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Yamato had many issues mainly due to design choice & battle doctrine. Type 96 25 mm AT/AA for a start were not in triple but dual configuration amidship though 24 guns as 12 were increased to 162/ 81 as no evidence is certain of the experimental 3 gun arrangement. Mind even if the experimental arrangement was the Type 96 25 mm AT/AA that is a copy of the French 25 mm Hotchkiss autocannon was put on market by the French in the 1st place as they saw it as near obsolete in 1936, let alone when they sold them to Romania in 1938. The French military never used the 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-aircraft gun being rejected by command then exported as way to make up for the loses incurred. You put AA but it was dual purpose AA & AT gun & really it was more of a anti vehicle & light tank gun for it had the size of shell required for a dedicated AA gun. The USA have one nation to thanks for their victory more then any in the pacific & that is Sweden with their Bofors 40 mm gun that they sold the patent to the USA to make copies that they tweaked. Even Britain grabbed up Bofer's like hot cakes when they could as it matched or exceeded the aging British QF 2-pounder naval guns at fraction of the weight & cost. A Bofer's 40mm Maximum range was just over 7KM's being effective while the Japanese Type 96 25 mm AT/AA gun was is claimed to have a max range of 5.5 but even if so the shell is so small in flak area it is basically pointless. Type 96's was optimal at 1 KM though useable at 3.5Km which this autocannon was more effective against tanks then air assets in many ways. The Yamato even had At shells taking up space in case of facing tanks in shore bombardment but you have 5 to 18 inch guns so frankly what is the point? Japan lost ww2 before it began when the took licence for the Hotchkiss 25 mm Autocannon in 1935 but France made a pretty penny. The Japanese would have been better of using more 12.7 cm/40 Type 89 naval gun as it wasn't great AA but as a dual-purpose it was pretty nifty for it at least had shells larger enough to fulfil AA role. Even if up gunned from dozen 5 inch guns to say a hefty 3 dozen/36 DP guns it would have likely still been over run by the Air. Japanese can call Type 93 heavy machine gun to be a an AA gun but it wasn't anything of the sort. 4 of them in 2 dual configurations which were obviously for preventing boarding of the vessel which that it would serve well. Personally 4 was over the top as 3 would serve well enough if 2 rear to aft opposite sided with 1 on the bow at front. We British have a adage-saying; ''A camel is house made by committee'' The Yamato is a perfect example of a Camel it works but it was not what was requested-required for the job at hand. The yamato's true useful speed was 16 knots at cruise for it could only go 27 knots for a very short time as the 12 boiler would not handle the pressure then require maintenance. Some sailing vessels could exceed 18 knots so what is the point of a battleship that can keep up with sailing vessel if they flee? The Yamato was a lumbering hulk with only 12 guns of 5 inch's suited to anti-air in any real regard. Mind the Yamato was more a matter of moral & prestige then anything practical!
Do keep in mind the French were aware of the anti air short comings but funnily selected the Schneider 37 mm autocannon as they were more concerned with war against Britain then Germany funnily. When ww2 did kick off against France & Germany in September of 1939 the French found themselves in a major pickle as they even resulted to converting 75mm Schneider guns to take up the shortage with limited contribution as only 190 odd guns were used in this role on a gun model made in 1917. The French had good gear over all but lacked any meaningful; numbers for AA guns & production was no were near what was required for the Dewoitine D.520 only had 900 if that made before France capitulated. Give France a reliable 40MM calibre AA gun & double it's aircraft production & that war would likely have been very different but the awful conflicting battle doctrine of France mired in politics would still have been present so Germany would have achieved victory but at much higher cost. France was still in ww1 & Britain had the most up to date navy of the time & could throw out fighters quicker then the Jerries' could hope to destroy them but Germanies real set back was every lost plane equated 5to a lost pilot but Britain could bailout over it's own territory to fight another day if anything got prickly. "He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again." - Aeneas Tacitus. We Brits heed the ancients advice even if it might lead to out mockery on occasion but especially we Englishmen have a very different mentality to battle compared to the continentals let alone the Germans & the Japanese who frankly have a death wish. If your efforts will not secure any objective or victory then why fight? It is not a matter of cowardice but simple acceptance of the reality 1 can find themselves in for even the greatest mind can on occasion be caught out without any usable preparation or means to improvise. You can barely lose, if never fought when your chances were near none?;) Nothing wrong with scuttling the ship to the boats &or running to the hills after burning camp to revaluate your options.
Okinawa was my father's last combat mission in WWII. He never talked about it. Now that he's gone, I regret not asking him about his experiences in storming beaches at Saipan, Tarawa, Peleliu, and finally Okinawa. We all live a good life because of that generation and their sacrifice. Many never came home. As far as this video, I bow my head to all the servicemen on both sides for their sacrifice. I only wish that we would evolve enough to see the futility of war. I look around at the world today and realize that perhaps I'm wishing for too much.
Many, many of those guys wouldn’t talk about much or any of their experiences. My Dad’s best friend was on Iwo Jima and he would never talk about that time. Or at least not to me. He did however talk about some of his time guarding Japanese prisoners as part of the occupation force on the home islands after the war was over. Don’t hold it against him for not talking to you about those things, those guys all had it way tougher than most of the rest of us could tolerate over 10 lifetimes and never had any help with their mental health once they got back home. All of them had some sort of issues from the war, even if they kept it hidden from family and friends.
Captain Tameichi Hara’s account from on board the Yahagi and after its sinking is truly amazing. And I recommend it to anyone interested in the operation.
Read his book, 'Japanese Destroyer Captain'. Well written, consise, and well worth the time spent in it. Side note, he was a part of the squadron that ran into (literally) JFK that night in the Solomons.
I love this series! The visual style, and the relaxed manner of narration coupled with low background music volume is my idea of perfection, especially when you upload long form, videos as they are very relaxing and I use them to help me unwind before bedtime. Thank you for your work!
Most of the crews didn't know about the fuel order. The decision was made by the senior officers of the squadron and the commander of the fuel depot to give them a fighting chance of surviving.
That is amazing. My dad was a crew member on the USS Chandeleur, and I believe they earned a battle star for the event your dad was the pilot for. The ship was a seaplane tender which was a floating base for maintenance of the seaplanes and caring for their crew.
I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be there and see all this chaos going on around you. Our grandpas and great grandpas had some serious courage.
For me that great courage came from my dad. He never told us girls what he went through being captured twice by the Japanese after being shot down. He told our mother a little so we knew just a small part of his WWII experiences. We knew they made a plan to escape from the prisoner of war camps and thank God they succeeded because none of us be here if they had failed. I remembered a childhood of no rice, he refused to let our mother to buy it, no Japanese electronics in our house or anything else he could trace back to Japan. I’m sorry to say he held bad feelings until the day he passed.
Fantastic work Oscar. This was a great video and your narration is always spot on. This battle was huge for the Allies and aided in expediting the end of the war.
It should be noted that while Yamato’s dismal career (albeit not quite as dismal as once assumed, but still terrible) is very often used to make the argument the Japanese failed to adapt quickly enough to the changing naval paradigm, the truth is that this was a problem that EVERYBODY had in WWII. Literally every major navy built pointless new battleships they didn’t need, and found that they couldn’t use them as capital ships, forcing them to either not use them or use them as very large, very expensive destroyers in supporting roles (which is still strategically a massive disaster and a huge waste-battleships cost so much that the only real justification for them at the strategic level was to use them as capital ships against enemy capital ships). There were many things the IJN got wrong that other navies didn’t (their garbage anti-submarine doctrine for example). Wasting money on pointless new battleships in the carrier era isn’t one of them because everyone else also got this one wrong.
@@Thor13332 Only the US had the resources to cripple themselves by building battleships and keep going just fine (and that’s not because they were smarter about this than anyone else, but because the US war economy was such a juggernaut even self-sabotage didn’t affect it that badly). Everyone else badly sabotaged themselves by making that mistake, with Germany likely being the worst offender in this regard.
@@jasonhe5578 The enemy could just ignore them most of the time, the enemy just didn’t know it. All the cases of the British desperately trying to keep Tirpitz contained? They were all completely pointless because Tirpitz was effectively harmless from the start, due to lack of fuel and being a battleship in the carrier era (and a badly designed one too compared to everyone else’s useless battleships)
Who are you talking about, the Japanese who were not afraid to die for their country when everything was against them or the Germans fighting the world almost alone?
Nice video. Can we just take a second to appreciate how amazing it is to be able to lay artillery fire on targets 20+ miles away? Imagine sunning yourself on the deck and a three thousand pound AP shell comes ripping out of the clear blue sky at your ship. Yikes.
What an AMAZING take on this battle. of ALL the stories and conversations I've had on the fighting that occured in the Pacific in April, '45, this explains it in a way that is SO much more understandable. Thank you, thank you, thank you ! ! ! -tim strong !
Though I still always imagine what would have happen had kurito not retreated from battle of samar under the false impression they were up against a powerful carrier task force but it was just taffy 3 consisting of 7 light aircraft carrier with no surface ship destroying weapons to arm their plans, effectively completely defenseless and futile against the Japanese central force consisting of the most powerful guns put on a battleship yamato which alone outweighed taffy 3 entirely and other powerful Japanese battleships and many other cruisers and destroyers. They could have easily taken out taffy 3 carriers one by one, especially if kurita hadn't called back the Japanese destroyers closing in on the us aircraft carriers to block their escape route just bc that he was worried they would burn too much fuel... Still so baffled over that decision. had that not been the case the battle would have ended right there with destroyers launching bulk of torpedos and the carriers would be obliterated not to mention if the japanese destroyers were completely engaging had kurita not called them back the us destroyers wouldn't have ended up distracting to cruisers and battleships with the Japanese destroyer taking care of then with their guns and torpedos destroying them before they could do much, and the yamato could have closed in head on to the carriers taking them out one by one instead of being drawn away of the battle by the enemy destroyer torpedos. Had this been the case which it could easily have, the battle would have been known as the most notable and remarkable naval battle of ww2 and battleship history. After obliterating and destroying taffy 3 perhaps yamato could have even had the opportunity of engaging in battle with a battleship as she was built for, had the battleships which destroyed the battleships fuso come to where taffy 3 was hearing taffy 3's call for help, and the yamato could have had a honourable end unlike what we got in operation ten go.
I really like the visuals and timeline animation of the ship positions and movements- allows the viewer to conceptualize what happened much better. Well done! Also, for those who recognized it: the Space Battleship Yamato blueprints were utterly perfect! Excellent humor!
To be mentioned: US pilots learned from torpedoing the Musashi on both sides, helped her stay afloat longer by unintentional counter flooding. The Yamato was focused one side only, to seal her fate faster.
@@ericjohnson6105 There is no clear evidence that Yamamoto ever said those words. That quote is either from the 1976 movie Midway or the 1970 movie Tora Tora Tora, sorry I can't remember the correct movie. I am not making this reply to dispute your comment but rather amplify it a bit. One of my High School History Teachers was a US Marine who at the time the nuclear bombs were dropped was with his unit near Okinawa. 1976 was the year I graduated from HS. He and I have discussed that quote many times. Here is what he thought about it. Throughout WW2 Japan's Army and Navy were not on the best of terms. This would be a problem that dogged Yamamoto continually. IF he did make that point most likely it was in Japan in heated debates with the government and the Army. Think of it this way. I can imagine him saying "All we did was wake them up and peeved them off." when discussing Pearl Harbor. Then over time, it got cleaned up and the wording became more profound. Same basic idea. Something like this could have been in notes taken that survived.
Something that wasn't mentioned in this video is that Admiral Lee, in charge of the US fast battleships, wanted engage Yamato with the Iowa class battleships. This was initially approved, but Admiral Mitscher then nixed the idea by saying he could intercept the vessels before they reached Okinawa. This has lead to a great "what if" that is the grounds for endless debate, as we will never know how the Yamato would have faired against an Iowa class battleship.
Can an Iowa class battleship sustain 18in shells damage? How resilient was Yamato armor v.s. 16in shells. Which ship had the best fire control system and rangefinders? Speed, maneuvrability, crew, commander, damage control,... Luck...
Admiral Deyo's bombardment group, consisting of the older standards, was also alerted to prepare for surface battle, as the fast battleships (both American and British) were non in the best positions for intercept. The Colorados' et al. did not have the speed to force battle, but if Yamato was coming on anyway, you could have seen West Virginia, Tennessee and California, all with the most modern Type 8 fire control systems (wartime refits), taking the lead (if possible from a rain squall or other cloud cover from where they could have used radar targeting).
