Secrets of the Battleship Yamato

[Jonathan]

For all you wreckies out there (and I believe there are a few) watch out for this program coming up on Discovery:

15th - 19:00, 16th 07:00 & 13:00

yada, yada, yada
With underwater exploration, historical archive and dramatic recreations of the ship's last great battle, the secrets of the Yamoto will now be revealed.

Yes Thomas I will try and video it for you!

 

[The Kraken]

Probably already know the script . . .

80% footage from old "Victory At Sea" episodes . . .
10% footage from "researching the archives"
5% "with only 2 days left to get the job done, the weather turns bad . . .!!!"
4% the cable broke
1% actual diving footage

. . . but I guess it's better than no diving documentaries.

 

[TJO]

For all you wreckies out there (and I believe there are a few) watch out for this program coming up on Discovery:

15th - 19:00, 16th 07:00 & 13:00

yada, yada, yada
With underwater exploration, historical archive and dramatic recreations of the ship's last great battle, the secrets of the Yamoto will now be revealed.

Yes Thomas I will try and video it for you!

Thanks! Ask you wife then it will be done!

 

[TJO]

Probably already know the script . . .

80% footage from old "Victory At Sea" episodes . . .
10% footage from "researching the archives"
5% "with only 2 days left to get the job done, the weather turns bad . . .!!!"
4% the cable broke
1% actual diving footage

. . . but I guess it's better than no diving documentaries.

Don't think so. Japan make great some documentaries and Yamato is more interesting than Bismarck for more people...

 

[Jonathan]

Thanks! Ask you wife then it will be done!

You think so?! I had to stumble through the manual in Japanese (pictures are great) to work it out!!

Also our TV is in pieces at the moment due to new furniture - hopefully get it sorted out before the program...

 

[Jonathan]

second time round - not sure went wrong last night!

Actually very little "archive" stuff but also very little diving as it is in 1,200 feet of water...

That thing was huuuuuuuge!

Very interesting program covering quite a lot of stuff. Seemed to concentrate on how basically the BS was obsolete after Dec 7th 1941 as proved by the Japanese but they still relied on BS - very strange....

Even some stuff on POW - will bring to shop this week

 

[TJO]

second time round - not sure went wrong last night!

Actually very little "archive" stuff but also very little diving as it is in 1,200 feet of water...

That thing was huuuuuuuge!

Very interesting program covering quite a lot of stuff. Seemed to concentrate on how basically the BS was obsolete after Dec 7th 1941 as proved by the Japanese but they still relied on BS - very strange....

Even some stuff on POW - will bring to shop this week

Huge? Well it was the biggest of them all right? Obsolete BS; Reminds me about Japanese banks nowadays...

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Seemed to concentrate on how basically the BS was obsolete after Dec 7th 1941 as proved by the Japanese but they still relied on BS - very strange....

Not strange at all when you consider the institutional inertia involved and the fact that the careers of many senior officers in many navies had their careers tied to the "Big Gun" philosphy. And from the public perspective, the battleship was a national symbol of prestige for any country that had one, and that takes time to change.

I'd also argue that in WWII the battleship was not obsolete, just no longer the most valuable player on the team. In the interwar era, the battleship's main armament meant that an enemy could be engaged at ranges of 20 plus miles and the approx 30 kt maximum speeds meant the battleship could project power around the world in a reasonably short period of time. In that regard they were the long arm of the fleet. That is the status the battleshsip lost at Taranto in November 1940 and at Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

 

[MoonWrasse]

After Japan rose to be the #3 world naval power using British and Italian ships around the turn of the century, they spent big $ to build their own ships. There was a battleship arms race amongst Japan, Brittain, the USA. The London Naval Treaty restricted that no new big ships were to be constructed until 1937, when the Yamato was ordered and laid down along with her sister ship (Musashi).

So while Admiral Yamamoto may have well understood battleships would not provide the needed edge, I think the rest of the military was living in the past (like France, Britain were) and did not see his argument of carrier/aircraft naval battle strategy.

So you could almost compare the Yamato as Japan's version of France's Maginot Line - old guard spending precious resources on outdated military systems, worthless and thus starving other potentially more fruitful armament programs.

http://www.warship.get.net.pl/Japonia/Battleships/1941_Yamato_class/Wreck/_Yamato_wreck_02.html

 

[TJO]

Great reading. This is really interesting.

But the Japanese has one of the best planes right? At least at the beginning. And their airforce alone sunk both the HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales.

Thomas