For educational purposes
In the 1930s the Japanese begin designing the Yamato, the world's most powerful battleship, 30 per cent larger than anything their enemies have.
In the 1930s the Japanese begin designing the Yamato, the world's most powerful battleship, 30 per cent larger than anything their enemies have.
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00:00As World War II approaches, both Nazi Germany and its ally, Japan, are planning vast battleships.
00:09These battleships are just enormous, the biggest the world has ever seen, and they're designed to be unsinkable.
00:15Japan will stop at nothing to conquer the Pacific.
00:21Wow, look at this!
00:25Determined to outgun their enemies, the Japanese secretly build the world's biggest warship, with impenetrable armor and 70-foot guns.
00:35Those guns are absolutely massive, and when they were fired, the very earth shook.
00:45Their mission? To destroy the American Pacific Fleet.
00:51Send to the west of Okinawa to attack them.
00:55This was a crazy plan, suicidal.
00:59This is the story of the Titans of the Seas, Japan's megaships.
01:06The biggest construction projects of World War II, ordered by Hitler and his Japanese allies to secure world domination.
01:18Now the ruins survive as dark reminders of their fanatical military ambition.
01:25These are the secrets of the Nazi megastructures.
01:36April 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy's biggest weapon is on the offensive.
01:45The giant super-battleship, Yamato, is under attack from wave after wave of American carrier planes.
01:54Contacts. Three large formations approaching.
01:58But junior officer Ensign Mitsuru Yoshida has faith in the mighty ship.
02:06How we have awaited this moment. Ours is the single honor of being the nation's protector.
02:13The crew of the Yamato can only hope this mighty floating fortress is invincible.
02:30Evidence of how the Yamato became the greatest battleship ever built is being uncovered by archaeologist Tony Pollard on a Japanese island only 20 miles from the city of Hiroshima.
02:44We're heading for the proving grounds at Kamigakubi, which was a top-secret facility where the Japanese Navy experimented with their special projects and tested their weapons.
03:02The first striking feature, after getting off the boat onto one of these two piers, is a slot that runs all the way along, cut through the concrete.
03:11And I can see there's one on the pier over there as well.
03:14These would have accommodated the base of a huge gantry crane that arched across the gap.
03:19The idea being that ships came in, docked between the two piers, and then their cargo was lifted off by the crane and taken along these rails in that direction.
03:30That cargo included the guns for the Yamato.
03:34These were massive, 18-inch in diameter, the biggest guns ever to be mounted on a warship.
03:47The story of Japan's megaship starts in 1931, eight years before the outbreak of World War II.
03:56Hungry for natural resources, the Japanese seize the Chinese region of Manchuria, and then set their sights on the rest of Southeast Asia.
04:07But old colonial powers already control vast swathes of the region.
04:14The overall war aims of Japan are to force the British out of the Far East, force the Dutch out of the Far East, and to neutralise the American threat.
04:25Determined to expand its empire, Japan prepares for war, under a veil of secrecy.
04:32The Japanese realised that they couldn't possibly hope to catch the United States and Great Britain in terms of numbers of warships.
04:39So the principle behind it was, if we can't get the numbers, we'll have a qualitative advantage.
04:45So you build an enormous battleship that basically is equivalent to two or three, which is capable of taking on multiple different enemy warships at any one time.
04:59Naval General Staff order a battleship that will annihilate Japan's enemies.
05:05The man overseeing the design is veteran naval architect and former vice-admiral, Dr. Yuzuru Hiraga.
05:16If we were to design a ship with the stated armour requirements, and 18-inch guns, and still reach such high speeds, it will be a ship of vast proportions.
05:35In Nazi Germany, Hitler also demands megaships for his navy.
05:42For Hitler, giant battleships are very much a symbol of power, authority, dominance, and industrial might.
05:53Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz are fast and well-armed.
05:59They'll become infamous the world over as two of the mightiest battleships ever built.
06:06With an arms race raging in the mid-1930s, the US also start planning vast battleships to rival the Japanese and German fleets.
06:17Military engineering expert Mike Pavelek is exploring the biggest and best America had in World War II.
06:25This is amazing.
06:27This is the Wisconsin battleship, one of the four Iowa-class battleships built by the US Navy in the Second World War.
