YAMATO’S DESPERATION SORTIE

A second offshore phase of operation “Ten-Go” involved the Imperial Navy.  Its warships were to sally forth and blast what remained of the Allied invasion fleet after the April 6^th kikusui raid.  But by this date, the once proud Imperial Navy was but a shadow of its former might.  From war-worn bases in the Inland Sea, Combined Fleet Commander ADM Jisaburo Ozawa could muster only a small “Special Surface Attack Force” of a light cruiser, eight destroyers, and the super-battleship YAMATO.  This 863-foot, 68,000-ton leviathan sported nine 18.1 inch guns that could hurl a 3200-pound shell 22 ¹/₂ miles.  On this last-gasp mission, no air cover could be provided, and YAMATO could be spared only enough fuel for a one-way trip.  Most realized YAMATO would probably not survive what amounted to a suicide mission.  According to historian Russell Spurr, it was the Japanese naval command’s intent that the battleship ravage the American flotilla, then beach herself.  Her guns would form a defensive battery, and her surviving crew would scurry ashore to augment the Japanese land forces.  Under the overall command of VADM Seiichi Ito, the force got underway from Tokuyama at 1520 on the 6^th.  They were spotted at 1745 by THREADFIN (SS-410) in the Inland Sea, and three hours later by HACKLEBACK (SS-295), but neither sub could position for an attack.

VADM Marc Mitscher’s airstrike against YAMATO launched at 1000 this morning, and at 1230 BENNINGTON’s (CV-20) pilots bloodied YAMATO’s nose with two bombs near the mainmast.  For the next two hours the battleship endured near continuous attack.  Her inexperienced anti-aircraft gunners were unable to hit much at all.  In the first hour, YAMATO took five torpedo hits to the port boiler rooms and began to list.  Skipper RADM Kosaka Ariga ordered the starboard boiler rooms counter-flooded before several hundred sailors could be evacuated.  YAMATO now had but one turning screw.  The fourth attack wave brought more portside torpedoes and ten more bomb hits.  YAMATO’s deck plates cracked and crumpled, her list rendered her guns inoperable, the water-tight radio shack flooded, and a blast to sick bay killed the medical officer and corpsmen.  TBM Avengers now made runs so low and measured that LTJG William T. Delaney’s caught fire from his torpedo’s blast.  The last wave struck at 1400.  Communications aboard YAMATO went out, and she rolled onto her beam ends.  Loose shells crashed about, exploding, and at 1423 a giant mushroom cloud signaled the end.

In the enemy’s last naval sortie of WWII, 2498 battleship sailors died, including admirals Ito and Ariga.  The cruiser and four destroyers were sunk as well.  Taken to be revenge for the loss of USS ARIZONA (BB-39) at Pearl Harbor, only 10 US planes were downed.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  13 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Dull, Paul S.  A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1941-1945).  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, pp. 333-35, 1978.

Mitsuru, Yoshida.  Requiem for Battleship Yamato.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1985.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 14  Victory in the Pacific.  Little, Brown and Co., Boston, MA, pp. 199-209, 1960.

Rohwer, Jurgen and Gerhard Hummelchen.  Chronology of the War at Sea  1939-1945.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, p. 346, 1992.

Spurr, Russell.  A Glorious Way to Die:  The Kamikaze Mission of the Battleship Yamato, April 1945.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Historians argue today whether YAMATO’s sortie was indeed a suicide mission.  Nevertheless, the sortie is often described as the last “banzai charge” of the Imperial Navy.  Four destroyers survived, FUYUTSUKIi, HATSUSHIMO, YUKIKAZE, and SUZUTSUKI, the latter creeping back to Sasebo stern-first after American bombers blew off her bow.  These and a handful of submarines constituted all the remained of the Imperial Japanese bluewater Navy.  Never to be a threat for the remainder of the war, the above destroyers were sunk at their moorings by American aircraft a month later.

LTJG Delaney crashed into the water in the midst of the Japanese fleet and hid under his inflatable life raft as the battle raged.  He was spotted by one of the last departing US planes, who radioed a PBM Mariner circling out of range.  He was picked up, literally, amongst the bobbing heads of hundreds of Japanese sailors.

The wreck of YAMATO was located in 1984.  She lies in two pieces under 1100 feet of water, 180 miles southwest of Kyushu.  Plans to raise the battleship, at Japanese government expense, to recover the remains of her crew never came to fruition.

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