WELCOME TO THE INTERNET'S YAMATO & MUSASHI BATTLESHIP PHOTO ARCHIVE! (EST. 08/2008)
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING NAVIGATION INSTRUCTIONS FIRST:
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.
NOTE: TO LEARN ABOUT YAMATO'S EFFECTIVENESS IN BATTLE, READ ROBERT LUNDGREN'S SEMINAL WORK ON THE BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF: AMAZON PAGE:
'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
All of the archive photos in this gallery were obtained by various researchers from the National Archives of the United States, and the US Navy Archives, and are in the Public Domain.
LINKS:
These will be of interest to all Yamato, Musashi, IJN, & warship fans:
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 For a serious historical Pacific War discussion site, run by renowned historian Anthony Tully, co-author of "Shattered Sword - The Untold Story of The Battle of Midway", go here: Finally, there are 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.) A good reconstruction of Yamato as she appeared during her Final Sortie in April 1945 can be found at:
"Very near (bomb) misses land to port and starboard and in the water ahead. Time and again we plunge ahead into a forest of geysers. Water, ten times more than a torrential shower, cascades in, almost shattering the ports of the bridge. Chaos everywhere from the wild force of the water." Yoshida Mitsuru, "Requiem for Battleship Yamato" Once the hull had been breached by torpedo hits, even the near misses by the bombs did significant damage; the shock waves helped tear the torpedo holes open wider; additionally, the ship's primary armor "box" protecting the vulnerable midships turns out to be too rigidly constructed, and unable to bend under the shockwaves of the near misses (water is a much better conveyer of shock waves than air), causing rivets to pop and numerous additional small openings to pop open alongside the ship, making flood control that much more difficult due to the sheer scope and breadth of the leakage.
