YAMATO
Battleship Model
Yamato was the
flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet. She was the biggest battleship ever built,
outweighing the biggest Allied
battleships by more than 20 percent.
Even at this
gigantic size, Yamato could reach top speed of 28
knots. This extraordinary performance had much
to do with her bulbous bow, which jutted out 10-feet
(3-meter) waves that cancels out other waves
generated by the main part of the ship, greatly
reduced drag at the front. To come up with
this great design, Japanese engineers tested 50
different models.
Yamato's sides
could survive 3,000-pound armor piercing projectiles
like those from the U.S. Iowa's guns. At 23,000 tons, her steel armor weighed more than 30
percent of her total weight. Armor plates
of unprecedented 25 inches (63cm) thick shielded the
turrets of her main guns.
Yamato's nine main guns
were the largest to ever crown a warship. Each gun was
69 ft (21 meters) long, weighed 147 metric tons and was
capable of firing high-explosive or armor-piercing
shells. The guns fired shells 18
inches (46 cm) in diameter which weighed about a
Honda Civic car. And these guns could dangerously
strike at an unprecedented range of 25 miles (40
km.) The nine guns were mounted on three
turrets. Each of these turrets weighed more
than an entire American Fletcher-class destroyer
(3,000 tons versus 2,100 tons.)
Yamato's secondary guns were also impressive. Her
six inch guns - that is, guns firing shells six
inches in diameter, had a range of 17 miles (27
kilometers). And her 24 five inch guns,
mounted in 12 turrets, could destroy targets nine
miles away.
In April
1945, with the US invasion of Okinawa, the Emperor
demanded action from what was left of the Navy. This led
Vice Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff,
and Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet, Vice Admiral
Seiichi Ito to scrape together all he could to sail
against the Americans.
This meant
the Yamato.
Her battle
fleet was simply the 6,000-ton Agano-class light cruiser
Yahagi and 8 destroyers. This was to be a one-way
mission, fighting against a fifteen-hundred-ship
American fleet that outnumbered it by a factor of at
least 6:1. Ito knew it and he personally commanded the
attack.
Dubbed
“Operation Ten-Go” (Heaven One), the fleet started on 7
April directly towards Okinawa. There it was soon
confronted by over 400 carrier-based planes on a fleet
of 11 flattops. The escorts protected Yamato from
submarine attacks, but no airplanes helped her on the
air.
By 1200 the first aircraft appeared over Yamato.
By 1400 the cruiser Yahagi
sank along with half of the destroyers. American pilots concentrated their
torpedoes below Yamato's waterline near her bow and
stern where her armor was thinnest. And the
attacks were on just one side of the hull. By
1420, Yamato's
rudder shot away, her superstructure ablaze.
Yamato put up a
tremendous battle but she was not a match against
nearly four hundred attack planes
all alone. The battle was hopeless but
she fought valiantly. Yamato took 12 bomb and seven torpedo hits within
two hours of battle. Her 1,000
watertight compartments couldn't save her. She
has suffered more than 11 torpedo hits and six bomb
hits. At 1423, one of the two bow magazines detonated in
a tremendous explosion. A fire raging in the
battleship's aft secondary magazine caused tons of
ammunition to ignite simultaneously, producing the
blasts that tore the ship in half. These blasts were the
largest ever to occur at sea—over 3 miles high—was seen
180 miles away on Kyushu.
2,747 men,
including Vice-Admiral Seiichi Itō, the fleet
commander— went down with Yamato. That was
more than the loss by the US Navy in all of the
attack on Pearl Harbor.
The sinking of Yamato ended the era of battleships. Aircraft carriers became king of the seas
afterwards.
This primarily wood Yamato battleship model
has the following qualities:
- Correct gray color for Imperial Japanese Navy in
WW2.
- Beautiful plank deck,
not bright yellow.
-
Tough appearance like a real
war menace. This is artwork that many consider harder
than the task of building the model itself.
30" long 9" tall
x 6.5" wide
$2,790
shipping and insurance in the USA is included.
Other countries, $300 flat rate.
This model is in stock and can be shipped within
three business days.
53" long x 14
tall x 9 wide $8,540 shipping and insurance in the USA is included.
Other countries, $600 flat rate.
This model is
built per commission only. We require only
a small deposit to start the process, not full
amount, not even half. The
remaining balance won't be due until the model is
completed,
in several months.
Don't be fooled by some
wrong Yamato models proliferating out there. They have
very wrong hull shape and color (Japanese battleships
color is different than American), bad superstructure, cheap deck,
simplistic guns, erroneous railing, 'interesting' air
plane... They seem to have come from a single export
manufacturer who freely claims their products "museum
quality."
Learn more about
battleship Yamato here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato
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