A History Teacher Reacts | "The Yamato - Largest Battleship in History" by Simple History

[Music] hey youtube welcome back to another history teacher axe video mr. Terry as I continued my search for historical knowledge found here on YouTube alright today's video comes from our awesome patrons over at patreon and they voted on this video which is the Yamato the largest battleship in history and this is by the awesome Channel simple history so I know it's going to be good they have high quality content they're glad just got brought up because I'm not specifically I'm not a military historian I know there's some people that's their thing and there's a lot of discussions I hear about it about you know military history and the motto is one that gets brought up in military history again because of its it's its sheer size and an impact on World War two and I want to know more about it so I'm glad you guys picked this out because again it's something that's been talked about and kind of gets over my head just a little bit too to the deepest extent that some of you big-time military historians get into so thanks for choosing this cuz they go by educational for me and I'll try to give any context I can like I always do all right before we begin though link to the original video will be down below go make sure you go click that give them the like view subscribe and that stuff I don't think you'll be disappointed from simple history if you don't know them they do great stuff and have really cool just kind of stories that's the kind of thing a little side stories or in-depth details on specific things I really enjoy that about them and if you haven't stuff to my channel love to have around in our community as well hit that sub button naval notifications so you can come hang out with us at our live premieres and live streams and if you want to vote in polls you can join our patreon to linked will be down below as well and come join our discord community all right let's go ahead and get started the Yamato largest battleship in history behemoth now we're ready hey simple history fans world of warships has come to us with a sponsorship opportunity to try out their awesome game if you want to be the first to use our code you can download for free from the link below and use the code Klingon warships 2018 for channel for easy descent will tell you about later in the video Yamato super battleship largest battleship in history world war ii design the Yamato class of battleships were the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War this class where the heaviest battleships ever built the yamato-class battleships were not only the biggest of their kind but were also the most powerful with the largest amount of artillery mounted on a ship the intention behind the design was to counter the numerical supremacy of the American Pacific Fleet since they didn't have the economic or industrial capacities to build a large quantity of ships the Japanese decided to build larger battleships that okay makes sense the Japanese Navy was the best in the Pacific ever invest in Asia I should have said and yeah to combat that you know the the Americans have a very spread out fleet right there then an Atlantic there in the Pacific with the large concentration of course at Pearl Harbor which was reason for the side of the Pearl Harbor attacks in response to the oil embargo there but the war in the Pacific also became a war of resources it's one of the reasons why Japan was so aggressive in the Pacific to get oil and stuff like that and it fuelled Japanese Imperialism in the first place back in the late 1800s Early 1900s they were at a growing industrial nation they're the first nation in Asia to industrialized and constantly need a steady stream of resources from outside regions get in places like China and then the rest of the Pacific or in the East Asia and then in the end of the Pacific so I could see where this comes from now why would Japan make such a big ship because quality over quantity makes sense it could respond to numerous enemy ships at once the Imperial Japanese Navy required a super heavy battleship that would be armed with eighteen point one inch guns an armor that could withstand the impact of eighteen inch shells furthermore the ship had to have a top speed of 27 knots and a cruising range of 8,000 miles at a speed of 18 knots after these requirements were received the designers commence development in 1935 is that at the scale or I guess to scale running whatever I mean it's a huge look at the bow that is so long that is so big you know investing and you know quat quality over quantity can only be vulnerable to because you can't replace stuff like if they lose this it's not replaceable right it's not replaceable so you better make sure you protect your ships right because yeah if you lose it I mean you're not yeah it's it's all more risky that way after the but I mean if you have to do you have to do it the initial plans were made it was decided that the ship needed a displacement of 69 thousand tons the dimensions of the battleship were more than impressive the overall length of the ship was 839 feet with a beam width of one hundred and twenty seven point seven feet the protection of the Yamato was equally impressive the total weight of the armor was twenty two thousand five hundred and thirty-four tons which was one third of the entire displacement the thickness of the armor varied from eight inches to 16 inches depending on the section the deck armor was between seven point nine and nine point one inches well I mean no matter how power of on engine you're gonna get something that heavy is going to be slow which also means that you you can protect it but yeah you've got to have some thick plating because if it's that slow you're gonna be prone to torpedo shots and