Operation Ten-Go - The bigger they come, the harder they fall

Pinned post for Q&A :)

US WWII sub names are so funny. They were named after fish but they quickly ran out of fish that most people know about so the early ones were like "Marlin" and "Pompano," and by the end of the war they were like "Threadfin" and "Hackleback"

"Capital ships were decorating the bottom of the sea." "The water-damage control station ... had be redistributed at high speed to a number of other parts of the ship." You can turn a phrase.

Much respect to the captain who saw his bow was missing and said “Crank this bitch in reverse, I may be strict but not inflexible - the time to be stern has ended.” And yeeted his ship back home having provided a rebuttal to the austere and rigid views of ship anatomy. Take a bow, my man. No one needed one more than him.

Interesting fact: The commander of the light cruiser Yahagi was Captain Hara Tameichi. He was probably Japan's most successful destroyer skipper. Hara participated in 13 major actions during the war. He was also extremely lucky. His ship, the destroyer Shigure survived a number of harrowing encounters. No sooner was Hara transferred to the Yahagi than the Shigure's luck ran out and she was sunk at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Hara was a tough minded and independent officer. He sent a letter sent to the emperor in late 1943 urging the sovereign to fire Japan's navy and army chiefs and then sue for peace. Hara survived the war and his memoires "Destroyer Captain" is must reading for students of naval history of WWII.

Unfortunately for the Yamato, their chances were dashed when they recieved a mysterious radio transmission asking if they "Spotted any Torpedo Boats"

It is likely that the Emperor had only a vague idea how outclassed the IJN is by this time because he was only fed the rosiest of reports by his subordinates. It is not good to have someone whose authority cannot be contradicted and also is kept sheltered from reality.

They say, as the Yamato exploded, for just a moment, a single old boat could be seen in the distance. It flashed a single message: "Do you see torpedo boats?" before disappearing in the smoke.

So the Yamatos best AA armament was her own magazines exploding?

A number of Japanese Admirals objected to this suicide mission. The commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy did everything he could to prevent cadets from sailing with this fleet operation telling them it was their duty to live to rebuild Japan.

The funny thing is that even if she made it to Okinawa and beached herself, she would've been literally blown into pieces within a day since now that she wasn't moving, she was a easy target for B-29s dropping dozens upon dozens of bombs.

After the Yamato sank, Yukikaze's captain (Cmdr Masamichi Terauchi) demanded that they abandon the survivors and continue their suicide charge towards Okinawa. The other destroyer captains basically went "Fuck that!"

Number of Japanese aircrafts at Pearl Harbor: 353 from 6 carriers. Number of US aircrafts thrown at the Yamato: 386 from 8 carriers. And they sent them to attack one target, not an entire fleet.

"Will you take them or shall I?" kinda drives home how much of a non-issue the IJN had become by that point.

Hearing ‘given their lives in the service of the god emperor’ is so odd outside of a warhammer 40k video

My father's Annapolis classmate, Hugh Wood, is credited with getting the first two hits on the Yamato. Lt. Cdr. Hugh Wood, as commander of the USS Bennington's dive-bomber squadron, launched in his SB2C with his XO as wingman, accompanied by 4 or 5 other aircraft. The Yamato's anti-aircraft guns could elevate to something like 72 degrees, so Cdr. Wood and the rest of his flight had to fly directly over the ship and then come straight down in a near-vertical dive. During violent maneuvering to avoid AA fire and to get into the perfect dive-bombing position, Cdr. Wood was separated from the rest of the formation (or, to be more precise, most of the formation was separated from Cdr. Wood), with the exception of his XO who stuck to his wing like glue. They began their dive from 30,000 feet (I didn't think the SB2C could attain that altitude but apparently it could in the hands of an exceptionally capable pilot). Cdr. Wood scored two hits, while his wingman scored at least one. They then flew back to the Bennington, landed, rearmed and relaunched to repeat the process. For his efforts, Cdr. Wood received his second Navy Cross. Sadly, Hugh was killed in the early 50s while test piloting some Grumman counter-rotating monstrosity called the Skyshark. RIP and God bless you, Cdr. Wood.

So basically Yamato was a fish and the US navy was that flock of seagulls from Finding Nemo.

It's unbelievable that Suzutsuki lost its bow and reversed all the way to Japan

Admiral spruance: ah yes let's give Yamato a fair chance Carriers: that's not very American of you

The Yamato would've done a lot better if it hadn't been for one of their fleet auxiliaries signalling "Do you see torpedo boats?" at a critical moment.