Development background

From the early 1930s, imperial japanese navy, one of the world's naval powers, began to challenge the United States and Britain in the Pacific region. 1934 65438+ 10, when Japan revised its imperial defense policy, it officially listed the United States as an imaginary enemy. 1935, the London naval conference was held. Japan put forward the equal demand for arms construction and advocated setting the maximum possession of all countries in the world to "ensure mutual security", but it was opposed by other countries. 1936, Japan refused to sign the New London Naval Treaty and announced its withdrawal from the Conference on Disarmament. 1in June, 936, Japan revised its national defense policy and clearly put forward the strategy of intercepting the United States, that is, imperial japanese navy fought against the United States in the western Pacific. At the beginning of the war, it is necessary to destroy the main force of the US Far East Navy, destroy or seize the base on which the US Navy depends, and then reserve the battlefield for the decisive battle at sea in the waters west of the Ogasawara Islands, intercepting and destroying the formation of American warships reinforced by the United States.

194 1 year1year1October 30th, which was publicly tested in sumo bay, Yamato is a country with relatively weak industrial base and scarce resources. It is impossible for Japan to compete with the United States, which has a strong industrial base and rich resources, and it is even more impossible to compete with the US Navy in terms of the number of warships. According to the policy of "quantity is insufficient and quality is supplemented" since Meiji era, Japan has established a development strategy of offsetting each other's quantity advantage with the strength advantage of a single battleship. The Japanese Navy expects that the width of the battleship built by the US Navy will be limited by the Panama Treaty, and it will carry 406 mm (16 inch) caliber naval guns. However, as early as 19 16, Japan trial-produced a 460 mm caliber naval gun, and in 1920, it also manufactured a 480 mm caliber naval gun, which has certain experience in manufacturing large caliber naval guns. Inspired by this ideological guidance and reality, the Japanese navy began to prepare to build a super battleship with a 460 mm caliber main gun and form a maritime strike force with the battleship as the core.

structure chart

1934 10, the Japanese naval military command officially issued the design task of a new type of battleship to the naval ship administration headquarters, requiring more than eight main guns with a diameter of 460 mm, two auxiliary guns with a diameter of 12 155 mm or eight auxiliary guns with a diameter of 200 mm (one type) The overall design of the new ship is in the charge of keiji fukuda, assistant commander of the fourth department of the ship administration headquarters, and the technical guidance is in the charge of Lieutenant General Pinghelang. From1March 1935 to1July 20, 1936, 23 design schemes (A- 140-A- 140f5) were put forward successively. In the original A- 140 scheme, the new warship has a normal displacement of 69,500 tons and a length of 294 meters. The main engine outputs 200,000 shaft horsepower, the maximum speed is 3 1 knot, and the endurance is 8,000 nautical miles/1knot. The three main guns of the new battleship are the same as those of the Nelson class battleship in Britain. The Japanese navy finally adopted the design of two triple main guns on the front deck and the rear deck 1 triple main gun. It is considered to be the best main gun configuration method for battleships. In various design schemes of the new ship, the power plant plans to adopt the hybrid power of steam turbine and diesel engine. Due to the high failure rate of the Japanese Navy's submarine carrier "Whale" equipped with diesel engine, the plan was finally abandoned, and only the steam turbine was used in the final A- 140F5 scheme.

Su Mao Bay public beta 194 1 10 Yamato.

1937, the Japanese navy made an armament supply plan ("03 warship supply plan", also known as 03 plan), and formally decided to build two Yamato class battleships, namely "Yamato" and "Musashi", with the plan A- 140F5. Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan's shipbuilding level has been continuously improved. In the Showa era, Japan has become one of the world's shipbuilding powers. However, Japan, an island country, is poor in resources and still lags behind Britain and the United States in scientific and technological strength. Moreover, it is still in a state of war (1Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China on July 7, 937), and Japan is still building an unprecedented powerful battleship at all costs. Japan has spent a lot of money to add a lot of new equipment to its shipbuilding industry, and purchased 15000 tons hydraulic press (16000 tons) and three 70-ton acid open hearth furnaces from Germany (according to the data, these equipments cost1000,000 dollars). Thus, it is possible to manufacture armored steel plates with a thickness of 650 mm (used for the main gun turret of the Yamato) and specially deepen the dock of the Wu Haijun Factory by 65,438. During the whole construction process of the Yamato, the Japanese spent 65.438+05 billion yen (post-war price), with an average weight of 2 million yen per ton.

Shells used by the battleship Yamato

When manufacturing the main gun in Japan, a big problem is how to ensure that the main gun body can have enough strength under the condition of high bore pressure. 1920 The trial-produced 480mm naval gun was scrapped in the test firing due to insufficient strength, and the 460mm naval gun barely passed the test firing under the condition of reduced loading. Therefore, the naval gun department of Wu Navy Factory adopted a new gun self-tightening technology. Enhance the strength of the gun body through internal pressure. The gun body made by this method has been successfully tested, and its barrel life is 200-250 rounds.

work progress

1 937165438+1October 4th,1started construction in Wu navy factory.

Install the boiler from May 1939 to October 10, and install the main engine in September110.

1 July 5, 940,1The ship was named "Yamato".

On August 8 1940, the Yamato was launched. For the sake of confidentiality, the Yamato under construction is under strict confidentiality control, and fences are added at places overlooking the shipyard. After the Yamato ship was launched, the outfitting project began.

194 1 July, the main gun of the ship was installed.

194 1 year1October 16 days, the Yamato ship began its trial.

19411kloc-0/October 22nd, 153553 the output power of the main engine with axle horsepower reached 27.46 knots, and the trial was successful.

194 1 year 1 month1day, the first captain of the Yamato ship Gao arrived.

19411February 7, the Yamato ship fired its main gun for the first time (residents in coastal cities heard the sound of the main gun firing). At the same time, a Japanese fleet with six aircraft carriers as the core is heading for Hawaii, USA. 65438+ (local time 65438+February 7) In the early morning of February 8, carrier-based aircraft taking off from these six aircraft carriers attacked Pearl Harbor, the base of the US Pacific Fleet. The Pacific War broke out. On this day, the trial of the Yamato ship ended.

194 1 year1February 16 years, the Yamato ship was built, put into garrison in Zhen Wu and incorporated into the Japanese joint fleet.

Naming of ship name

The naming method of Japanese naval vessels promulgated by 1905 stipulates that battleships should be named after ancient countries ("countries" are local administrative units of ancient Japan). The official name of "Yamato" is "warship Yamato", and the origin of the ship name "Yamato" is named after the Yamato (now Nara Prefecture), one of the five ancient Japanese countries (now Feng Jingen Prefecture). Using the Japanese center and pronoun "Yamato" as the name of the ship, and the Yamato is also the name of the Japanese people for their own nation, we can know the degree of expectations of the Japanese navy for the ship.