IMPERIAL JAPANESE BATTLESHIP YAMASHIRO 1943

Yamashiro was a Japanese battleship laid under the keel in 1913, launched in November 1915, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in March 1917. The ship was 213 meters long, 30.6 meters wide, and had a full displacement of 35,300 tons. The maximum speed of battleship Yamashiro was around 22-23 knots, and after upgrades it reached 25 knots. The main armament was 12 356 mm guns in six turrets, two cannons each, and the additional armament was mainly 16 152 mm guns located in casemates. Yamashiro was the second and last battleship of the Fuso class. During World War I, it was not subjected to major modernization, while in the years 1930-1935 it underwent a thorough reconstruction. First of all, the armor was significantly strengthened, the entire engine room was changed (which improved the maximum speed!) And the shape of the superstructure with the command bridge, which was over 40 meters high and resembled a Japanese pagoda, was changed. Despite these changes, the battleship was still significantly slower than other ships of the Imperial Navy, and its main artillery of 356 mm did not make it an equal partner for American battleships. For these reasons, when World War II began, it was already considered a rather outdated ship. The battleship indirectly took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 1941) and played only auxiliary functions in this operation, and in May 1942 it fought in the area of the Aleutian Islands. In the years 1943-1944 it was stationed mainly on the mother islands, but took part in the Battle of Leyte (October 1944), where it was sunk as a result of a torpedo attack and shelling from the USS Mississippi battleship.