The big uns
 

Hi all,

In all the time that I've played SH4, I've never come across the Yamato battleship. I suspect that's unusual? I have come upon The others like the Kongo & Fuso though.

I would like to know in what area would I likely find the Yamato in the early part of the war. I'm in 1941 currently. I just want to know the general area. I suppose I could find its location by looking into the mission files or something? But I don't want to spoil the fun of finding it.

Usually I like to work out of the Asiatic fleets, tired of making the long boring trek across the Pacific from Pearl or Midway, so I'm thinking maybe the Yamato would be between Tokyo and Midway and that my usual route has been keeping me away from where she might be?

Any clues would be appreciated...thanx all. :ping:

well I did spot her once entering the celebes sea from the east. It was somewhere in the southern half of the island row between celebes and mindanao, but I can't remember when.

I had the chance to intercept a IJN Hvy task force near Japan in early '43...

1 Hiyo CV (sunk)
2 Kongo BB
1 Yamato BB
4 very persistent DDs

I don't know if it's reflected in the game, but the real Yamato would be a rare sight for a sub skipper in 1941 and even 1942. She wasn't officially commissioned into the IJN until December 16th, 1941 and spent the first six months of the war in training and gunnery exercises in the Inland Sea. She wasn't deemed operational until the 27th of May, 1942, when she took part in the Midway Operation as part of the Main Body of battleships sailing 600 miles behind Nagumo's carriers.

After Midway she was back in Japan until August 1942 when she departed for Truk to act as a headquarters ship during the fighting in the Solomons. She pretty much served there as an admiral's “hotel” from 29 August 1942 until 8 May 1943 only up-anchoring once to make room for another ship.

Wow...thanks all :know:.

Is this game historically accurate enough that if I wanted to target a particular ship that I could research it, finding exactly the day it was commissioned, etc, and go after it in that manner?

I'd say in the stock game no. The excellent mod Run Silent, Run Deep (RSRD) does recreate a lot of the historical battle movements, but I don't know for sure if it exactly replicates each day to day move a particular ship makes from the beginning of the war. (Even the historical record is often unclear on that)

Ok, thank you.

If you've got some real attachments, you can sneak around Truk Atoll. It was a major Japanese base, and the Yamato was stationed there on occasion. There's a good chance you'll find some heavy stuff there.

Oh, Truk, watch out for the reef's:-?

Another thing you have to be careful of at Truk is the shallow water. Not just for you sub, but your target which may just settle up to it's gunwales. Sunk, but not really sunk. Frustrating to say the least, so you have to aim your torpedoes to destroy the target by hitting a magazine, not just sink it.

Ah yeah, I remember that...although I have only been in the Truk area a few times, I remember finding large warships and also getting them to sink was difficult, I thought it was just a sinking problem on my end for whatever reason, but I would try to balance the sinking so that it would settle deeper and get me the kill, lol.

I just began a new American career, using TMO 1.7 - RSRD - with real environment. I started in 1943. In a Gato. Because one of my goals is to find and sink the Yamato at some point. I've never used RSRD. I'm not even to my first objective and having a blast. Except for the heavy fog I've experienced since leaving home port. I also increased the realism this time round and thats making things a bit more tense/exciting. But anywho...

Thanx for the useful intel...and I'll aim for the magazines. :ping: