The War at Home: IJN Yamato

In this episode of The War at Home, we are comparing Battleship New Jersey to her Japanese counterpart, Yamato.

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[jonny-b]

God damn this channel is good. So entertaining. Few channels I can so easily binge watch.

[vikkimcdonough]

7:30 - Also, Japan had plenty of island bases in the western Pacific where the Yamatos could've stopped off to refuel if necessary, while on the U.S. side of the ocean there's literally nowhere to put in from the West Coast until you reach Hawaii.

[squirepraggerstope]

The Yamato's main battery used a 3, 220lb AP shell, so not just "a couple of hundred" lbs heavier than a US Super Heavy mk8, but fully 520lbs heavier.

[crazyguy]

Dracinifel simulated the Battle of Samar, changing it so TF34 met the Centre Force in the San Bernardino Strait. Washington vs Haruna, Alabama vs Kongo, Iowa vs Nagato and New Jersey got the honor of slugging it out with Yamato until Iowa shifted fire to lend a hand. End of the battle left BB-62 in tatters but still afloat and Yamato with a magazine explosion.

[michaellombard]

Outstanding detail Ryan. Yes, we now know that heavier, thicker armor and larger caliber guns can't offset superiority of speed, range, fire coordination & control etc.

[Xchainz_]

It's awesome that you are on the ship, here is the range finder etc. Really appreciate what your doing for viewers and the ship itself

[billgreene]

Another excellent fact packed tutorial by an obviously astute keeper of the flame! This episode answered many of my questions about “what if” had they met.It is amazing to me the man hours and resources that must have gone into ships of this caliber. I have always been in awe of these ships and have toured Iowa and Massachusetts.Keep up the good work.

[mrackerm]

Ryan, an interesting talk would be comparing the Yamato with the cancelled Montana class of battleships, I know all the gamers want to argue about which ship would win in a ship VS ship comparison, but I think a technical talk looking at armor, armament, speed, fire control and survivability aspects (compartmentation and damage control) would be interesting.

[daleeasternbrat]

The speed of the Iowas is what always really impressed me about them. By todays standards, they are vry fast ships.

[markwheeler]

Re: anti-aircraft defense, the U.S. 5-inch shells included the secret-at-the-time proximity fuse, which made them much more effective than anything the Japanese had.

[phil_]

Well done. It's an important point you made about the number of ships. The two Yamatos would likely have fought all four Iowas, something most people don't mention.

[sctm]

Great analysis between the strongest battleship of the time vs the most modern. Thank you!

[michaelhora]

Your opinion on a theoretical battle between Iowa and Bismarck early in the war. You have an excellent channel. Thank you!

[metaknight]

I love channels like you that don’t go all Fat Electrician style American bias and vastly overestimate the Iowa’s abilities and actually give Yamato a fair chance instead of just saying that she was trash because she wasn’t built in the USA

[davidncw]

imho The Iowas were significantly faster, as well as much of the battle group. In most scenarios the Iowas could choose the place and time of battle. Iowas had better fire control for a fluid battlefield, they would spend very little time waiting on a fire control solution. The big advantage, poor visibility. The Iowas owned the night, bad weather, smoke. All of the fast BBs had this advantage, we had 8 of them. Even the West Virginia was dangerous in a blind fight. Furthermore, the US fasties had outstanding damage control an compartmentalization. Iirc an account of the Musashi was listing as counter flooding took effect she rapidly rolled then capsized to the other side. Indicative of a massive internal slosh of flood water in huge engineering spaces.

[sputnikjones]

I do enjoy the comparison.the stats and details .also the doctrine .ty for educating me. WW2 is my new hobby interest

[manilajohn]

The fire control system of the Iowas was state of the art in the 1940s; however, the crews of the fast battleships had very little experience in using it. A good example of this inexperience can be seen in the performance of the Iowa and New Jersey during Operation Hailstone. Admiral Lee himself declined an offered opportunity from Admiral Mitscher for a night engagement with the Japanese in the run-up to the Battle of the Philippine Sea. His stated reason was that the possible advantage of radar was more than offset by the lack of effective communication and training in fleet tactics, especially at night. It's also worth noting that the resolution of the U.S. Navy's Mark 8 radar range keeper was such that it could only distinguish between two targets (assuming normal vessel separation) when the range dropped to approximately 32, 000 yards.

The biggest disadvantage of the Iowas was that they lacked effective armor protection to withstand hits from the Yamatos. The Iowas were one of only three classes (along with the North Carolinas and the King George Vs) of WW2 era battleships which did not meet the specifications of the "Balanced Armor" concept. That is, their armor protection was not approximately equal to the effectiveness of their own main battery. The immunity zone (the starting point for analysis of armor protection) of of the Iowa class against their own 16" .50 cal. gun was something on the order of just below 5, 000 yards. By comparison, the immunity zone of the Yamato class was approximately 11, 000 yards against her own 18.1" gun. Furthermore, the Japanese 18.1" gun had superior armor penetration characteristics as compared to the 16" .50 cal. gun.

[timclaus]

Very true and I would expect the ships would figure out who was shooting at who, along with whatever standing orders the task group commander had in place. In the case of Samar, it was just a back alley brawl with the US destroyers and the DE shooting at whatever was handy when they popped out of the squall, pop a couple of shots, and duck into the rain again.

[brianchapman]

'Iowa vs. Yamato: The Ultimate Gunnery Duel' by Norman Friedman and Thomas Hone, Proceedings, July 1983, pp. 122-123.

The authors compare the two ships in several categories, including: 1 - Ranges, rates of fire, penetrating potentials of main guns; 2 - Accurate shooting; 3 - How well the armor would resist the shells of the other; 4 - the character of the commanders. Fascinating article.

Yamato, they write, was vulnerable night and day because of inferior fire control (the Iowas could create smoke screens, Yamato could not). So much more here. If you have any interest in Iowa vs. Yamato, this article must be read.

[hikerjoe]

Interesting. Did metallurgy play a role in the different armour thicknesses?