Unsinkable Yamato's?

Steeltrap · 12-09-07, 06:00 PM

You have to remember that they were truly massive ships, with enormous armour levels, vast numbers of compartments and, accordingly, very difficult to sink. They both absorbed something along the lines of 17-20 torps and a similar number of 500 or 1,000lb bombs before sinking, and even then it took something like 2 hours.

The fact that you can stick a single torp into a BB and watch it go off like a firecracker is decidedly unrealistic IMO. Bear in mind that a warship is designed to take damage. They have far more compartments than any vessel of comparable tonnage, and a much larger crew with far more damage control equipment (sprinklers, fire hoses, fixed and movable pumps).

Archerfish sank Shinano (the 3rd Yamato class, redesigned as an aircraft carrier) with 6 torps, but she had not finished fitting out and her crew was poorly trained.

I would expect you to be able to cripple a Yamato with a salvo if you got 6 hits. 10 hits might sink her. The reality is you would damage her so badly she'd be out of the war for a long time, plus absorb a lot of materials and time in repairs, so that's a victory from a strategic perspective anyway.

12-09-07, 06:00 PM	#5
Steeltrap Grey Wolf Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 818 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	You have to remember that they were truly massive ships, with enormous armour levels, vast numbers of compartments and, accordingly, very difficult to sink. They both absorbed something along the lines of 17-20 torps and a similar number of 500 or 1,000lb bombs before sinking, and even then it took something like 2 hours. The fact that you can stick a single torp into a BB and watch it go off like a firecracker is decidedly unrealistic IMO. Bear in mind that a warship is designed to take damage. They have far more compartments than any vessel of comparable tonnage, and a much larger crew with far more damage control equipment (sprinklers, fire hoses, fixed and movable pumps). Archerfish sank Shinano (the 3rd Yamato class, redesigned as an aircraft carrier) with 6 torps, but she had not finished fitting out and her crew was poorly trained. I would expect you to be able to cripple a Yamato with a salvo if you got 6 hits. 10 hits might sink her. The reality is you would damage her so badly she'd be out of the war for a long time, plus absorb a lot of materials and time in repairs, so that's a victory from a strategic perspective anyway.