@@mechanicsfield2266. Only disadvantage was the Iowa class could not sustain hits from the 18.1’s. However, the Iowas had better fire control & radar guidance, and they could also dictate terms of battle with their superior speed. A more fun idea would be the 12 16in broadside from the Montana class that were never to be.
@@bri-manhunter2654 Drachinifel did a great creation/presentation of a 4 on 4 battle between TF34 (with Iowa and New Jersey) and Center Force (with Yamato). ruclips.net/video/35yLWdYEbZQ/видео.html
One of the great dramas of the war. I agree with other comments and recommend Hara's "Japanese Destroyer Captain" as a great read. He was the captain of a cruiser in this battle. His cruiser was sunk, and he had to swim for it before being picked up by a USN ship and made a POW.
The Japanese remembered to start producing for the war like 2 years after entering it, lol. Mussolini too, too late bro. That ship could've been a game changer 5 years earlier, by the time she went to the front it was already too late. 🧡 Great video production, thank you, really enjoyed it, very respectful and to the facts, no silly opinions or out of place commentary.
Brilliant documentary of the battle and rendering of history. Sad, sad, sad the loss of such good men and the heroic valour of those who got to come home. The futility of war. I am deeply touched and awed every time.
Corrections @ 2:33 You used the Profile of Space Battleship Yamato as a Blueprint Background @ 3:40 You used the Profile of USS Montana as a Blueprint Background
Yamato and her crew were sacrificed so the old Samurai, who hid in bunkers, could claim that the Imperial Navy had done it's part in defending Okinawa. They were supposed to sail to Okinawa were they would beach the ship and it's crew was supposed to bolster the defenders on the Island while the Yamato's main battery was used to strike at American troops. This mad scheme had no hope of any sucess. Even if the Yamato had survived the air onslaught, she would have faced a line of American battleships.
It baffles me how hard it is for people to comprehend and understand other cultures which have been developed for milenias, thousands of years. Its not something to hate on but admirable and respectable. Sure lives were killed only for honour but there are countless examples like these where people died for unusual reasons in human history.
i think its called "Voices of the past" it has a video where it shows the toughts of the Japanese ambassador and his struggle to mantain peace while his own goverment the Japanese empire demanded war and it would just break his heart how his own country was heading towards a war they could just never win.
There's symmetry with the Prince of Wales and the Repulse being sunk by overwhelming air superiority at the very beginning of the war and Yamato meeting the same fate at the very end.
I loved and watched the Yamato space battleship. Long live the Japanese spacemen! It was good to see that the Yamato was raised and used to defend us earthings. One thing that always bothered me was that the spacebattleship didn't have guns on its bottom hull! What an oversight!😢
The TV Anime series Uchu Senkan Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato) was first broadcast in Japan around 1980. My family watched it when I was stationed at US Forces Japan, Yokota Air Base, Tokyo. The premise of the story is that earth is under assault from alien invaders, and much of the oceans have dried up. The hulk of the Yamato is exposed. A message from another alien civilization contains the technology enabling humanity to turn the Yamato into a spaceship with faster than light engines and a powerful energy weapon that fires from the bow of the ship. They are asked to fight their way across the galaxy where the good aliens will be able to give them the added technology needed to defeat the invaders. There was a second season with a new war against other aliens. Yamato means Great Peace and is an ancient name for Japan. It was like naming an aircraft carrier the America. The TV show was indicative of a resurgent patriotism in Japan. Previously, many Japanese were so critical of the Japanese military that members of the Self Defense Forces who worked at HQ in Tokyo did not wear their uniforms during their commute to work. But as the Yamato was celebrated, JSDF soldiers and sailors began wearing their uniforms in public. The Japanese military establishment is now pretty substantial, now among the top ten in the world in number of personnel enlisted and with F-15 and F-35 planes.
A hornet served on my dad.... It stung. I hope your dad made it back home well, my didn't. He was very angry as the multi hornet stings killed him and he was extremely angry with that outcome. He was so mad, he beat me senseless until I could only write mentally challenged literature about anything and everything I never even knew was real or not real but I did in fact know was something and not nothing at all. Hornets are mean... 😢
This served as an example of war leaders thinking the next war would be fought just like the last war. Japan wanted the prestige of having the best battleships in anticipation of a Pacific Battle of Jutland. No one, not even the Americans, understood that the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean would make aircraft carriers the most effective weapon of 'the next war'. Fortunately, America had the industrial capacity to boost their carrier fleet even as they continued to build battleships that would only serve as auxiliaries for the carriers and artillery support for the marines. Even their role as artillery for beach landings was mimicked by carriers launching ground support aircraft. Billy Mitchell was proven correct in saying that planes could sink battleships. The fate of the Yamato, the world's most powerful battleship, confirmed this.
Other than Nelson's battle, are there any battles with Tall Ships (Cannon balls, etc) with enough detail to do a recreation? I'd like to see Blackbeard or maybe even a fake out with Captain Jack Sparrow :) something with cannonballs would be cool. Awesome channel. Liked and Subscribed
Rather than use a computer to read the scripts for your videos, I think your videos would come across to your viewers far better if they were read by a human narrator... ideally one that also knows how to pronounce naval and warfare terms (see myothercommentsonthisexactsubject!!
A few months before Kurita snatched defeat out of victory on the basis he would have lost his entire force. Then, here comes Ten-Go, a complete, useless, senseless waste. Bah! BTW, the pinnacle of japanese warships were ,de facto, the two Shokakus.
19:05 ... Looking at the schematics you used for the background for the statistical table, one wonders why the Yamato didn't just use their Wave Motion Gum ... 😏
This was my father's last battle was Okinawa. He was on a fast attack troop ship. It received six battle stars for its service in the war. He was in the invasion of Sicily, North Africa, Normandy, and Okinawa. He was seventeen when he inlisted in the Navy. The captain's son wrote a book about his ship, and I have it. The ship was Charles Carroll. APA 28. I saw a picture of it docked in Okinawa on a random website. Everything my dad told was true. He never spoke of the Pacific campaign, though. They all thought they were going to die from a kamikaze attack while on picket duty. Yes, a troop ship did picket duty if other ships were not available. I didn't believe it either. My dad had horrible PTSD. He died of cancer on june 6th 1975. His ashes were scattered off the coast of Normandy. He was given a full military burial service at sea buy the Navy.