06:35This is the largest, most powerful, most destructive ship the Navy ever built.
06:46This is the real business end of American naval power.
06:50These battleships carried 16-inch guns that could fire a 2,700-pound projectile almost 24 miles.
07:00It takes over 60 men to keep one turret firing, each gun using up to six of these 55-pound explosive charges to fire a single shell.
07:11It shoots so far that you might not even be able to see the ship that you're firing at because of the curvature of the earth.
07:20In the interwar period, the Japanese realized that they were going to have to compete with designs like this if they were going to fight the Americans.
07:34To outdo the US, the Japanese design a class of warship at an unheard of scale.
07:41The Yamato-class megaships will be over 127 feet wide and 862 feet long.
07:50With a displacement in excess of 72,000 tons, they'll be 30% heavier than the American Iowa-class and almost double the weight of any other Japanese battleship.
08:03Building such a massive ship will be the biggest challenge naval architect Hiraga has ever faced.
08:12We don't have big enough facilities here.
08:15Then we must build something. We must have a ship capable of outstripping the Americans.
08:22We have much to do.
08:29Without a shipyard large enough for their first megaship, the Japanese have no choice but to modify an existing one.
08:37Professor Tosh Minohara is in Hiroshima at Kure Naval Yard, where this first battleship is constructed.
08:49Wow, look at this! This is the exact spot that they built the super battleship Yamato, the world's largest battleship.
08:59This, at the time, was the largest dry dock in Japan.
09:05But still, it was not large enough. They had to dig it much deeper, and they extended it a little bit further.
09:12And only by doing that could they accommodate the size of this super battleship.
09:19Once they had enlarged it, it was 1,100 feet.
09:23That is nearly three American football fields, 140 feet wide.
09:29I mean, this is not several ships. We're just talking about one ship that they're making here.
09:33It's just incredible. Look at it, all the way back.
09:38Digging out over 462,000 cubic feet of earth, the Yamato's keel is laid here on the 4th of November, 1937.
09:46Five months later, at a Nagasaki naval yard, the Japanese start building a second monstrous battleship, the Musashi, as Japan starts preparing for war.
10:04Can you bring me the ballistics report?
10:07Can you bring me the ballistics report?
10:11With the Yamato already under construction, Hiraga and the Navy Technical Department design nine 70-foot long guns with a diameter of over 18 inches.
10:22The biggest gun ever fitted on a warship.
10:27The whole point to the battleship is the big gun.
10:30You're going to use this ship to destroy other ships, and the guns are the focal point.
10:37This super-sized firepower needs to be covertly tested.
10:43Tony Pollard is uncovering what remains of Kamigakubi, the top-secret facility where the Japanese go to extreme lengths to test these pioneering weapons.
11:01It's not really what you expect in the jungle, a nice red brick building.
11:10It's all very grand, really.
11:13Oh, wow, look at this.
11:16This is totally different.
11:19You see this? We've got a tunnel with something else inside it.
11:25It's a double skin.
11:31A reef.
11:33Look at the way there's the concrete plinths coming out, connecting the inner skin of the main vault with this inner skin.
11:43What this double skin does is provide a shock absorber, and that means that anything inside here is really well protected.
11:55The only other place I've seen this double skin construction is the Wolf's Lair in Prussia, which was Hitler's own headquarters.
12:04But why did they go to all this trouble?
12:06Well, the answer must be down here somewhere.
12:10What we've got are a series of concrete plinths.
12:16These must be to mount some form of equipment.
12:22And when we tie all of these elements together, it starts to make sense because in Hitler's time,
12:30when we tie all of these elements together, it starts to make sense because in here was the very sensitive equipment that measured and collected the data from where the guns were being fired.
12:48The Yamato's guns are so powerful that even here, over 800 feet from the test site, all equipment has to be insulated from the shockwaves they create.
13:00Those guns are absolutely massive.
13:03And when they were fired, the very earth shook.
13:07And that vibration and that shock could reach this far without extreme protection.
13:15The Japanese go further by building three shock-absorbing mounds between the measuring equipment and the firing range.
13:24Just below me here would have been a row of four or five guns.
13:29The ammunition brought out through the tunnel below my feet.
13:33And that ammunition would have been fired at targets at the foot of the hill and also into the hill itself.
