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Always wondered why does the BB Yamato have the big mystique cult with the Japanese as opposed to her sister. Is it the name....being the first of her class?

From wikipedia and also verified elsewhere.

Yamato (大和) was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan. Later the term was used as the name of the province and also as an ancient name of Japan. The term was semantically extended to mean “Japan” or “Japanese” in general.

So you see, Yamato represents the people as a whole and is not just a ship.

Okay....does sound like it comes down to the pedigree of name. [:)]

Interesting that the Germans (Hitler) renamed the Deutschland as the Lutzow for the specific reason that it would be unseemly for a ship bearing the name of the nation to be sunk.

Go up against her or her sister in straIGHT UP surface combat, you will have healthy respect...very healthy

If you believe that...[8|]

well, when she was launched she was the ruler of the seas.. granted by 45 could use a technology refit... we will never know as surfase combat was not the norm for these massively wasteful, in hindsight, behemoths. So, back on track, she has the "cult" because she was first and in her day the greatest BB afloat
IMO

I've always wondered just how well Yamato would have been in a gunfight, as Her gunnery practise shoots were some of the worst in the IJN.

Yamato's gunnery had some notable accomplishments at Samar, including the famous "puppy being smacked by a truck" hits on USS Johnston.
I wonder how the cult would be different if Yamato had gone down in Sibuyan Sea and Musashi had committed ritual suicide off Okinawa.

ORIGINAL: spence

Interesting that the Germans (Hitler) renamed the Deutschland as the Lutzow for the specific reason that it would be unseemly for a ship bearing the name of the nation to be sunk.

The Yamato had a few close calls because of some weak points in her armor; since the IJN could lose face if she was lost at sea, she spent a lot of time safely tucked away at Truk.

just a note, from childhood
I always heard this; " Yamato was sunk after being attcked by hundreds of planes, taking dozens of hits etc etc.." basically givingthe impression that she would not have been sunk without being torpedoed numerous times ... for what its worth. again imo these ships, in hindsight for both US and Jap navies where terrible investments.
After all, which would you have one super BB or 5 cv's?

ORIGINAL: DivePac88

I've always wondered just how well Yamato would have been in a gunfight, as Her gunnery practise shoots were some of the worst in the IJN.

The Yamato's gunnery crew were mis-reading the calculation tables during her trials. It took some time before the problem was addressed- including returning the ship to the yards. (This is why the Yamato appears in 1942 instead of pre-war.) Once it was discovered the directors were so incompetent they were busted off the ship and a new gunnery crew was assigned. This solved the problem and I think the ship worked as normal.

ORIGINAL: freeboy

just a note, from childhood
I always heard this; " Yamato was sunk after being attcked by hundreds of planes, taking dozens of hits etc etc.." basically givingthe impression that she would not have been sunk without being torpedoed numerous times ... for what its worth. again imo these ships, in hindsight for both US and Jap navies where terrible investments.
After all, which would you have one super BB or 5 cv's?

Every admiral dreams of having an unsinkable battleship. And the Yamato is probably as close to that as the Japanese could expect. A powerful surface force was seen as the only way to win the "decisive battle" that the Japanese doctrine. National pride also was built on the number of battleships you had in your fleet. I think these battleships were on the limit of the technical achievements and had to be constructed before the carriers took control of the oceans. Naval aviation grew from here for both sides could design better planes with advances in aero-engines. Until these improved planes could be made in numbers the battleship admirals held sway in all fleets.

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

The Yamato had a few close calls because of some weak points in her armor; since the IJN could lose face if she was lost at sea, she spent a lot of time safely tucked away at Truk.

Yeah....that swinging at anchor shed did at Truk always seemed like such a waste. Having built this paragon of naval surface supremacy, you get the sense that the Japanese were loathe to dent her paint in the common night fights of the Solomons. But given her astronomical fuel and unique ammunition requirements I can see why. Even for the US, committing the battleships South Dakota and Washington to a night action was a desperate gamble that involved risking the last heavy surface force in the Pacific in a way that was contrary to established doctrine and in a type of fighting that the Japanese had shown themselves to be masters.

ORIGINAL: Shellshock

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

The Yamato had a few close calls because of some weak points in her armor; since the IJN could lose face if she was lost at sea, she spent a lot of time safely tucked away at Truk.

Yeah....that swinging at anchor shed did at Truk always seemed like such a waste. Having built this paragon of naval surface supremacy, you get the sense that the Japanese were loathe to dent her paint in the common night fights of the Solomons. But given her astronomical fuel and unique ammunition requirements I can see why. Even for the US, committing the battleships South Dakota and Washington to a night action was a desperate gamble that involved risking the last heavy surface force in the Pacific in a way that was contrary to established doctrine and in a type of fighting that the Japanese had shown themselves to be masters.

I think that fuel supply was an issue as well.

The people at combinedfleet.com have figured this out a long time ago. They look at details that people don't even know that exist. They look at guns and armor and how good it really was. And they look at fire control and protection and how good it really was. Maybe it was Yamato class because Yamato was first ship in the class. But it was not all the big deal that everbody thinks.

ORIGINAL: Tiornu

Yamato's gunnery had some notable accomplishments at Samar, including the famous "puppy being smacked by a truck" hits on USS Johnston.
I wonder how the cult would be different if Yamato had gone down in Sibuyan Sea and Musashi had committed ritual suicide off Okinawa.

Excuse me? "Notable"?

I think it's called "blind luck".

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Shellshock

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

The Yamato had a few close calls because of some weak points in her armor; since the IJN could lose face if she was lost at sea, she spent a lot of time safely tucked away at Truk.

Yeah....that swinging at anchor shed did at Truk always seemed like such a waste. Having built this paragon of naval surface supremacy, you get the sense that the Japanese were loathe to dent her paint in the common night fights of the Solomons. But given her astronomical fuel and unique ammunition requirements I can see why. Even for the US, committing the battleships South Dakota and Washington to a night action was a desperate gamble that involved risking the last heavy surface force in the Pacific in a way that was contrary to established doctrine and in a type of fighting that the Japanese had shown themselves to be masters.

I think that fuel supply was an issue as well.

I think she was afraid of PT 73.

Excuse me? "Notable"? I think it's called "blind luck".

If you hit what you're aiming at, I don't know how much we can credit luck. I mean, luck is a factor in any such gunnery, but the main battery and secondaries hit the target within one minute of each other. Somebody must have done something right.

ORIGINAL: Tiornu

Yamato's gunnery had some notable accomplishments at Samar, including the famous "puppy being smacked by a truck" hits on USS Johnston.
I wonder how the cult would be different if Yamato had gone down in Sibuyan Sea and Musashi had committed ritual suicide off Okinawa.

I've always read that Johnston got hit by 14" shells. She continued to operate for quite a while after receiving the main battery BB hits (3 of them, I think). I wonder if she received 3 18" hits if she could actually continue to operate. I think it's amazing that she could operate after 14" hits anyway.

I suppose I'm confusing Johnston with Hoel. I wouldn't advise anyone to tell Tiornu that he's mistaken. But, everything I've read about the battle, Yamato was a non-factor, Kongo was the only one who hit anything, and Nagato tried to hit Taffy 2 most of the time. I don't remember the 4th BB.