![]() ![]() The lower armor belt was just under 11 inches in the magazines and 8 inches covering the machinery spaces. ![]() The armored center section featured a main belt of just over 16 inches of armor inclined at 20 degrees, half of which was below the waterline. The total weight of the armor was 22,534 tons or 33.1% of the design displacement (6). The Yamato Class’s armor and other protection was unrivalled by any other Battleship. No other Battleship’s Main Gun has ever had a maximum range of this distance (5). The range of Yamato Class’s main gun was 25 miles according to Battlefield historical archaeologist Dr. projectile at a rate of 1.5 rounds per minute (3). It was equipped with 18.1-inch Main Guns which could fire a 3,219 lbs. The Yamato Class was a technological marvel that could wipe out any ship by its destructive firepower and was virtually impervious to any ship weapon. The Japanese Yamato Class was designed to both participate in this decisive struggle and sail across the vast Pacific Ocean. The Imperial Japanese military forces and their government also wanted to seize the oil and other natural resources of China, the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, Singapore, French Indochina, Brunei, and Burma. Military would then mount a military campaign to retake their colony of the Philippines and the Imperial Japanese Navy would then decide to engage the United States Navy in a place somewhere in the western Pacific when they felt the time was right to stop the American advance to retake the Philippines. The Imperial Japanese Navy felt that this decisive naval battle would occur after the Japanese military forces seized the Philippines. Like the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War the Imperial Japanese Navy thought, that the war against the United States Navy would be decided in a single great naval clash involving Battleships (). This theory was supported by the Battle of Tsushima which occurred on May 27th -May 28th 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War. The tactical and strategic role that the Yamato Class was built to fulfill was the Imperial Japanese Navy’s belief that the fate of an entire war would be determined by a great naval clash involving Battleships (2). So, you build an enormous battleship that is basically the equivalent of two or three and which is capable of taking on multiple warships at any one time”(). According to historian and author James Holland, “The Japanese realized they couldn’t possibly hope to catch United States and Great Britain in terms of numbers of warships so the principle behind it was if we can’t get the numbers we will have a qualitative advantage. ![]() The Yamato Class was designed to defeat a huge quantity of enemy naval forces. The technical information alone about the Yamato Class leads to the conclusion it could defeat any ship on the seas, and had events gone differently for the Japanese Military the Yamato Class could have been a game changer! The changing situation of the Pacific War ultimately doomed the Yamato Class ‘s fate - it could have helped Imperial Japan win the Pacific War had the military situation been different and had the battleship been deployed earlier. The Yamato Class was created to fulfill a specific technological, strategic, and tactical goal. The Yamato Class Battleship was the most destructive ship ever constructed in history. ![]()
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