13:39But other shells were fired out to sea, and I can just about make out the water through the trees here.
13:45And those shells fired out to sea passed through velocity towers.
13:48And they measured the speed of the shells, and they worked out that they were shooting these guns at incredible 25 miles.
13:57No battleship ever built has fired this far.
14:02With such colossal power, these 70-foot long super guns require super-sized ammunition.
14:09Professor Tosh Minohara has located one of the very few shells that still exist.
14:17This is the actual original shell that was used on the Yamato.
14:22There are only a few remaining.
14:25You can see the cone right here.
14:28Well, this cone would actually fall off in mid-air.
14:31And that was designed to prevent the shell from falling off in mid-air.
14:34You can see the cone right here.
14:36Well, this cone would actually fall off in mid-air.
14:38And that was designed so that the way it's shaped would do serious damage to the hull of the ship.
14:44This armor-piercing shell weighs 3,000 pounds.
14:49That's approximately an average family car.
14:53So this is actually a family car slamming into another ship.
15:04The Yamato outguns every ship in the world.
15:07But Hiraga is determined to have her protected by super-thick armor.
15:13This is a battleship that is designed to absorb all kinds of punishment.
15:20Mike Pavelek is with one of the last surviving pieces of this staggering armor plate.
15:26This is a piece of the armored steel for the Yamato-class battleship turrets.
15:33The facing of the turrets.
15:35This is 26 inches of hardened steel.
15:40Incredibly strong. Incredibly heavy.
15:44This piece was brought back from Japan at the end of the war.
15:48The Americans found it at a Japanese naval yard and brought it back to test it.
15:53They tested it under perfect conditions and were able to penetrate the armor.
15:59This was accomplished at point-blank range.
16:03But this sort of shot would have never occurred in wartime under heaving seas at great distances.
16:10This is virtually impregnable armor under wartime conditions.
16:16This is the biggest, heaviest, thickest armor ever put on a battleship.
16:21But the weight of the armor, combined with the heavy guns, causes a major problem.
16:27All of the armor bits that went on the Yamato accounted for 22,500 tons of steel.
16:35The main concern for the naval architects in Japan was how to keep this much steel afloat.
16:43If the Japanese megaships are ever going to take on the US Navy,
16:47they need a whole new approach to battleship design.
17:01In the effort to create a floating super fortress,
17:05naval architect Hiraga and his team come up with a number of technological innovations.
17:11One of the ways to reduce the weight of all of this armor
17:15was to weld it, electrically weld it, rather than using rivets, which is heavier.
17:20Another thing that the Japanese did was they made the armor part of the structure
17:25rather than adding it on after the keel was already built.
17:31The ship's hull is also armored in a so-called all-or-nothing design.
17:36The ship's hull is also armored in a so-called all-or-nothing design,
17:41which protects only the vital central section of the ship.
17:45The more vulnerable bow and stern are divided into over a thousand watertight compartments
17:51that allow sections of them to be sealed or flooded as necessary.
17:56This flexibility allows the Yamato to stabilize if her hull is ever breached.
18:01The Japanese are confident that when they float this thing for the first time,
18:05it is, to all intents and purposes, unsinkable.
18:09By the summer of 1941, Japan is embarking on a brutal war of conquest across Asia.
18:16In retaliation, the US and its allies freeze Japanese assets and inflict an oil embargo.
18:24On the 7th of December 1941, with the Yamato only a week away from commissioning,
18:29the Japanese feel ready to take the Pacific.
18:35Admiral Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese fleet,
18:39launches a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
18:44Japan is at war with the US.
18:49In planning the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor,
18:52Japanese leadership wanted to give the Americans a knock-out blow
18:56that would simply keep them from fighting the Japanese
18:59so that they could establish their empire in the Pacific.
19:02This was the first time that the US had ever launched an attack on Japan.
19:06They wanted to give the Americans a knock-out blow
19:09that would simply keep them from fighting the Japanese
19:12so that they could establish their empire in the Pacific.
19:17But Admiral Yamamoto has his doubts,
19:20as he reveals in a letter to a Japanese newspaper.
19:25A military man can scarcely pride himself on having smitten a sleeping enemy.
19:32It is more a matter of shame for the one smitten.
19:36It is a media appraisal after seeing what the enemy does.