Yamato vs Bismarck 🤔 Another great video, how about a series on the First Coalition,not focused on Napoleon but how France was able to go through a revolution on hold off other European powers
OUTSTANDING! Anothe monument to the truism: "Play stupid games, win stupid rizes," which is an updated version of the old Toyota jingle: "You asked for it, you GOT it."
Finally a Japanese battleplan that doesn't leave me dazed, confused and seeing flashes of light just from hearing a description of it. No nano-second timing with other groups spread out over half the pacific under radio silence. No division in sub-groups stationed outside of range to mutually support each other. No dependency on non to reliable machines like flying boats and mini-subs for important supporting missions. No feints that seem so undirected that the enemy doesn't know where to respond, so he doesn't. No wonder those poor sailors were weary, the seriousness of the operation must have been overwhelmingly apparent from the lack of frills.
Nice production Listing the Japanese ships with Japanese (in Chinese characters) is a nice touch. A few minor suggestions, Using the correct ship profile would increase your credibility in accuracy. For example, USS Hornet will accompanied by a Yorktown class profile (CV-8) which was sunk in 1942, and not the Essex class (CV-12). Using a green color with seemingly red dots to illustrate Helldivers along side with the correct blue colored Avengers were confusing. Keep up the good work.
The Japanese Navy did not have radar. Bombs were dropped down the smokestack which caused Yamato to stop. Without fire control about 20,000 tons of ammunition exploded looking like an atomic bomb.
This was pure insanity. The old samurai, who hid in bunkers, were shamed by their real enemies, the Imperial Army. They asked what the Navy was doing to help defend Okinawa.
Having enjoyed 2 of your presentations, I would enjoy hearing a presentation on the defeat of the Japanese army by the "flying tigers" at "the Swaleen Gorge", placing it in the sequence of events during WWII.
You missed two important details. The fighters did strafing runs to suppress the AA guns. The torpedo bombers went only to port side attack. focus fire on that side...
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Love your content 😊😊😊❤❤❤
Yamato had many issues mainly due to design choice & battle doctrine.
Type 96 25 mm AT/AA for a start were not in triple but dual configuration amidship though 24 guns as 12 were increased to 162/ 81 as no evidence is certain of the experimental 3 gun arrangement.
Mind even if the experimental arrangement was the Type 96 25 mm AT/AA that is a copy of the French 25 mm Hotchkiss autocannon was put on market by the French in the 1st place as they saw it as near obsolete in 1936, let alone when they sold them to Romania in 1938.
The French military never used the 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-aircraft gun being rejected by command then exported as way to make up for the loses incurred.
You put AA but it was dual purpose AA & AT gun & really it was more of a anti vehicle & light tank gun for it had the size of shell required for a dedicated AA gun.
The USA have one nation to thanks for their victory more then any in the pacific & that is Sweden with their Bofors 40 mm gun that they sold the patent to the USA to make copies that they tweaked.
Even Britain grabbed up Bofer's like hot cakes when they could as it matched or exceeded the aging British QF 2-pounder naval guns at fraction of the weight & cost.
A Bofer's 40mm Maximum range was just over 7KM's being effective while the Japanese Type 96 25 mm AT/AA gun was is claimed to have a max range of 5.5 but even if so the shell is so small in flak area it is basically pointless.
Type 96's was optimal at 1 KM though useable at 3.5Km which this autocannon was more effective against tanks then air assets in many ways.
The Yamato even had At shells taking up space in case of facing tanks in shore bombardment but you have 5 to 18 inch guns so frankly what is the point?
Japan lost ww2 before it began when the took licence for the Hotchkiss 25 mm Autocannon in 1935 but France made a pretty penny.
The Japanese would have been better of using more 12.7 cm/40 Type 89 naval gun as it wasn't great AA but as a dual-purpose it was pretty nifty for it at least had shells larger enough to fulfil AA role.
Even if up gunned from dozen 5 inch guns to say a hefty 3 dozen/36 DP guns it would have likely still been over run by the Air.
Japanese can call Type 93 heavy machine gun to be a an AA gun but it wasn't anything of the sort.
4 of them in 2 dual configurations which were obviously for preventing boarding of the vessel which that it would serve well.
Personally 4 was over the top as 3 would serve well enough if 2 rear to aft opposite sided with 1 on the bow at front.
We British have a adage-saying; ''A camel is house made by committee''
The Yamato is a perfect example of a Camel it works but it was not what was requested-required for the job at hand.
The yamato's true useful speed was 16 knots at cruise for it could only go 27 knots for a very short time as the 12 boiler would not handle the pressure then require maintenance.
Some sailing vessels could exceed 18 knots so what is the point of a battleship that can keep up with sailing vessel if they flee?
The Yamato was a lumbering hulk with only 12 guns of 5 inch's suited to anti-air in any real regard.
Mind the Yamato was more a matter of moral & prestige then anything practical!
Do keep in mind the French were aware of the anti air short comings but funnily selected the Schneider 37 mm autocannon as they were more concerned with war against Britain then Germany funnily.
When ww2 did kick off against France & Germany in September of 1939 the French found themselves in a major pickle as they even resulted to converting 75mm Schneider guns to take up the shortage with limited contribution as only 190 odd guns were used in this role on a gun model made in 1917.
The French had good gear over all but lacked any meaningful; numbers for AA guns & production was no were near what was required for the Dewoitine D.520 only had 900 if that made before France capitulated.
Give France a reliable 40MM calibre AA gun & double it's aircraft production & that war would likely have been very different but the awful conflicting battle doctrine of France mired in politics would still have been present so Germany would have achieved victory but at much higher cost.
France was still in ww1 & Britain had the most up to date navy of the time & could throw out fighters quicker then the Jerries' could hope to destroy them but Germanies real set back was every lost plane equated 5to a lost pilot but Britain could bailout over it's own territory to fight another day if anything got prickly.
"He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again." - Aeneas Tacitus.
We Brits heed the ancients advice even if it might lead to out mockery on occasion but especially we Englishmen have a very different mentality to battle compared to the continentals let alone the Germans & the Japanese who frankly have a death wish.
If your efforts will not secure any objective or victory then why fight?
It is not a matter of cowardice but simple acceptance of the reality 1 can find themselves in for even the greatest mind can on occasion be caught out without any usable preparation or means to improvise.
You can barely lose, if never fought when your chances were near none?;)
Nothing wrong with scuttling the ship to the boats &or running to the hills after burning camp to revaluate your options.
Minute 13: you say rhey dropped torpedoes from a height of 500 feet. Do you mean 50 feet? From 500 feet they would hitvthe water too hard and sink.
