Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 41. Chapters: Japanese battleship Yamato, Kong class battlecruiser, Japanese battleship Haruna, Japanese battleship Kong, Japanese battleship Kirishima, Japanese battleship Hiei, Japanese battleship Mutsu, Japanese battleship Musashi, Japanese battleship Ise, Japanese battleship Nagato, Japanese battleship Asahi, Japanese battleship Fus, Japanese battleship Hy ga, Ise class battleship, Japanese battleship Yamashiro. Excerpt: Yamato ( ), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was the lead ship of the Yamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) main guns. Neither, however, survived the war. Laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941, Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States, Japan's main rival in the Pacific. 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 disastrous Battle of Midway. 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 she was present at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, Yamato played no part in the battle. The only time she fired her main guns at enemy surface targets was in October 1944, when she was sent to engage American forces invading the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. On the verge of success the Japanese force turned back, believing they were...