Yamato-class battleship

Rare card · No. 50957

The Yamato-class battleships (Japanese: 大和型戦艦, romanized: Yamato-gata senkan) were two battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Yamato and Musashi. Their keels were laid down in 1937 and 1938, and they were commissioned as designed in 1941 and 1942. A third hull, laid down in 1940, was converted to the aircraft carrier Shinano during construction. Two further ships were planned but never constructed. Displacing nearly 72,000 long tons (73,000 t) at full load, the completed battleships were the heaviest ever constructed. The class carried the largest naval artillery ever fitted to a warship, nine 460 mm (18.1 in) naval guns, each capable of firing 1,460 kg (3,220 lb) shells over 42 km (26 mi). Because of the threat of U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers, Yamato and Musashi spent the majority of their careers in naval bases at Brunei, Truk, and Kure, deploying on several occasions in response to U.S. raids on Japanese bases. All three ships were sunk by the U.S. Navy, Musashi by air...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Imperial Japanese Navy, Public domain