Those sound affects in the background are horrible. I had to turn it off. Do it without them!
Okinawa was my father's last combat mission in WWII. He never talked about it. Now that he's gone, I regret not asking him about his experiences in storming beaches at Saipan, Tarawa, Peleliu, and finally Okinawa. We all live a good life because of that generation and their sacrifice. Many never came home. As far as this video, I bow my head to all the servicemen on both sides for their sacrifice. I only wish that we would evolve enough to see the futility of war. I look around at the world today and realize that perhaps I'm wishing for too much.
You did your dad a favor by not asking.
Many, many of those guys wouldn’t talk about much or any of their experiences.
My Dad’s best friend was on Iwo Jima and he would never talk about that time. Or at least not to me. He did however talk about some of his time guarding Japanese prisoners as part of the occupation force on the home islands after the war was over.
Don’t hold it against him for not talking to you about those things, those guys all had it way tougher than most of the rest of us could tolerate over 10 lifetimes and never had any help with their mental health once they got back home. All of them had some sort of issues from the war, even if they kept it hidden from family and friends.
You do know that the IJN would routinely execute downed flyers and the crews of captured ships?
Excellent comment.
Search also for "Lestrade" "Pacific Theatre" "Yamato" "pdf".
Captain Tameichi Hara’s account from on board the Yahagi and after its sinking is truly amazing. And I recommend it to anyone interested in the operation.
I have read his book and it was incredible read
We already read that event before.. he was lucky he survived and ended up in a hospital back in Japan…
Read his book, 'Japanese Destroyer Captain'. Well written, consise, and well worth the time spent in it. Side note, he was a part of the squadron that ran into (literally) JFK that night in the Solomons.
I love this series!
The visual style, and the relaxed manner of narration coupled with low background music volume is my idea of perfection, especially when you upload long form, videos as they are very relaxing and I use them to help me unwind before bedtime.
Thank you for your work!
Thank you for the kind comment - I'm happy you like my style.
Wonderful work. I didn't know that the ship's crew disobeyed orders and filled their fuel tanks to allow for a possible return trip.
This is the first time hearing about the over-fueling.
Most of the crews didn't know about the fuel order. The decision was made by the senior officers of the squadron and the commander of the fuel depot to give them a fighting chance of surviving.
Enjoyed the video. My father was the pilot of the PBM, Dog 10 that spotted the Yamato on April 7, 1945 along with Dog 8.
Thanks for sharing!
As they show the blueprints of Spaceship Yamato at the end 😅
That is amazing. My dad was a crew member on the USS Chandeleur, and I believe they earned a battle star for the event your dad was the pilot for. The ship was a seaplane tender which was a floating base for maintenance of the seaplanes and caring for their crew.
My grandfather was a pow twice and killed a general. But he was filipino so who gives a fk?
Is your father James R. Young of VPB-21?
Lol gotta love how the blueprint background is of Space Battleship Yamato! Nice Easter Egg!
When does Godzilla get here in this movie?????
Haha I knew I'm not the only one who spotted it 😂
I was confused for a second seeing that. Then I realized.
*UCHU SENKAN TO TAMATO!*
@@bonehead2768 Not in this movie but the Kagero class destroyer Yukikaze was in the final battle of Godzilla Minus One.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. Star blazers
one of the blue print backgrounds used, around 19 min, shows the Yamato as she was in the TV show Space Battleship Yamato. Very cute.
hahah i noticed it too xD
🚀
@@HoH You thought we wouldn't notice, but we did.
I remember that show!
I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be there and see all this chaos going on around you. Our grandpas and great grandpas had some serious courage.
For me that great courage came from my dad. He never told us girls what he went through being captured twice by the Japanese after being shot down. He told our mother a little so we knew just a small part of his WWII experiences. We knew they made a plan to escape from the prisoner of war camps and thank God they succeeded because none of us be here if they had failed. I remembered a childhood of no rice, he refused to let our mother to buy it, no Japanese electronics in our house or anything else he could trace back to Japan. I’m sorry to say he held bad feelings until the day he passed.
@@pattycoe7435Incredible comment, thanks for sharing.
Fantastic work Oscar. This was a great video and your narration is always spot on. This battle was huge for the Allies and aided in expediting the end of the war.
It is computer generated so many errors
Definitely computer generated 😆 "it's entire crew of three, twenty six men" 😅
2:25 I love the specifications of the space battleship 😂
Yup, I spotted it a few seconds into this segment. Very sneaky and very cool! :D
Yes, I guess they built it to fight the Gamilons. Very forward thinking.
?
@@willhookeen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Battleship_Yamato
Battle of Pluto video incoming? Lol
It should be noted that while Yamato’s dismal career (albeit not quite as dismal as once assumed, but still terrible) is very often used to make the argument the Japanese failed to adapt quickly enough to the changing naval paradigm, the truth is that this was a problem that EVERYBODY had in WWII. Literally every major navy built pointless new battleships they didn’t need, and found that they couldn’t use them as capital ships, forcing them to either not use them or use them as very large, very expensive destroyers in supporting roles (which is still strategically a massive disaster and a huge waste-battleships cost so much that the only real justification for them at the strategic level was to use them as capital ships against enemy capital ships).
There were many things the IJN got wrong that other navies didn’t (their garbage anti-submarine doctrine for example). Wasting money on pointless new battleships in the carrier era isn’t one of them because everyone else also got this one wrong.
I feel like battleships were more of a fleet in being that forces enemies to plan around them, so they still had an impact
I agree. The other naval powers had the resources to correct that mistake. The IJN didnt.
@@Thor13332
Only the US had the resources to cripple themselves by building battleships and keep going just fine (and that’s not because they were smarter about this than anyone else, but because the US war economy was such a juggernaut even self-sabotage didn’t affect it that badly). Everyone else badly sabotaged themselves by making that mistake, with Germany likely being the worst offender in this regard.
@@jasonhe5578
The enemy could just ignore them most of the time, the enemy just didn’t know it. All the cases of the British desperately trying to keep Tirpitz contained? They were all completely pointless because Tirpitz was effectively harmless from the start, due to lack of fuel and being a battleship in the carrier era (and a badly designed one too compared to everyone else’s useless battleships)
Russians have a navy. What good is that to them? Same situation with China. No repair ports outside their territorial water.
