There are 4 small videos on youtube. I think there are mistakes: then the American planes arrive, the Yamato fires her main guns in the planes' direction. I think that is incorrect because the shells wouldn't be able to hit and the planes weren't as slow as the Swordfish that attacked the Bismark. Can someone clarify that?
shareThe Yamato class ships used special fragmentation munition for the main guns. The Yamato indeed used these 18" shells against aircrafts in Battle.
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I have not seen this film yet, but I have heard somewhere that battleships would fire their main guns in the water to create great splashes to stop low flying torpedoeplanes. Mayby that is the case here?
shareFrom www.navweaps.com ...
"As were most Japanese warships, the Yamato and Musashi were provided with a special anti-aircraft incendiary shrapnel shell officially designated as "3 Shiki tsûjôdan" (Common Type 3) and supposedly nicknamed "The Beehive," but this could be apocryphal. This round weighed 2,998 lbs. (1,360 kg) and was filled with 900 incendiary-filled tubes. A time fuze was used to set the desired bursting distance, usually about 1,000 meters (1,100 yards) after leaving the muzzle. These projectiles were designed to expel the incendiary tubes in a 20 degree cone extending towards the oncoming aircraft with the projectile shell itself being destroyed by a bursting charge to increase the quantity of steel splinters. The incendiary tubes ignited about half a second later and burned for five seconds at 3,000 degrees C, producing a flame approximately 5 meters (16 feet) long.
The concept behind these shells was that the ship would put up a barrage pattern through which an attacking aircraft would have to fly. However, these shells were considered by US Navy pilots to be more of a visual spectacular than an effective AA weapon."
Aside from the above mentioned explanation of the ammutitions the tactic you refer to is I think an american tactic against low-flying kamikaze's... If I remember correctly... But I'm no war historian, so don't take my word for it ;)
shareYamato did indeed use the "San-Shiki-dan" AA shells. Her sister Musashi used them in her final battle as well, but the shells had the unfortunate side effect of damaging the bores of the huge 18.1-inch guns, disabling them after only a few salvoes.
Early on, it was thought that one of these special shells was the cause of the titanic explosion that tore the giant battleship apart as she rolled over. Now, however, it's known that the explosion was from her #2 ammunition magazine going up.
For those who don't know, Yamato's wreckage has indeed been found. It was discovered on 1 August 1985.
From a history of Yamato located at: http://www.combinedfleet.com/yamato.htm
A Japanese team in deep research submersible PISCES II locates YAMATO 1,410 feet deep in the East China Sea. The wreck is in two pieces. Its forward section is on its starboard side, while the aft section is bottom up.
According to various accounts (try Toland's book) from both sides in the battle, the beehive round had absolutely no effect on the attacking American aircraft. Which goes against the depiction of the Yamato's guns taking down a couple of planes.
shareUsing flak rounds in the main guns when facing only aircraft and no ships would be a sound tactic.
Even today, ships use their main guns as AA guns - but now because they fire amazingly fast.
The Yamato did have these special anti-aircraft rounds for her main 18 inch guns. However, this was another magnificently stupid idea, coming top down from the military elite, much like the whole last mission of the Yamato.
The main problem was that the firing rate of the 18-inch guns was too slow, the elevation and traverse too limited and too slow to track the attacking aircraft, and the aiming too inaccurate to be able to fill the air in front of attacking aircraft with a continuous density of shrapnel. These guns were designed for naval bombardment, not anti-aircraft defense.
After a number of battles, the US Navy settled upon the 20 mm cannon and 40mm Oerliken rapid fire cannons (license built from Bofors, a Swedish company) as their main defensive anti-aircraft weapons. The 5-inch guns already on board existing ships were also used for anti-aircraft defense. Both the 40mm and 5-inch guns had shells with proximity fuses.
The 40mm cannon was probably the most effective. It had a range and punch that could take out torpedo bombers and dive bombers BEFORE they released their torpedos/bombs, unlike the 20mm cannon. And it could rapid fire like a machine gun, much faster than the 5-inch guns.
The Yamato, and other Japanese ships, did not have a similar caliber of rapid-firing gun nor the proximity fuses for their shells. As I recall, mostly, the Japanese ships had 1.1 inch (25mm) anti-aircraft guns and slower firing large caliber guns.
"Both the 40mm and 5-inch guns had shells with proximity fuses."
During WW2, the smallest effective projectile that could be equipped with a proximity fuse was about 3" (76mm) in diameter, though the fuze itself was about 57mm at the widest point. All 40mm AA shells fired by the US Navy during WW2 were impact fuzed.
By the time the Kamakaze threat became recognized as a real menace (i.e., off Okinawa), the 40mm was criticized as being insufficiently lethal - a single hit wasn't sufficient to destroy or deflect a Kamakaze. See http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_4cm-56_mk12.htm if you don't believe this.
As far as a mistake, the one I did find irritating was in with the attacking aircraft, there was at least one P-47 painted in USN markings- you notice it in several scenes.
I have no idea why since the model shops had made good models of F6Fs, TBMs, and SB2Cs which were not only used in the battle, but were navy aircraft, which the P-47 was not.
Good film otherwise-