that the destroyers were busy picking up survivors from the water.[2]

[edit] Operation Ten-Go

At about 0830 hours on 7 April 1945, United States fighter planes were launched to pinpoint the location of the Japanese task force. By 1000 hours, the Yamato's radar picked up the US planes and a state of battle readiness was commanded. Within seven minutes all doors, hatches and ventilators were closed, and battle stations were fully manned. The super battleship was ready for the coming fury.

Planes from the carrier Hornet to comprise the group that would make first contact with the Japanese task force joined the strike force from Bennington. Bennington's VB-82, led by Lieutenant Commander Hugh Wood, was flying at 20,000 ft (6,000 m) in heavy clouds on the bearing to intercept the ships. Although the radar indicated they were very close, the pilots were startled when they realized they were directly above the Japanese task force and within range of anti-aircraft fire. Lieutenant Commander Wood immediately pushed his Helldiver into the clouds and made a sharp left turn, commencing their attack. Wood's wingman was unable to stay with the formation, leaving Lieutenant (jg) Francis R. Ferry and Lieutenant (jg) Edward A. Sieber to follow Wood into the first strike on the Yamato.

The dives began at 20,000 ft directly over the Yamato, bearing from stern to bow. Bombs were released at an altitude of less than about 1,500 ft (500 m). The dives were made as close to a 90-degree angle as possible to avoid the 75-degree maximum angle of the anti-aircraft guns. Each of the three planes released eight five-inch rockets; two-armor piercing bombs and bursts of 20 mm machine gun fire. Lt. (jg) Ferry remembers that, "at this distance a miss was impossible". The first two bombs dropped by Lt. Commander Wood hit on the starboard side of the weather deck, knocking out several of the 25 mm machine guns and the high-angle gun turret and ripping a hole in the flying deck. Seconds later came the two bombs from Lt. (jg) Ferry, destroying secondary battery fire control station as they blew through the flying deck and starting a fire, which was never extinguished. This fire continued to spread and is believed to have caused the explosion of the main ammunition magazine as the Yamato capsized some two hours later. Hot on Ferry's tail was Lt. (jg) Sieber, delivering two bomb hits forward of the island, ripping more holes in the decks in the vicinity of the number three main gun turret. Within minutes of the Helldivers' bombing, the Yamato suffered three torpedo hits to her port side and began listing.

Over the next two hours, two more attacks would be launched, pounding the Yamato with torpedoes and bombs. Shortly after 1400 hours, the commanding officer gave the word to prepare to abandon ship. As the ship listed beyond a 90-degree angle and began sinking, a gigantic explosion of the stern ammunition magazines tore the ship apart. The huge mushroom of fire and smoke exploded almost four miles into the air and the fire was seen by sentries 125 miles away in Kagoshima prefecture on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands. Only 280 of the Yamato 2,778-man crew were rescued from the sinking ship. The end had come for the Yamato, foreshadowing the coming end of the Imperial Japanese Military.

The wreckage lies in around 300 meters of water and was surveyed in 1985 and 1999. These surveys show the hull to be in two pieces with the break occurring in the area of the second ('B') main turret.

The senior surviving bridge officer Mitsuru Yoshida, claims that a fire alert for the magazine of the forward superfiring 155 mm guns was observed as the ship sank. This fire appears to have detonated the shell propellant stored as the ship rolled over, which in turn set off the magazine in turret 'B' resulting in the famous pictures of the actual explosion and subsequent smoke column photographed by US aircraft (shown above and recorded as being seen in southern Japan, one hundred miles away).

The bow section landed upright, with the stern section remaining keel up. The three main turrets fell away as the ship turned turtle and landed in the wreckage field around the separated hull pieces.

A further large hole was found in the stern section, strongly suggesting that a third magazine explosion occurred, possibly the aft superfiring 155 mm gun magazine.

Further examples of capital ships being lost due to magazine detonations of this nature during or after battle are the British battlecruisers HMS Queen Mary, Invincible and Indefatigable at the battle of Jutland in 1916, Hood at battle of the Denmark Strait in 1941, USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and HMS Barham in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1941.