Last summer I visited the yamato Museum close to Hiroshima it ls impressive and a monument to human futility
4:00 that's the space battleship yamato LOL
The sadest part of all this is not the might of arms and armaments but rather the sacrifice of so many brave young men.
A whole generation gave their lives for the Emperor. It was a tragic waste.
@@Zerox_PrimeSenseless waste of lives and material.
@@Zerox_Primetheir emperor was short and weak.
Great video. Very didactic! It was the first time I could clearly understand the dynamics of a battle like this. Thank you so much.
very brave blokes, toughest generation ever, grew up in the great depression then thrust straight into the absolute hell of WW2,
total respect !!
They didn’t have Google, RUclips, Instagram or TikTok that’s why they could do it… our brains are scrambled eggs from all of this 😬
Who are you talking about, the Japanese who were not afraid to die for their country when everything was against them or the Germans fighting the world almost alone?
Cheers!
Nice video. Can we just take a second to appreciate how amazing it is to be able to lay artillery fire on targets 20+ miles away? Imagine sunning yourself on the deck and a three thousand pound AP shell comes ripping out of the clear blue sky at your ship. Yikes.
very brave blokes, toughest generation ever, grew up in the great depression then thrust straight into the absolute hell of WW2,
total respect !!
Except they were too afraid to use it because they didn’t want to chip the paint
What an AMAZING take on this battle. of ALL the stories and conversations I've had on the fighting that occured in the Pacific in April, '45, this explains it in a way that is SO much more understandable. Thank you, thank you, thank you ! ! ! -tim strong
!
Thought you could slip the Space Battleship Yamato by us! Love that little Easter Egg! Excellent video!
After the development of carrier warfare the Yamato was described as "The right ship for the wrong war"
Just became the largest naval target of the war.
This is the best way to describe it.
Though I still always imagine what would have happen had kurito not retreated from battle of samar under the false impression they were up against a powerful carrier task force but it was just taffy 3 consisting of 7 light aircraft carrier with no surface ship destroying weapons to arm their plans, effectively completely defenseless and futile against the Japanese central force consisting of the most powerful guns put on a battleship yamato which alone outweighed taffy 3 entirely and other powerful Japanese battleships and many other cruisers and destroyers. They could have easily taken out taffy 3 carriers one by one, especially if kurita hadn't called back the Japanese destroyers closing in on the us aircraft carriers to block their escape route just bc that he was worried they would burn too much fuel... Still so baffled over that decision. had that not been the case the battle would have ended right there with destroyers launching bulk of torpedos and the carriers would be obliterated not to mention if the japanese destroyers were completely engaging had kurita not called them back the us destroyers wouldn't have ended up distracting to cruisers and battleships with the Japanese destroyer taking care of then with their guns and torpedos destroying them before they could do much, and the yamato could have closed in head on to the carriers taking them out one by one instead of being drawn away of the battle by the enemy destroyer torpedos. Had this been the case which it could easily have, the battle would have been known as the most notable and remarkable naval battle of ww2 and battleship history. After obliterating and destroying taffy 3 perhaps yamato could have even had the opportunity of engaging in battle with a battleship as she was built for, had the battleships which destroyed the battleships fuso come to where taffy 3 was hearing taffy 3's call for help, and the yamato could have had a honourable end unlike what we got in operation ten go.
I really like the visuals and timeline animation of the ship positions and movements- allows the viewer to conceptualize what happened much better. Well done!
Also, for those who recognized it: the Space Battleship Yamato blueprints were utterly perfect! Excellent humor!
To be mentioned:
US pilots learned from torpedoing the Musashi on both sides, helped her stay afloat longer by unintentional counter flooding. The Yamato was focused one side only, to seal her fate faster.
The Musashi was actually heavier thN Yamato...picky picky!
Another amazing video as always!
Thanks for a beautifully animated and meticulously researched video! This channel is truly a marvel!⚔🔥👏
The moral of the story is that sneak attacking a country with 12x your GDP is hazardous to one's health.
Don't Touch our Boats! FAFO
Uh huh!
Don't mess with America's boats. We don't like it.
They thought they could sue for peace with a devastating blow. But it was as Yamamoto predicted, they woke the sleeping giant.
@@ericjohnson6105 There is no clear evidence that Yamamoto ever said those words. That quote is either from the 1976 movie Midway or the 1970 movie Tora Tora Tora, sorry I can't remember the correct movie. I am not making this reply to dispute your comment but rather amplify it a bit. One of my High School History Teachers was a US Marine who at the time the nuclear bombs were dropped was with his unit near Okinawa. 1976 was the year I graduated from HS. He and I have discussed that quote many times. Here is what he thought about it. Throughout WW2 Japan's Army and Navy were not on the best of terms. This would be a problem that dogged Yamamoto continually. IF he did make that point most likely it was in Japan in heated debates with the government and the Army. Think of it this way. I can imagine him saying "All we did was wake them up and peeved them off." when discussing Pearl Harbor. Then over time, it got cleaned up and the wording became more profound. Same basic idea. Something like this could have been in notes taken that survived.
Thanks for another interesting and well made video.
Something that wasn't mentioned in this video is that Admiral Lee, in charge of the US fast battleships, wanted engage Yamato with the Iowa class battleships. This was initially approved, but Admiral Mitscher then nixed the idea by saying he could intercept the vessels before they reached Okinawa.
This has lead to a great "what if" that is the grounds for endless debate, as we will never know how the Yamato would have faired against an Iowa class battleship.
Can an Iowa class battleship sustain 18in shells damage? How resilient was Yamato armor v.s. 16in shells.
Which ship had the best fire control system and rangefinders?
Speed, maneuvrability, crew, commander, damage control,...
Luck...
Admiral Deyo's bombardment group, consisting of the older standards, was also alerted to prepare for surface battle, as the fast battleships (both American and British) were non in the best positions for intercept. The Colorados' et al. did not have the speed to force battle, but if Yamato was coming on anyway, you could have seen West Virginia, Tennessee and California, all with the most modern Type 8 fire control systems (wartime refits), taking the lead (if possible from a rain squall or other cloud cover from where they could have used radar targeting).
@@mechanicsfield2266. Only disadvantage was the Iowa class could not sustain hits from the 18.1’s. However, the Iowas had better fire control & radar guidance, and they could also dictate terms of battle with their superior speed.
A more fun idea would be the 12 16in broadside from the Montana class that were never to be.
@@stuartwald2395. Well said.