bombings themselves little bombing is very tough because I think they said already up I talked more about how many artillery guns they had which would be so scary because you've got to get special World War two you've got to get pretty close to be accurate for the dive bombings and and just bombing in general so that would be scary but you definitely you would need strong whole because the thing would be prone to torpedoes no doubt the gun turrets were protected with armor ranging from 9.5 to 26 inches this armor was supposed to protect the Yamato from all Allied naval weapons the Yamato class of battleships were powered by four steam engines with 12 boilers and a total power of 150 thousand shaft horsepower even at maximum speed the Yamato had great maneuverability ships in the Yamato class the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered two battleships of the Yamato class in 1936 the first one Yamato was built in the core a ship yards and the second Musashi in the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki the Mitsubishi story is interesting as I forgot his name the guy that founded Mitsubishi was a former samurai and in that age word it was kind of transitioning out of the the the samurai class and he gave up his his kind of oath is yeah his kind of duties as a samurai to become an entrepreneur and established Mitsubishi which started as a steel manufacturer making ships which timing-wise worked really well because I was right in the midst of the Japanese Industrial Revolution and their growth of their Navy and became a powerful powerful company and by the way he had learned again I forgot his name but he had learned steelmaking techniques I believe from the British who kind of started like with the Bessemer process and stuff like I had to make a mass mass produce steel and Mitsubishi is one of the companies that kind of brought that process to Japan and you could see how important that becomes by this time in World War two both shipyards had to be modified to handle the building of these enormous ships the production of the ships were kept a secret so large fences and canvas were placed around the docks to secure it from spies as well as this if a worker mentioned the project they may have faced death the Navy ordered two more battleships in 1939 the building of the first one named Shimano commenced production but after the Battle of Midway was decided that would be converted into an aircraft carrier the last one unofficially named number 111 was never finished armament the armament of the Yamato battleships was in accordance with the scale of the ship and its purpose the primary armament consisted of three triple turrets with type 94 46 centimeter guns east sixty nine point four foot long guns could fire on three thousand two hundred and nineteen pound projectile at a distance of twenty six point one miles that's huge did so much distance it's like yeah launching a Volkswagen with a rate of fire of 1.5 projectiles per minute these were the largest and most powerful guns ever put on a ship the entire weight of one turret was two thousand seven hundred and seventy four tons which equaled the weight of a fleet destroyer the secondary armed guns as much as a destroyer that's nuts I'd had no idea they were that like dense you know I mean remain consisted of four triple turrets with 155 millimeter guns the anti-aircraft armament consisted of six twin mounted type 89 127 millimeter guns mounted on the side of the ship above the 155 millimeter guns additionally a Yamato had eight triple mounted type 96 25 millimeter guns and four type 93 13 millimeter guns on the bridge tower I just watched Midway the first time on blu-ray and I was getting all the flashbacks of them of the bombers and stuff trying to come in and and these these gunners that were charged with that with with trying to take out those anti-aircraft stuff and how scary that must have been helpful sides to have that you got this Bombers coming in closer and closer and closer and you know if they drop one you're dead you know what I mean then as a plane coming in and you got a whole hail of these guns shooting at you but you have to stay on course and otherwise you're gonna you're not you're gonna miss or you're you're you know like you're not gonna get your job done now scary that must have been on both sides how intense those were and just watching Midway a few days ago for the first time makes me recall all this stuff the Yamato even had a hangar below deck for storing three to four aircraft that were launched with two catapults as the war progressed the yamato armament was modified with some guns removed and some added the first modification came in july 1943 when radars were fitted to upgrade the ship's anti-aircraft defense at the same time an additional four triple 25 millimeter guns were added to the weather deck the second modification came in February 1944 when two 155 millimeter side guns were removed as they were of no use for anti-aircraft defense these were replaced with an additional six twin mounted type 89 127 millimeter guns the anti-aircraft defense was reinforced with 55 25 millimeter guns some of which were triple mounted and some single mounted a final modification in November 1944 after the Battle of Leyte Gulf saw almost all single mounted 25 millimeter guns replaced with triple mounted guns and 27 new 25 millimeter guns after this the Yamato had 152 25 millimeter guns and its armament fate even though Japan invested much of their capacities and building the yamato-class battleships their use during the war was underwhelming the Japanese built the battleships to confront other ships on the sea failing to foresee the development of aircraft as the most powerful weapon in the war mm-hmm so okay so I mean yeah the Pacific is so vast you know it's so large