On this day in 1945, the Japanese battleship Yamato is destroyed by U.S. Navy warplanes as it steams for Okinawa. With a displacement of 72,000 tons, the Yamato is the lead vessel in the largest class of battleship ever to put to sea.
@MilHistNow And it was destroyed by aircraft, just like HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales were sunk by aircraft at the start of the war, proving that surface ships without air cover are easy targets. Sounds logical today, but some admirals still had to be convinced of that in 1945.
@MilHistNow And it was destroyed by aircraft, just like HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales were sunk by aircraft at the start of the war, proving that surface ships without air cover are easy targets. Sounds logical today, but some admirals still had to be convinced of that in 1945.
@MilHistNow Shame on IJN and the Emperor for sacrificing these brave men on a suicide mission! What a senseless waste!
@MilHistNow What a waste of steel. Battleships were obsolete after Pearl Harbor.
@MilHistNow @Kalifornia4Cruz What would the World look today if Japan never attacked Pearl Harbor?
@MilHistNow I guess it would have been funny if it wasn't so tragic how "the great battleships" were all reduced to scrap iron by the existence of.... airplanes. "Oh, we didn't think of that."
@MilHistNow All in vain. Madness to sacrifice so many. For the US had to be done.
@MilHistNow Suicide run. All those abroad it knew so.
@MilHistNow Madness, absolute madness.