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:
Yoshida Mitsuru, "Requiem for Battleship Yamato"
In this, the first of a series of 4 remarkable consecutive photographs, the first of those bombs impacts near the funnel on the port side of Yamato, destroying several 5" gun batteries.
This high resolution version of one of the most famous Yamato battle photos shows that the crane tower at rear - though not the crane arm itself, which operated independently - was removed for the final mission.
This makes sense because the crane tower limited the firing range of the rear 18.1" guns. Since the crane arm was independent of the tower, Yamato still carried several float planes for submarine recon on until she passed out of the inland sea, when they were sent home.
Looking at this photo and the following 3 photos, we can conclusively say that the crane tower was indeed removed prior to Operation Ten-ichi-go.