that you know a battleship you know whatever impact it's gonna have I mean it's more about it seems like it's more about protecting carriers than anything because that's what's all about I mean the Pacific you've got to have air superiority so having those aircraft carriers now you got to be able to protect them with your battleships and stuff like that so it does seem like what the Japanese have done here is invested a lot in something that is incapable of really making a large impact again because you're fighting you have quality which is what you have here but you don't have quantity and it's not like with the Americans that they sacrifice quality necessary I mean there's quality and quantity involved there so I could see where they're going here is because the questions got to be why doesn't it make as much of an impact I like they were saying they don't make very many of these you can't how can you you can't mass-produce these so it is a big investment to have you know a ship's like this it can be said that Yamato was already obsolete by the time it was built Battle of Midway both battleships of the class so little action during the war the Yamato was commissioned on December 15th 1941 and it was assumed as the flagship of the Japanese combined fleet during the Battle of Midway Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto commanded its fleet from the yamato's bridge as the battle ended up disastrously for the Imperial Japanese Navy the Yamato was withdrawn to Japan where it served as a headquarter ship missing the Battle of Guadalcanal that's a big that's a big loss to have Guadalcanal was a huge important thing for the Allies it it's basically protected Australia as Australia was going to be pummeled there Guadalcanal is just kind of north of of Australia there and was a launch pad for the Japanese to attack to attack Australia but then also a place where a lot of the they call island-hopping campaign in world war ii which is basically island by islands taking them from japanese possession and eventually getting north to to japan itself and that was a that was one of the important turning points of the war to to go along with Midway was at Guadalcanal because then it becomes a stepping stone throughout the Pacific to the frequent and long periods of an activity it was nicknamed the hotel yamato the Musashi took over the duty of flagship of the combined fleet On January 22nd 1943 but it also saw little action both ships were used at the time as transport ships as they could carry a large amount of troops during these operations both ships were being hit by u.s. submarines to spend long periods of time in the truck shipyards for repairs the Battle of Leyte Gulf the first big war House ships came during the Battle of Leyte Gulf the largest naval battle of the war on October 24th 1944 US forces launched a massive air attack on the Japanese fleet they concentrated their fire on Musashi which couldn't withstand the amount of bombs and torpedoes launched at it by the end of the day it was something on the following day the Yamato used its 46 centimeter guns for the first and only time during the war hitting an American carrier at a distance of 20 miles wait wait let's go back I said how much was actually used it was or how much action it had seen the only time during the back blowing day the Yamato used its 46 centimeter guns for the first and only time during the war hitting that's amazing to have that kind of power and the first time they used it first and only time it's 1944 I mean the war is gonna be over in a year so it's not it's not like it's so much action I mean if you know that kind of ship exists and you're like the Americans then try to avoid it I went at all possible right because go for when you're fighting them go for quantity rather than just the quality ship because no one ship can do that much of an impact American carrier at a distance of 20 miles during the battle wait I'm on hope I'm it's skipping too much it could hit it hit it at 20 miles day the Yamato used is 46 centimeter guns for the first and only time during the war hitting an American carrier at a distance of 20 miles oh that's so far I wonder how many shots it took cuz being accurate at 20 miles can you can you imagine during the battle the Yamato suffered several bomb is what was not put in great danger however because of the danger of torpedo strikes it was forced to leave the battle suicide mission operation tango the final engagement of the Yamato was connected to the Allied invasion of Okinawa which prompted the Japanese Navy to commence operation tango sending the entire fleet to confront the u.s. Navy that was supporting the invasion on April 6th nineteen i'm een this is the state of the war this is one of the japanese we're also getting desperate they're running out of resources they're in the final protective islands of Japan Iwo Jima and Okinawa basically that's that's it when it comes to protective islands defending mainland Japan it's also in this time of the world you're saying you're gonna see suicide missions you're gonna see the kamikaze bombers and stuff like that as these planes were just over all the Navy was running out of of weapons of fuel and stuff like that and going into these missions using themselves as weapons and you're seeing that with the Navy - I'd heard about this - of kind of you know going down with the ship and stuff like that and also with these ships they if they're gonna lose they also don't want them to to to get retrieved by the Allies so they would blow up their own ships so they would get destroyed and then the Allies couldn't couldn't use them or repurpose them or get information from them you know what I mean and it just became kind of expected here at the end of the war that you know you were you were you're going down with