Better Yamato?

Insider

Banned
Bismark and Hood have been done already, so why not the biggest meanest of them all. Was it fairly good construction or do the board of armchair admirals see room for improvement?
 
Bismark and Hood have been done already, so why not the biggest meanest of them all. Was it fairly good construction or do the board of armchair admirals see room for improvement?

Already been done in OTL: they were called "Musashi," "Shinano," and "A-150," respectively
 
IIRC, I have heard somebody mention that there was a small issue with the AA armament. I am not sure if there is truth behind it but with the various calibers of AA guns there wasn't an overlap in regard to ranges. Of course, the ship was fitted and refitted quite a few times...
 

Insider

Banned
Surely Hotchkiss 25 mm would be better if belt fed. As long as you dont have to carry that belt and make the change during the fight.
 
Part.of the trouble is Japan REALLY needed to get rid of the numerous 25MM and replace them with something better. Also, my opinion, not to install the 6in triple guns. Start with more DP guns and radar links.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Better in what way?

The Yamato was designed for a very questionable strategic goal, one that was disappearing even as she was commissioned. Unlike her USN counterparts, Yamato was poorly armed to act as a close AAA escort, arguably she was hard pressed to defend herself less due to the lack of medium size AAA and more to the train rate of the gun mounts. The ship was also prone to very severe concussive/blast effects when firing her main battery, IJN personnel indicated that blast effects on the bridge were especially serious.

If the goal is a better battleship than her design should have been balanced (i.e. her armor should have been sufficient to stop her own gunfire). This is a difficult task (the U.S. Iowa class is not a balanced design despite being arguably the best protected warship class ever to sail) but it was always the designer's goal when putting the ship. That would have required an even larger design, as would a design that would have allowed her to maintain formation with the "fast BB" of the Kongo class.

Most of the other improvements have to do with train rate, elevation rates, and electronics (especially gun-laying radars). The Yamato design was the perfect 1930 battleship. Unfortunately she wasn't commissioned until December of 1941.
 
If the goal is a better battleship than her design should have been balanced (i.e. her armor should have been sufficient to stop her own gunfire). This is a difficult task (the U.S. Iowa class is not a balanced design despite being arguably the best protected warship class ever to sail) but it was always the designer's goal when putting the ship. That would have required an even larger design, as would a design that would have allowed her to maintain formation with the "fast BB" of the Kongo class.

As it was, the Yamato class was almost as fast as the Kongo class anyway: 28-29 knots compared to 29-30 for the Kongos. In particular, battleship Musashi achieved a speed of 28.5 knots in overload condition at 70,358 tons on 22 June 1942, as opposed to the USN practice of testing with a "Tactical displacement" of 2,000-3,000 tons under the full load (more on this can be seen here from this report comparing Iowa and New Jersey). Yamato for her part hit 28.05 kts during the Midway operation that same month. Had these ships been operating on somewhat less than their full load displacement I see no reason to believe they couldn't have approached 30 knots.
 
Top