Well, Ten-Go doesn't necessarily end up with either of the two surviving... Just beached on Okinawa and getting blasted by CAS 24/7.
I wonder what a Yamato modernized in the 1980s as a battleship in active service would look like, as insanely unlikely as that possibility is....
Actually, I suspect they'd last long grounded off Iwo Jima than back in harbour.Yamato and Musashi could only realistically survive the war if they are stuck in Japan`s harbors at the end of WWII and don`t get used as atomic bomb targets, and even then they would almost certainly be scrapped after the war, too much valuable steel in them. I can only see them living on if Japan is allowed to keep the big battleships as fleet flagships years after the war (them being proven obsolescent by aircraft carriers) and retiring them in the 1950s or them being made into museum ships.
Take a look at the Iowa modernization's and just replace their guns with the Y's. That's what it'd most likely look like.
The alternate history challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have Operation Ten-go succeed and Yamato and Musashi survive the war.
That is the best idea yetWhat's the earliest POD allowed ?
Can I have a different operation called Ten-Go ? (say not against the USN ?)
IJN joint operations v Germany, Yamato end up beached on the muddy islands coving the allies amphibious invasion of north west Germany ? under p51 Cap it survive the war and are refloated post war to take back to japan as a museum ship ?
.
JSB
David Green just had a mental image of Yamato and Musashi with giant wedge ploughs welded to their bows charging past the Frisian Islands, clearing channels through the mud of the Wadden Sea...
Yamato! THAT'S what we need to making invading via the Frisian Islands work. A cunning plan that cannot fail.??Frisian Islands & Wadden Sea??
David Green just had a mental image of Yamato and Musashi with giant wedge ploughs welded to their bows charging past the Frisian Islands, clearing channels through the mud of the Wadden Sea...
You're not the only oneI feel like this is a joke that i'm missing the background on.