it you're playing your ship on lands you were you were going down with it 18:45 a battle with full magazines so read with one light cruiser and eight destroyers on a suicide mission American code breakers found out about the Japanese plans so the US Navy was prepared for the action that would follow on April 7th convoy it was such a huge part of the war going back to like Midway of code breaking because and if you if you can have it advantage somehow of knowing when a when and where a fleet is going to be and how much to expect you can do surprise attacks and stuff like that like I happen at Midway catching them off guard that was a huge part at the end the intelligence war in a war right in a war of intelligence and it was so much harder to protect yourself and these days they had to use complex codes today because it was so easy to pick upon radio signals and stuff like that today you can do a lot more secretive plans and communication but especially back then everything is very much in the open and you'd have a good system and if you broke it I mean it was a huge huge victory for you if ten ships led by the Yamato was attacked by 400 American airplanes the Yamato withstood the bombs hitting its deck but 11 torpedoes that hit the portside were more than it could take after it rolled over to port its aft magazines exploded taking the Yamato to the bottom of the sea 3063 sailors were killed and only 269 were saved the sinking of the battleship yamato marked the end of the Japanese Imperial Navy a big thank you to world of warships for sponsoring this video on the Yamato battleship as mentioned they have some great free stuff for new players who register with the code play warships 2018 after downloading the game from the link in the description we loved visual historical accuracy at simple history so we're excited to learn that the team at world of warships work on every ship model for roughly six months from scratch from start to finish in the game you command a massive naval fleet of some of the most iconic warships that are authentic to the real thing with over seven million other players the game is a perfect mixture of more support and to get you bunch of freebies for simple history viewers using the code play war ships 2018 you'll get two hundred and fifty doubloons which are in game gold 1 million credits were to use this currency three days of premium so that you can earn more XP and credits in every battle a premium Campbelltown warship which has great torpedo range and damage and a port slot so you can increase your fleet capabilities click the link in the description below to collect your freebies and try out the game which is free to download cool a great team well thing with a blend it on the sinking there she goes alright guys great I learned a lot about the motto and especially the the objective of how the Japanese were building their fleet right not being able to out produce the Americans but focus on quality but you're saying is like they kind of said a lot of times though they invested a lot in the quality of these ships like the Amato but are incapable of making the impact that they would have needed to fight to fight the Allies right investing so much in that and yeah and I didn't know how little it was actually used as something effective effective offensively like basically using only once but then yeah was you know potentially prone to to torpedo attacks and which you know has to make it withdrawn there so you wonder if that is a failure in the way that they invested so much in something like this to actually have it make little impact or maybe it really doesn't matter anyways because this in the war in the Pacific is really just a war of attrition for materials in a lot of ways because the Americans can out produce the Japanese or economy is gonna be stronger and it's just kind of a matter of time you know for that to eventually to end but you do see more of kind of the the Japanese strategy and the Japanese commitment to the war and being being expected to basically at the end go on suicide missions pretty much and stuff like that to try to keep you know the honor of fighting which is a big part of Japanese military histories that that honor that you will go to your death for your cause but anyways neat to see something like that that even still today it's got they were saying the largest artillery even today when you're talking sixty years later that we use in ships maybe again that's kind of overkill okay and that would be a reason why it's not like they're incapable today of making that kind of stuff but it's just not feasible now you combine you know quantity with speed and quality and stuff like that and now with with the air you know air superiority gates a lot of this stuff too to be able to do that so anyway alright cool video thanks patrons for voting on it for this week's poll and thank you guys for doing that and again if you'd like to get involved in polls go down the link below in patreon and that you'll see a link to where you can get involved that way here if you like this video go down below and give them a like subscribe view all of that good stuff join our discord server if you'd like to talk more about World War two military history the yamato anything on your mind there link is down below as well all rights thanks again for being a part of our community here thanks for being a part of just history on the web here and promoting history education just by watching the video and sharing with people you're you're doing a service out there alright okay stay safe we'll see you guys later bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 43,858

Keywords: react, history, yamato, world war 2, military history, japan

Id: 89t1lI8CAK4

Length: 24min 50sec (1490 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 07 2020