19:40It is certain that, angered and outraged,
19:44he will make a determined counter-attack.
19:50On the 16th of December, nine days after Pearl Harbor,
19:54the first Japanese megaship, the Yamato, is formally commissioned at Kure.
20:00The Yamato, named after an ancient word for Japan,
20:05becomes flagship of the Japanese navy.
20:09Admiral Yamamoto starts preparing her for battle.
20:17The Yamato faces her first test in June 1942.
20:22The Japanese plan to wipe out the American navy at the Midway Islands.
20:26Admiral Yamamoto uses the Yamato as his command center,
20:30300 miles away from the initial assault,
20:33armed and ready to ambush the Americans when they are lured towards her.
20:40The first unit will attack the carrier and bring down the battleships.
20:46The second unit, do your best to bring down all the rest of the navy fleet.
20:51But Yamamoto is unaware that the Americans have broken his coded messages to the fleet
20:56and are expecting the attack.
20:59Because the Japanese were trying to hide their true intentions from the Americans,
21:03their forces are very, very split up.
21:06So their carrier force becomes separated from their capital ship.
21:10So the Yamato is way away from the carrier force.
21:13The Japanese fleet is ambushed by an American air assault.
21:17Four Japanese aircraft carriers are lost.
21:21Despite her firepower, there is little the Yamato can do.
21:27So consumed in outgunning American ships,
21:31the Japanese fail to foresee their vulnerability to a mass air assault.
21:36The Yamato is forced to retreat.
21:38Realizing this weakness, the Japanese send their megaship, the Yamato,
21:43and her newly launched sister ship, the Musashi, to a safe haven.
21:49The tiny atoll of Truk in Micronesia is Japan's military supply hub in the Pacific.
21:55With extensive artillery defenses,
21:58Truk is also one of the most heavily protected naval vessels in the world.
22:02Truk is really important to the Japanese because it's a major base in the South Pacific.
22:06It's from there that they can conduct operations and store aircraft and ammunition.
22:11And without that, their reach within the South Pacific is massively curtailed.
22:18On Truk, Tony Pollard is exploring the extensive fortifications
22:23designed to defend the South Pacific.
22:26On Truk, Tony Pollard is exploring the extensive fortifications
22:31designed to defend the Yamato and Musashi moored in the lagoon.
22:38The Japanese went to great lengths to defend the islands in Truk Lagoon.
22:43And here is a fantastic example of one of those defenses.
22:47A very sturdily built pillbox right on the edge of the shore.
22:51In fact, it's collapsed into the sea.
22:54But this would have been set slightly back onto the beach.
22:57Gun loops in the side, looking all the way along the beach and out to sea.
23:03And look at that. I can see, even from here, this concrete's about two meters thick.
23:09Wow. Look at that. Evidence of an impact.
23:13All it's done is poke a little hole out of the side.
23:22It's small in here. There wouldn't be any more than three, maybe four men in here.
23:27In combat, this would have been an incredibly uncomfortable position.
23:31And you've always got that sensation, I would imagine, that once you're in here,
23:35it's going to be difficult to get out.
23:38And the amazing thing is that through this exact gunport,
23:42they would have seen the super ships, the Yamato and her sister ship, the Musashi.
23:52But to protect the prize of the Japanese fleet from inbound enemy aircraft,
23:58they'll need something with much more firepower.
24:11Deep in the jungle of Truk Atoll lie astonishing remains
24:15of the land-based weapons used to defend Japan's megaships.
24:22Oh, look at that. That's incredible.
24:26And a dead giveaway here are the two barrels.
24:28It's a twin mount, which tells me this is an anti-aircraft gun.
24:32Most of them are taken away and scrapped after the war.
24:38Look at the size of this thing.
24:41It's designed to turn 360 degrees and cant up at a steep angle
24:47so it can push shells out into the sky at attacking aircraft.
24:52And here's the cabin where the aimer would have sat.
25:01And he'd have observation pieces he can look up.
25:11You can imagine a man sat in here looking up at the sky
25:17and he's one of the ways in which the gun is controlled.
25:22And you can still see bearings and gears,
25:29an incredibly complex piece of machinery.
25:32But in its day, it would have been highly mobile
25:35and able to cover the bay where the Yamato was sat.
25:38So if the need arose, it could provide defensive fire.
