Yamato and Musashi Internet Photo Archive
Yamato and Musashi Internet Photo Archive
Yamato2

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:

YAMATO CLASS GENESIS

IJN IN COLOR WEBSITE BY IROOTOKO_JR

MUSASHI EXPEDITION

CLASSICWARSHIPS.COM

IJN YAMATO - TABULAR RECORD OF MOVEMENT

THE ROBERT LUNDGREN HISTORICAL RESOURCE

MODEL WARSHIPS.COM

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:

TULLY'S PORT

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:

1:200 YAMATO MODEL

Yamato scores a hit on White Plains 
 
In this remarkable sequence captured on motion picture film from the nearby USS Kitkun Bay, White Plains is straddled again by a 6-shot salvo from Yamato.

One of these shells explodes directly under the keel of the carrier (note the forward-most splash to her port side that appears to shoot sideways and across the next geyser instead of straight up), causing her to lose power and also causing significant structural damage.

She would withdraw from the battle to head home for repairs and would be dry-docked til war's end.

This salvo, being fired by Yamato from a distance of 19.65 miles, goes down as arguably the longest "hit" in naval history. (As Robert Lundgren discussed in his book "The World Wond'rd", whether this is considered a "hit" or not is a bit of an exercise in semantics. Technically the shell did not make contact with the hull of the White Plains, but, detonating under her keel, she caused significant damage (as Japanese shells were designed to do in the event of underwater detonations). Had the shell been a high explosive shell instead of an armor piercing shell (explosive shells carried a larger charge), the detonation might have split the ship in half and sunk her. Cracks that developed over the next 24 hours all the way around the hull and keel indicate that the Japanese choice of shells may have saved the White Plains from a watery grave on that morning.

Note the USS Johnston laying covering smoke at the upper left of the photo.

Many thanks to Robert Lundgren who kindly provided me with this series of stills from the film which is in the National Archives.

Robert's website is linked on the index page. He is currently working on what will be the definitive account of the engagement off Samar island.