The Naval Battle of Okinawa
After the carrier battle of 7 April, it is time for the Japanese battleships to engage their American counterparts. The Japanese battleship engagement will start at 10:00 a.m. on the morning of 8 April 1945, with shells from USS Tennessee hitting Yamato. Yamato will move forward to badly damage and sink the Tennessee, but will be sunk by 3:00 p.m., having been engaged by Tennessee, Nevada, Idaho, New York, New Mexico and West Virginia and having sank only the Tennessee by 2:00 p.m.. The Haruna will entangle with the Arkansas and Colorado and will suffer fatal damage after a combat of 2 hours, sinking at 12:50 p.m. and having been crippled and sinking in its last hour. Calls for the help of Ise and Hyuga will see Ise crippled and sunk by carrier planes by 3:00 p.m. and Hyuga engaged and sunk by 7:00 p.m., the timely intervention of the Colorado playing a role in Hyuga's destruction for medium damage to Colorado and fatal torpedo damage to Arkansas launched from 6 Matsu-class destroyers, all of them being destroyed in the battle in exchange for USS Morrison. In addition, the Kaiten launched by the Kaiten carriers will be evaded by USS Texas (which will receive the only kaiten hit of the battle), USS Maryland, USS Tuscaloosa and their destroyers, which will proceed to destroy the kaiten and sink both Kitakami and Namikaze (in addition to Nokaze and Kamikaze of "Destroyer Division No. 1") by 6:00 p.m., the delay being due to evasive movements to avoid the kaiten. After the battle, USS Texas will be detached and reach Saipan on 18 April 1945 due to survivable kaiten damage.
The cruiser and destroyer battle will be more even sided, but will see the sinking of all Japanese cruisers and destroyers involved in escorting Yamato (Tone, Oyodo, Haguro, Ashigara, Yahagi, Hibiki, Yukikaze, Isokaze, Hamakaze, Kasumi, Suzutsuki, Fuyutsuki, Hanazuki) due to orders by Seiichi Ito to continue the battle to the last cruiser and the last destroyer. In exchange, the US will lose the heavy cruisers Pensacola and Salt Lake City to torpedoes and gunfire and the destroyers Mannert L. Abele, Porterfield, Cassin Young, Bryant, Heywood L. Richards and Bennion. All Japanese ships involved in the surface battle on 8 April will be sunk by 10:00 p.m. that day. USS Arkansas will sink due to torpedo damage early on 9 April 1945.
Having sank the Hyuga, the American carrier planes will sink the Sakawa and 1 Matsu-class destroyer by 5:40 p.m. and cripple another Matsu-class destroyer which will later be scuttled at night. On 9 April, the remaining American carrier planes will sink the remaining destroyers of the Ten Go fleet, costing the Japanese another 6 destroyers. Total losses for the Japanese Navy as a result of 3 days of combat in Ten-Go will comprise of 4 battleships, 3 aircraft carriers, 70 carrier-based planes, 3 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers and 30 destroyers in total, not counting 100 land-based (and lost in combat or as kamikaze) aircraft. The Americans lost 60 carrier-based planes (30 with USS Bataan), 1 light carrier, 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers and 7 destroyers in the battle as a whole. The Japanese navy as a whole is now crippled by fuel and ship shortages and the very few remaining survivors will be unseaworthy for service due to battle damage and fuel shortages. To make things worse, all tankers sailing with Convoy HI-88J have been sunk the previous week, ensuring that there will be no additional fuel bound for Japan. Operation Ten Go will be a massive disaster for the Japanese surface fleet.