25:45The Yamato has its big guns,
25:48but they're totally ineffectual against aerial assault.
25:51So she relies on these land-based defences.
25:57I wouldn't really have liked to have been in here when these guns were going off.
26:00Not good for the eardrums, that's for sure.
26:06And we can see here, from the diameter of the muzzle,
26:10this is a 12.7 centimetre, so it's over four inches.
26:15And these are heavy shells, but they're airbursts,
26:18so the aim is to knock these planes out of the sky.
26:22And the double barrels allow the fire to be kept up at a high rate.
26:30These shallow niches are set all around the edge of the gun pit into the concrete.
26:36And these would have provided a store for limited amounts of ready-to-use ammunition,
26:40already prepped to put into the gun.
26:43And the point is that wherever that gun is pointing,
26:45the breach will always be close to one of these.
26:47So rapid reloading is essential here if they're going to protect the fleet
26:51with this anti-aircraft coverage.
26:55And it won't be long until they're called upon to protect the Yamato.
27:03In August 1942, the island of Guadalcanal comes under attack
27:08as the US launch their first major offensive in the Pacific War.
27:17Yamamoto plans a decisive push to drive them off the island,
27:21but ammunition and food rations are running low.
27:25We must get more supplies through to our troops.
27:29If the army has been starving through lack of supplies,
27:32then the Navy should be ashamed of itself.
27:38Yamamoto sends a total of 53 ships, but not the Yamato.
27:45Afraid that the Navy's firepower is too weak,
27:48the Yamato is forced to retreat.
27:50Yamamoto,
27:53afraid that the Navy's flagship will be exposed
27:56and unable to repel a US air attack,
28:00Yamamoto keeps her in the shelter of Truk Lagoon
28:03and uses her as his control center.
28:09If deployed, the Yamato could have used her devastating firepower
28:13to help stave off the US assault.
28:16But the mighty battleship remains anchored at Truk,
28:20and Guadalcanal soon falls.
28:24The Yamato was at Truk for eight months,
28:28and so the nickname among the soldiers was Yamato Hotel.
28:31And as a sailor, you were very proud to be on this Yamato
28:34because everything was nice, there was even air conditioning.
28:38With war raging, the Japanese Navy go on a recruitment drive.
28:42One of their new cadets, destined for the Yamato,
28:46is 20-year-old Mitsuru Yoshida.
28:49Dear mother, training is going well.
28:52I miss college, but I'm making many new friends.
28:55We spoke of the Yamato today.
28:57I hope that one day I get to sail with her.
29:00If she does not strike fear into the Americans, nothing will.
29:06While the Yamato remains at Truk,
29:08in April 1943, Admiral Yamamoto tours the front line.
29:13But, hunted by the Americans,
29:16his aircraft is shot down and he's killed.
29:22Next, the Americans turn their attention to Truk Lagoon,
29:26and the Japanese ships hidden there
29:29are about to face the toughest test of all.
29:39Just before dawn on the 17th of February 1944,
29:43the Americans launch Operation Hailstone.
29:47Truk Lagoon, home to the Yamato
29:50and hundreds of Japanese ships and aircraft,
29:53comes under attack.
30:01Over 500 aircraft were used in that attack,
30:04launched from 9 aircraft carriers.
30:05American warships circled the atoll,
30:08waiting for Japanese ships to try and escape,
30:11so they could take them out just like a pack of sharks.
30:13It put the defences to their ultimate test.
30:17The Japanese are taken completely by surprise.
30:21With only a handful of planes scrambled in time,
30:25it's up to the anti-aircraft guns to defend the fleet.
30:29Tony Pollard is heading to another haunting relic
30:33of this epic battle.
30:36The Japanese defence of Truk was directed from a command centre
30:40at the eastern end of the lagoon.
30:53Look at this thing, it's almost been smashed.
30:56Look at this thing, it's almost been swallowed up by the jungle.
31:00But once you get through the greenery, look at it.
31:03It's a really substantial structure.
31:05We've got two storeys here.
31:07We've got these heavily reinforced blast doors and windows.
31:12Very important building.
31:18We've got strafing marks on the wall,
31:22where machine gun bullets from an American aircraft
31:25break to cross this concrete surface.
31:33But when we move to this side, it's a different story entirely.
