WELCOME TO THE INTERNET'S YAMATO & MUSASHI BATTLESHIP PHOTO ARCHIVE! (EST. 08/2008)
MAJOR UPDATE I - 08/2019 WITH DOZENS OF NEW HIGH RES PHOTOS!
MAJOR UPDATE II - 04/2024 & 07/2024 WITH 46 NEW PHOTOS AND DIAGRAMS ADDED. THEY CAN BE FOUND ON THE LAST 4 PAGES OF THE GALLERY
NAVIGATION INSTRUCTIONS:
INDEX PAGE LINKS ARE LOCATED ABOVE THE INDEX PHOTOS ON LEFT. TO SEE INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS, CLICK ON EACH THUMBNAIL, THEN CLICK AGAIN ON THE ENLARGED PHOTO IN THE LOWER RIGHT-HAND CORNER OF THIS PAGE AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS.
READ ROBERT LUNDGREN'S BOOK ON LEYTE GULF:
'THE WORLD WONDER'D' - BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF by Robert Lundgren
YAMATO SHIRTS, POSTERS, MUGS, CAPS NOW AVAILABLE AT THE YAMATO ZAZZLE STORE:
BATTLESHIP YAMATO ZAZZLE STORE
Archive photos are from the USA National Archives & the USN, & are in the Public Domain.
LINKS:
IJN IN COLOR WEBSITE BY IROOTOKO_JR
IJN YAMATO - TABULAR RECORD OF MOVEMENT
THE ROBERT LUNDGREN HISTORICAL RESOURCE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY PAGE (COMBINED FLEET) IJN SHIP DOWNLOADABLE 'PERSONAS' FOR FIREFOX BROWSER YAMATO'S FINAL BATTLE CGI FILM YAMATO AT THE BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF CGI FILM Historian Anthony Tully, (co-author of "Shattered Sword - The Untold Story of The Battle of Midway"), Forum: 3 indispensable books for any Yamato enthusiast: Janusz Skulski-The Battleship Yamato-Anatomy of a Ship Russell Spurr-A Glorious Way to Die - The Kamikaze Mission of the Battleship Yamato Yoshida Mitsuru-Requiem for Battleship Yamato (An incredible survivor's account of the battle.) Reconstruction of Yamato as she appeared during her Final Sortie in April 1945:
Several torpedoes gouge sections out of the port side.
Many bombs score direct hits on aft tower, aft deck.
The attack on the bridge becomes ever fiercer.
After the planes release their bombs and turn from side to side, they press in directly at the bridge with all guns blazing...
Coming in again and again on the ideal approach, precisely, exactly, calmly, they evoke in us a sense of exhilaration. Virtuosi. Theirs is a strength we cannot divine, a force we cannot fathom...
Suddenly a heavy weight falls on me from three directions - front, rear and left side. The sailors in front of me and behind me and the officer on my left, all within elbow-rubbing distance, have been struck down simultaneously....
Those three bodies, of Ensign Nishio and the two sailors, saved me by shielding me from flying shrapnel. We were less than a foot apart.
My uniform is red in several places, dyes with spatters of blood."
Yoshida Mitsuru, "Requiem for Battleship Yamato"
(Note that Yoshida's reference to the "fourth wave" is mistaken. From the ship, it appeared as if the Yamato was subjected to 5 waves of attacks, but US Navy records show that there were only 3 concentrated attacks on the ship.)
As the Yamato enters her death agony during the third attack wave, burning and clearly down at the bow, moving at about 12 knots at best, one of her remaining destroyers (Fuyutzuki or Suzutsuki) fires a salvo at Navy aircraft from her front 10cm batteries.
Note also Navy planes above Yamato (several tiny black dots including a plane that appears to be dive bombing in the air above the ship's funnel.
Photographed from a USS Yorktown (CV-10) plane.