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Ring side view
. . .
Sink the Yamato
Our Air Group Commander, (CDR
Utter), was coordinator for the attack. We flew on his wing at
about 3000 feet while he called the shots. First calling in the
F6F and F4U fighters to strafe, then the dive bombers and the
torpedo planes. I saw one TBM drop his fish and it headed straight
for the Yamato, but a Jap can got in its way. Blew the Jap destroyer
completely in half. All the ships were firing, and the Yamato
tried to hit us with those big 18-inch guns. We could look right
down the barrels, and when they fired, it looked like red-hot
molten metal coming out of the muzzles. They couldn't get enough
elevation to hit us but it was an awesome sight.
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The Japanese battleship Yamato under attack
by U.S. Navy planes in the East China Sea on April 7, 1945. She
sank after being hit by 10 torpedos and five bombs. (National
Archives)
Editor's
note: Yamato and her sister ship, Musashi were the biggest battleships
ever built (the third hull, Shinano, was converted to an aircraft
carrier while still under construction but was sunk on her maiden
cruise.*) The battleships displaced 72,000 tons with
18.1-inch guns. By comparison, Germany's Bismarck displaced
45,000 tons. Britain's King George class came in at 35,000 tons
with 14-inch guns. The US Navy's North Carolina and Washington
were 35,000 tonners with 16-inch guns. Even the mighty USS Missouri
(Iowa Class) weighed in at 58,000 tons with 16-inch guns. There
were four of these dreadnoughts: Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri,
and Wisconsin.
*See World War II, November
2001 "First and Last Cruise of Shinano"
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After all the planes had made their runs
and left for home, we were the only four left in the area. Some
of the ships were on their sides and some were sinking, so our
leader had a bright idea: "Lets go in and get a hit on the
Yamato before we leave," he said. We were all for it, so
we headed in for the final blow, but since we were the only targets
in sight, every ship opened up on us, even those on their sides.
It was a solid curtain of gunfire and almost
certain curtains for us. Then our leader had another brilliant
idea, "Lets do a 180 and get the hell out of here" —
which we were most happy to do. We dropped our bombs and headed
for the Ship. We landed aboard on fumes because we had been lugging
those 1000 pounders for most of the hop.
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