31:37Look at this. This is outstanding damage.
31:42Bombs just come straight through here.
31:49It's like a snapshot of Operation Hailstone, this American raid.
31:56This must have been a heck of an event,
31:59as these American planes came in,
32:01discharging their machine guns, raking everything.
32:04And it just goes to show you can throw in all the steel and concrete you want,
32:09but if the enemy's determined enough, which the Americans certainly were,
32:13you can knock these places out.
32:16This display of aerial firepower casts doubt
32:20not only on the island's defences,
32:22but on those of the Yamato itself.
32:31Look at this lump here.
32:33You can swing that like a pendulum.
32:37It's just these steel reinforcing rods that are keeping it suspended.
32:41The islands are decimated, with 270 planes destroyed
32:46and 191,000 tonnes of shipping sunk.
32:50If the Japanese ever need a reminder of the importance of carrier-borne aircraft,
32:55truck is the battle that demonstrates that once and for all.
33:01Some ships avoid the attack.
33:05With an assault anticipated,
33:07the Japanese move the Yamato and Musashi to safety.
33:15With truck decimated,
33:16the Yamato-class megaships are now more vulnerable to air attack than ever before.
33:22So the Japanese retrofit the ships with the anti-aircraft weaponry.
33:31They install over 100 additional guns.
33:39By October 1944, the work is complete
33:42and the Yamato and the Musashi sail into battle at Leyte Gulf,
33:46the largest naval confrontation of World War II.
34:13The Yamato finally has the chance to fire her 18-inch guns at American ships,
34:19hitting at least one carrier.
34:24But her armour also faces its first big test.
34:30Seen in these rare and declassified US Navy photographs,
34:34this is the actual moment the Yamato is hit by two bombs.
34:38The gun turrets are protected by 26 inches of armour,
34:42but the deck is more vulnerable,
34:45and a bomb penetrates the crew quarters.
34:48Despite the damage, the Yamato escapes
34:51as the Americans concentrate their efforts on the Musashi.
34:55The Battle of Leyte Gulf is a disaster for the Japanese.
34:59The Americans have developed a new type of explosive.
35:02It's Torpex, which is double the power of TNT.
35:05And the pre-war estimates of how much damage these battleships could absorb
35:09was based on the principle of a warhead being full of TNT, not Torpex.
35:14It's estimated that somewhere between 11 and 15 torpedoes strike the Musashi.
35:20In addition to that, there's some 16 bombs hit it as well.
35:24And it is that combination of mass numbers of torpedoes
35:28with more powerful warheads hitting it that eventually does for them.
35:32The Musashi goes down with the loss of over 1,000 lives.
35:3821 Japanese sailors are killed or injured on board the Yamato,
35:43and one of their replacements is naval cadet Mitsuru Yoshida.
35:52Dear mother, only one year to train.
35:55It has been two years.
35:57Dear mother, only one year to train.
36:00It has been tough, but good news.
36:03I've been assigned to the Yamato.
36:06I have never been so proud.
36:08Everyone is counting on me and my 3,000 shipmates.
36:12We will not fail our country or the Emperor.
36:15Only four months after coming on board,
36:18Yoshida and the Yamato prepare for what could be their final battle.
36:28On the 5th of April, 1945, the Yamato, Japan's last surviving megaship,
36:35is called upon to defend the Japanese homeland.
36:39Issuing the order is Admiral Suemu Toyoda.
36:43Sail to the west of Okinawa to attack them and destroy.
36:49The Japanese island of Okinawa,
36:52only 350 miles south of mainland Japan, is under attack.
36:58If the island is lost, then mainland Japan could fall next.
37:07Toyoda's plan was for the Yamato and her nine support ships
37:12to sail here to Okinawa.
37:14And there to engage the American invasion fleet with our huge guns.
37:18And we're talking there around 1,500 American ships.
37:23If necessary, the Yamato was to be beached and turned into a fortress
37:28and her guns used from the shore.
37:31This was a crazy plan. Suicidal.
37:39On the afternoon of the 3rd of April,
37:42on the afternoon of the 6th of April,
37:45the Yamato set sail with nine escort ships, but no air cover.
37:54On Okinawa, the battle is well underway
37:57in what is to be the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War.
