mind boggling ship the yamato,the armour speed and guns, simply amazing.
Then the ijn just let it die, travesty.
Indeed, the Yamatos were remarkable in many ways. Post war analysis does indicate that they were inferior in some critical areas to the Iowa class. They were slower, not as well designed for survivability and lacked the U.S. BBs supremely accurate fire control radars. The penetration of the 18.1" shells was barely equal to the American 16" shells at long range. The faster ship certainly determines engagement range. Halsey was chafing at the bit to turn his Iowas loose against the Yamatos. It wasn't meant to be.
Yamato fought but one surface engagement, which was at Samar in October of 1944. There, she spent much of her time dodging torpedoes from American destroyers, collected a bevy of 5" rounds from same (superficial damage), and then was strafed and bombed by American Naval aircraft. In general, she contributed little. At Samar, she was Kurita's flagship, and when the Japanese finally had a chance to do some serious damage to American jeep carriers, Kurita lost his nerve and retired from the fight.
Both Yamatos represented the pinnacle of pre-war battleship design. Their deck armor was and would remain the best ever built onto a ship. Their main belt armor was very heavy, but was constructed of softer steel than that of the Iowas. Both the Iowas and the South Dakota's had superior STS armor plate, which more than offset the Yamato's greater thickness. When the Iowas entered service in 1944, the Yamatos no longer lived alone at the top of the food chain.
My regards,
Widewing
