View Single Post
  #72 (permalink)  
Old July 25th, 2008, 10:26 PM
Devilsadvocate's Avatar
Devilsadvocate Devilsadvocate is offline
WW2F Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: St. Helens, OR
Posts: 2,085
Salute!: 34
Saluted 253 Times in 175 Posts
Devilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to all
Default Re: Bismarck vs. Yamato

Quote:
Japanese radar was reliable and duralbe, and withstood shock well beacause it was cruder and lacked as many sensitive advanced parts. Therefore, even if the ship the Yamato somehow was sinking, it could still probally fire because the fire contorl would probably not have been taken (there is also the fact that the fire control was way up on the massive pagoda structure).
This statement is definitely incorrect. Japanese radar was absolutely unreliable and very likely to go out at critical moments. In the battle of the Sibuyan Sea, Musashi's main FC Director was put out of action by a torpedo hit that was barely felt by most of the crew. Yamato's FC radar was considered so fragile and so unreliable by her gunnery crew that they neglected to practice with it prior to the Battle Off Samar. According to the First Fleet Staff Gunnery officer, the gunnery crew of Yamato had absolutely no confidence in the radar FC system installed in the summer of 1944 and could barely use it.

Yamato was never considered a good gunnery ship and, in fact, there is no evidence that she ever hit anything with her main battery rifles. Part of the reason for this was that, in her entire career, Yamato's crew engaged in just five practice shoots, firing a total of 75 shells. This represented just a small fraction of the practice shooting done by US battleships each year.

The reason for this lack of practice may have had to do with the fact that that Yamato's main battery gun barrels had a service life of only 150-200 esr. That means that after about 150 to 200 rounds, her main gun barrels would have to be replaced. The design of the gun barrels was such that they could not simply be relined as was the case with most battleship's guns, Yamato's gun barrels had to be replaced with entire new barrels. And the IJN had neglected to manufacture any spare barrels. The only barrels in existence were a set for Musashi, a set for Yamato, and a set for Shinano. The set for Shinano did not become surplus until sometime in the fall of 1942 when it was decided to convert Shinano into an aircraft depot ship, and even then there were only nine barrels; not enough to rebarrel both Musashi's and Yamato's turrets.

The ships of the Yamato class were essentially "one trick ponies", meant only to be expended in one "decisive" battle with the USN battleline. The maximum range usually quoted for the Yamato's guns is a joke because, at anything beyond about 20,000 yards, it would be plain random chance for her to hit anything. Even inside that range, she did not have a very good chance of hitting.