This development mostly came back to 1919 and the N☁3 class, planned to be laid down in 1924, but cut short by the Washington treaty. Genesis of the Yamato: Interwar designs A part of this process could be found here: IJN battleships Showing for good to all, that the time of big-gun battleships was at its end. When released for a suicide mission in 1944, this was to meet a maelstrom of naval aviation. But the active life of both battleships showed a lack-luster record, to the point the lead ship was even called "Hotel yamato" stuck in port, due to the lack of fuel. The Yamato class was thought for total naval supremacy, compensating numbers by quality. Sailors that took service on this ships were rightfully proud of this "unsinkable battleship", the very symbol of Japan's trust into its navy. Protection was not forgotten also and featured probably the best combination possible to fend-off all shell ranges, with the largest armor thickness ever seen on a ship, never equalled or surpassed. Aside these massive main guns, the ship was generously dotted with secondary guns, dual purpose and AA artillery. This caliber had been banned by the Washington Treaty in 1922 anxious to avoid escalation, but the Japanese retired from the treaty in 1935. IJN Yamato (the former name of Japan) was literally designed around her record-breaking main artillery, of 18-inch (457mm) guns, dwarfing the average caliber of the time, comprised by treaty between 330 and 406mm (15-in - 16-in). The long vacancy imposed by the naval treaty was used to elaborate many designs, while the main caliber gun already had been worked out for 1920s designs. This was the first battleship class since 1918, when the last IJN battleships of the Amagi class were started. It was part of a massive naval rearmament plan begun in 1937. The IJN Yamato herself was the leading vessel in a whole serie of four "new generation" fast battleships. Yamato completed in Kure in September 1941. Was the concept behind her construction valid at the time ? She definitely became an icon in today's Japanese culture. A massive 1/10 model was made of her, now in The Battleship Yamato Museum, close to where she was built in Kure. This ship and her sister, still fascinates the world today, justified an underwater expedition, movies (such as "The men of Yamato" in 2005), as well as a quantity of books, comics, series and animes. Mysterious, because classified as highly secretive, it was known only by name by the US secret service in 1941 when she entered service. ![]() The last IJN battleships IJN Yamato, like Bismarck, is the subject of a post-war myth. Yamato class Battleships IJN 1941-45 IJN Yamato, Musashi.
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