38:02By this stage, the Imperial Japanese Navy are throwing kamikaze planes,
38:06kamikaze rockets, kamikaze boats,
38:09and kamikaze capital ships as well at the Okinawa invasion.
38:13Sky full of flak as the Japs attack warships
38:16supporting the invasion of Okinawa.
38:19Scenes of plunging planes and enemy bombs land perilously near.
38:23The Yamato is still a day's sailing from Okinawa.
38:28On the bridge, it's the job of Ensign Yoshida to stand watch,
38:33a prestigious role for one so young.
38:37He's eager to engage the enemy.
38:40He's eager to engage the enemy.
38:43He's eager to engage the enemy.
38:46He's eager to engage the enemy.
38:49He's eager to engage the enemy.
38:52How we have awaited this moment.
38:55Ours is the single honour of being the nation's protector.
38:59One day, we must prove ourselves worthy.
39:03But Ensign Yoshida's dream is not to be.
39:07As it turns out, the Yamato is intercepted before it gets to Okinawa,
39:10and it is absolutely pummeled.
39:19Contacts. Three large formations approaching.
39:23At 12.32, around 150 enemy aircraft appear out of the thick cloud
39:30and unleash hell.
39:37The new anti-aircraft guns do what they can,
39:40but with no air cover of her own, the Yamato is exposed.
39:45There's more than a hundred enemy aircraft.
39:56Two formations range 80,000 feet, direction 85 degrees.
40:03The Yamato is pounded with bullets and bombs,
40:07but the biggest threat to her thick armour are the torpedoes.
40:11Two Grummans, port 25 degrees, elevation 8 degrees, range 13,000 feet,
40:17flying to starboard.
40:22The tracks of torpedoes are beautiful white against the sea,
40:26as if someone were drawing a needle through the water.
40:29They come pressing in, aimed at the Yamato from a dozen different directions.
40:40Several torpedoes punch into her port side.
40:44What the Americans have discovered is that the best way to sink these things
40:48is to pummel them from one side only,
40:51so that the correcting gear that they have on the battleship can't come into play.
40:57Water control headquarters has taken a torpedo kit.
41:04Without this control room,
41:06the Yamato can no longer pump water around the 1,000 specially designed stabilising compartments.
41:14For those inside the control room, there is no escape.
41:21By 2pm, the Yamato is listing at 20 degrees,
41:25and the order is given to abandon ship.
41:29There's no hope of trimming the list.
41:33Run!
41:37With her port side flooding,
41:40the unsinkable mighty battleship begins to capsize.
41:47As she goes down,
41:51the rear ammunition store explodes.
41:57Photographed by the US Navy,
42:00the immense pillar of smoke stretches almost 20,000 feet into the air,
42:05and can be seen 120 miles away.
42:09Whichever way you look at it, I know it's a weapon of war,
42:12but this is still an absolutely phenomenal piece of engineering.
42:17It is a majestic vessel,
42:20and for it to end in just such a way is tragic,
42:25even though it is a weapon of war.
42:28And of course, the greatest tragedy of all
42:30is that some 3,000 Japanese sailors go down with it.
42:35276 men are saved,
42:38including Ensign Yoshida,
42:41who's rescued by one of the Yamato's escort ships.
42:44But Japan's Navy has been dealt a fatal blow,
42:48and just five months later, Japan is defeated.
42:53The Yamato and its sister ship, the Musashi,
42:56are never really used in the role that they're designed for.
43:00Taking on other ships at long range,
43:02supporting operations on the land as well as offshore naval power.
43:06The problem was, they were such a symbol
43:09of Japanese imperial naval power,
43:12that there was a kind of reluctance to use them
43:15in case something went horribly wrong.
43:17And so by the time they do go into action, it's just too late.
43:21And the story of the Yamato, and also its sister ship, the Musashi,
43:25is really a story of missed opportunities.
43:30Once the war in the Pacific is over,
43:33Ensign Yoshida becomes a successful banker
43:36and writes a memoir of the Yamato's final mission.
43:41Much like the Nazi megaships Bismarck and Tirpitz,
43:45the Yamato marks the end of the age of battleships.
43:49Aircraft carriers now dominate the seas.
43:53But the Yamato has a lasting legacy
43:56as one of the last battleships to go down fighting.
44:00BATTLE SHIP YAMATO