Japanese battleship Yamato

Yamato during sea trials off Japan near Bungo Strait, 20 October 1941.
History
Empire of Japan
Name:	Yamato
Ordered:	March 1937
Builder:	Kure Naval Arsenal
Laid down:	4 November 1937
Launched:	8 August 1940
Commissioned:	16 December 1941
Struck:	31 August 1945
Fate:	Sunk, 7 April 1945
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	Yamato-class battleship
Displacement:	65,027 t (64,000 long tons) 71,659 t (70,527 long tons) (full load)
Length:	256 m (839 ft 11 in) (waterline) 263 m (862 ft 10 in) (overall)
Beam:	38.9 m (127 ft 7 in)
Draft:	11 m (36 ft 1 in)
Installed power:	12 Kampon boilers 150,000 shp (110,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 shafts; 4 steam turbines
Speed:	27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Range:	7,200 nmi (13,300 km; 8,300 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement:	2,500–2,800
Armament:	(1941) 9 × 46 cm Type 94 guns (3x3) 12 × 15.5 cm 3rd Year Type guns (4x3) 12 × 127 mm Type 89 (6x2) 24 × 25 mm Type 96 AA guns (8x3) 4 × 13.2 mm Type 93 (2x2) (1945) 9 × 46 cm Type 94 guns (3x3) 6 × 15.5 cm 3rd Year Type guns (2x3) 24 × 127 mm Type 89 (12x2) 162 × 25 mm Type 96 AA guns 4 × 13.2 mm Type 93 (2x2)
Armor:	Waterline belt: 410 mm (16 in) Deck: 200–226.5 mm (7.9–8.9 in) Gun turrets: 650 mm (25.6 in) (face) Barbettes: Conning tower: Bulkheads:
Aircraft carried:	7 Nakajima E8N or Nakajima E4N
Aviation facilities:	2 catapults

Yamato (大和^?) was the lead ship of the Yamato class of Imperial Japanese Navy World War II battleships. She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the heaviest battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) 45 Caliber Type 94 main guns, which were the largest guns ever mounted on a warship. Neither ship survived the war.

Named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States, Japan's main rival in the Pacific. She was laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941. Throughout 1942, she served as the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and in June 1942 Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto directed the fleet from her bridge during the Battle of Midway, a disastrous defeat for Japan. Musashi took over as the Combined Fleet flagship in early 1943, and Yamato spent the rest of the year, and much of 1944, moving between the major Japanese naval bases of Truk and Kure in response to American threats. Although present at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, she played no part in the battle.