@@bri-manhunter2654 Drachinifel did a great creation/presentation of a 4 on 4 battle between TF34 (with Iowa and New Jersey) and Center Force (with Yamato). ruclips.net/video/35yLWdYEbZQ/видео.html
One of the great dramas of the war.
I agree with other comments and recommend Hara's "Japanese Destroyer Captain" as a great read. He was the captain of a cruiser in this battle. His cruiser was sunk, and he had to swim for it before being picked up by a USN ship and made a POW.
The Japanese remembered to start producing for the war like 2 years after entering it, lol. Mussolini too, too late bro. That ship could've been a game changer 5 years earlier, by the time she went to the front it was already too late.
🧡 Great video production, thank you, really enjoyed it, very respectful and to the facts, no silly opinions or out of place commentary.
Very well done video. I was pleasantly surprised. Cheers.
Love your work! Keep it up! You're amazing 😊❤❤❤
Good thing I'm a history buff and anime fan, because I loved the history of this battle and spotted the easter eggs of the Space Battleship Yamato!
Battle ships were obsolete before the Yamato was began. It was an utter waste of resources for the Japanese.
Its impressive how ineffective was the japanese AA. They were full aware of the air attack but just downed 2 aircraft per ship lost.
Brilliant documentary of the battle and rendering of history. Sad, sad, sad the loss of such good men and the heroic valour of those who got to come home. The futility of war. I am deeply touched and awed every time.
War is nothing short of horrific, bless the lost lives
Tameichi Hara was certainly fortunate to survive this action. His memoirs are worth a read.
Look at the way they treated their prisoners in a war they started. Have no sympathy!
Good stuff!
Thanks mate.
You have a mate that is a computer voice ?
Corrections
@ 2:33 You used the Profile of Space Battleship Yamato as a Blueprint Background
@ 3:40 You used the Profile of USS Montana as a Blueprint Background
You found the space easter egg 🧐
I thought it looked a little weird, now it makes sense.
Yamato and her crew were sacrificed so the old Samurai, who hid in bunkers, could claim that the Imperial Navy had done it's part in defending Okinawa. They were supposed to sail to Okinawa were they would beach the ship and it's crew was supposed to bolster the defenders on the Island while the Yamato's main battery was used to strike at American troops.
This mad scheme had no hope of any sucess. Even if the Yamato had survived the air onslaught, she would have faced a line of American battleships.
It's kinda infuriating to think about. All these brave young men thrown away for "honor".
A lot of those guys were roasted alive when Boxcar visited Nagasaki.
@@Barwasserall because the japs couldn’t “lose face”. How Pathetic!!
"Honor" and "Duty" are perverted by rich powerful people get others to commit to do things they otherwise would not.
It baffles me how hard it is for people to comprehend and understand other cultures which have been developed for milenias, thousands of years. Its not something to hate on but admirable and respectable. Sure lives were killed only for honour but there are countless examples like these where people died for unusual reasons in human history.
Such a sad fate for such a Mighty Ship like Yamato. Nicely done video.
Great video and very informative as usual.
Any chance you could do a video on the Battle of Imjin River/ Gloster Hill
I so love that the blueprints behind the images of Yamato are of the space battleship version. Perfect.
Thank you, this was very informative and interesting.
Its ironic that countries put so much resources into battleship they were absolutely terrified from even using them, in the event they were lost.
i think its called "Voices of the past" it has a video where it shows the toughts of the Japanese ambassador and his struggle to mantain peace while his own goverment the Japanese empire demanded war and it would just break his heart how his own country was heading towards a war they could just never win.
Awesome video 🫡
Even though I had already known about this engagement, this presentation drew me right in.
There's symmetry with the Prince of Wales and the Repulse being sunk by overwhelming air superiority at the very beginning of the war and Yamato meeting the same fate at the very end.
Wait until you see the video about the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, next Saturday!
I loved and watched the Yamato space battleship. Long live the Japanese spacemen! It was good to see that the Yamato was raised and used to defend us earthings. One thing that always bothered me was that the spacebattleship didn't have guns on its bottom hull! What an oversight!😢
But her secondary bridge was on the bottom.
Thank you very much for making this video.
Exceptional video however I’m not sure why the blueprint background @2:45 seems to suggest the Yamato had some sort of flying capabilities?
Its a reference to a Japanese sci-fi space battleship yamato.
The TV Anime series Uchu Senkan Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato) was first broadcast in Japan around 1980. My family watched it when I was stationed at US Forces Japan, Yokota Air Base, Tokyo. The premise of the story is that earth is under assault from alien invaders, and much of the oceans have dried up. The hulk of the Yamato is exposed. A message from another alien civilization contains the technology enabling humanity to turn the Yamato into a spaceship with faster than light engines and a powerful energy weapon that fires from the bow of the ship. They are asked to fight their way across the galaxy where the good aliens will be able to give them the added technology needed to defeat the invaders. There was a second season with a new war against other aliens.
Yamato means Great Peace and is an ancient name for Japan. It was like naming an aircraft carrier the America. The TV show was indicative of a resurgent patriotism in Japan. Previously, many Japanese were so critical of the Japanese military that members of the Self Defense Forces who worked at HQ in Tokyo did not wear their uniforms during their commute to work. But as the Yamato was celebrated, JSDF soldiers and sailors began wearing their uniforms in public. The Japanese military establishment is now pretty substantial, now among the top ten in the world in number of personnel enlisted and with F-15 and F-35 planes.
@@raymondswenson1268 thank you for your very comprehensive explanation.
Excellent presentation of a major event!
My Dad served on the Hornet
Thank you to your father for serving our great country. I wish I could have shaken his hand and told him in person.
My great granda pa flew and sailed with Enterprise.
I flew a Hornet
A hornet served on my dad.... It stung. I hope your dad made it back home well, my didn't. He was very angry as the multi hornet stings killed him and he was extremely angry with that outcome. He was so mad, he beat me senseless until I could only write mentally challenged literature about anything and everything I never even knew was real or not real but I did in fact know was something and not nothing at all. Hornets are mean... 😢
A good presentation but hopefully you will release more details of the Gurkha.
Superb channel.
This served as an example of war leaders thinking the next war would be fought just like the last war. Japan wanted the prestige of having the best battleships in anticipation of a Pacific Battle of Jutland. No one, not even the Americans, understood that the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean would make aircraft carriers the most effective weapon of 'the next war'. Fortunately, America had the industrial capacity to boost their carrier fleet even as they continued to build battleships that would only serve as auxiliaries for the carriers and artillery support for the marines. Even their role as artillery for beach landings was mimicked by carriers launching ground support aircraft. Billy Mitchell was proven correct in saying that planes could sink battleships. The fate of the Yamato, the world's most powerful battleship, confirmed this.
This posting is better than the Hollywood makes!!! 😅 I love it!!
Nice vid, would be cool to learn more about Hirohito
Enjoyed the video well put together. Would be interested in seeing something on Admiral Togo.
Outstanding video!! Thank you
Sending the Yamato was like bringing a knife to a gunfight.😮
Cheeky little Space Battleship Yamato blueprint in there at 2:30
Very good presentation!
2:30 THIS cracked me up, those blueprints look so modern, even futuristic. 😹
Oh boy, this made my day, thanks. ✌
A curious parallel to what happened to HMS Prince of Wales in December 10 1941.
Other than Nelson's battle, are there any battles with Tall Ships (Cannon balls, etc) with enough detail to do a recreation? I'd like to see Blackbeard or maybe even a fake out with Captain Jack Sparrow :) something with cannonballs would be cool. Awesome channel. Liked and Subscribed
For perhaps the most-detailed recounting of Yamato's fate, I suggest reading Russell Spurr's "A Glorious Way To Die."
I really enjoy your videos. What text-to-speech software do you use? It's impressive and difficult to spot as text-to-speech.
Rather than use a computer to read the scripts for your videos, I think your videos would come across to your viewers far better if they were read by a human narrator... ideally one that also knows how to pronounce naval and warfare terms (see myothercommentsonthisexactsubject!!
Very Good Clip. Perhaps now, you could cover the History of the Samurai?
Great video and history lessons.
It’s should be noted that the blue prints shown at the beginning of the video are from the 1970’s anime Space Battleship Yamato (aka Star Blazers)
Thanks ( house 🏠 of history ) for sharing this remarkable historical coverage naval battle in 1941 between Japan and the USA
Love the Yamato from “Star Blazers” blueprint in the background… never knew that the WW2 Yamato had a Wave Motion gun 😂
A few months before Kurita snatched defeat out of victory on the basis he would have lost his entire force. Then, here comes Ten-Go, a complete, useless, senseless waste. Bah! BTW, the pinnacle of japanese warships were ,de facto, the two Shokakus.
How much bigger was the Yamato than her sister ship to make her the largest battleship in the world?
19:05 ... Looking at the schematics you used for the background for the statistical table, one wonders why the Yamato didn't just use their Wave Motion Gum ... 😏
Great video
This was my father's last battle was Okinawa. He was on a fast attack troop ship. It received six battle stars for its service in the war. He was in the invasion of Sicily, North Africa, Normandy, and Okinawa. He was seventeen when he inlisted in the Navy. The captain's son wrote a book about his ship, and I have it. The ship was Charles Carroll. APA 28. I saw a picture of it docked in Okinawa on a random website. Everything my dad told was true. He never spoke of the Pacific campaign, though. They all thought they were going to die from a kamikaze attack while on picket duty. Yes, a troop ship did picket duty if other ships were not available. I didn't believe it either. My dad had horrible PTSD. He died of cancer on june 6th 1975. His ashes were scattered off the coast of Normandy. He was given a full military burial service at sea buy the Navy.
Thank you for sharing.
I have read that Yamato's guns were, in many ways, inferior to American 16" (radar guided) guns.
"Secret weapon"?? Why would you use a euphemism for the atomic bomb?
Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster were stationed in the Bungo Strait?
Yamato vs Bismarck 🤔
Another great video, how about a series on the First Coalition,not focused on Napoleon but how France was able to go through a revolution on hold off other European powers
Interesting that the blueprints in the background at 2:20 are of the SPACE BATTLESHIP Yamato, not the IJN Yamato
OUTSTANDING! Anothe monument to the truism: "Play stupid games, win stupid rizes," which is an updated version of the old Toyota jingle: "You asked for it, you GOT it."
lol did you just used a blueprint of the space battleship Yamato? thats awesome.
Finally a Japanese battleplan that doesn't leave me dazed, confused and seeing flashes of light just from hearing a description of it.
No nano-second timing with other groups spread out over half the pacific under radio silence.
No division in sub-groups stationed outside of range to mutually support each other.
No dependency on non to reliable machines like flying boats and mini-subs for important supporting missions.
No feints that seem so undirected that the enemy doesn't know where to respond, so he doesn't.
No wonder those poor sailors were weary, the seriousness of the operation must have been overwhelmingly apparent from the lack of frills.
I can't help noticing some illustrations ( ex 19:30 ) had the anime spaceship yamato instead of the ww2 ijn yamato 😂
Nice production
Listing the Japanese ships with Japanese (in Chinese characters) is a nice touch.
A few minor suggestions,
Using the correct ship profile would increase your credibility in accuracy.
For example, USS Hornet will accompanied by a Yorktown class profile (CV-8) which was sunk in 1942, and not the Essex class (CV-12).
Using a green color with seemingly red dots to illustrate Helldivers along side with the correct blue colored Avengers were confusing.
Keep up the good work.
Idk if anyone noticed but at 4:03 and 19:06 those blueprint schematics depicting the Yamato are from the Battleship Yamato space combat anime series.
The Japanese Navy did not have radar. Bombs were dropped down the smokestack which caused Yamato to stop. Without fire control about 20,000 tons of ammunition exploded looking like an atomic bomb.
Thanks!
Great vid.
This was pure insanity. The old samurai, who hid in bunkers, were shamed by their real enemies, the Imperial Army. They asked what the Navy was doing to help defend Okinawa.
The Emperor allegedly asked. Not the army.
@@giantidiot31 But the real enemy of the IJN was the Army. Hirohito did ask the question but he was under no illusions about how the war was going.
Great narrative
Having enjoyed 2 of your presentations, I would enjoy hearing a presentation on the defeat of the Japanese army by the "flying tigers" at "the Swaleen Gorge", placing it in the sequence of events during WWII.
Thanks, that's a great recommendation. I hope there are some detailed sources available about this, I'll check the library on Monday.
You missed two important details. The fighters did strafing runs to suppress the AA guns. The torpedo bombers went only to port side attack. focus fire on that side...
Anyone notice that the line diagrams of the Yamato is not that of the IJN Battleship Yamato but of the Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers)?