On This Date In History

On April 7, 1945, the Japanese battleship IJN Yamato, ostensibly the greatest battleship in the world, is sunk in Japan’s first major counteroffensive in the struggle for Okinawa.
Weighing 72,800 tons and outfitted with nine 18.1-inch guns, the battleship Yamato was Japan’s only hope of destroying the Allied fleet off the coast of Okinawa. But insufficient air cover and fuel cursed the endeavor as a suicide mission. Struck by 19 American aerial torpedoes, it was sunk, drowning 2,498 of its crew.

 

Yamato near the end of her fitting out, 20 September 1941.

Starboard view of Yamato anchored off Truk, 1943.

The Japanese battleship Yamato under attack by U.S. Navy carrier aircraft in the East China Sea on 7 April 1945, as a bomb explodes off its port side. The fire in the area of the aft 155mm turret can be clearly seen.

An American SB2C Helldiver begins its bomb run on Yamato.

Yamato photographed during the battle by an aircraft from USS Yorktown (CV-10). The battleship is on fire and visibly listing to port.

The explosion of Yamato's magazines, the fatal explosion.