Chapter 618: Yamashiro

The battleship Yamashiro was a member of Japan’s Fusō-class. Just three years ago, it had undergone a series of modernizations, becoming one of the more advanced warships in the Japanese battle line. This warship had a full-load displacement of over 40,000 tons, making it one of the largest battleships in the world by weight.

Moreover, influenced by Japan’s “single-ship superiority” doctrine, the Fusō-class battleships were armed with a full six twin-turrets of 356mm cannons. In terms of the number of main guns, a single ship of this class had a staggering 12 barrels. At least in gun count, it surpassed all the battleships of the great powers at the time, making it a battleship with truly bizarre statistics.

If one were to look at it in terms of game stats, this battleship’s data would seem very impressive, perhaps even ranking it as a super-weapon among battleships. After all, the German Bismarck-class, which entered service later, had only 8 main guns, and Britain’s final Vanguard-class battleship also had only 8.

However, the flaws of Japan’s Fusō-class were as prominent as its strengths. Behind its impressive statistics lay a pitiful level of actual performance that was hard to compliment. Because a full six main gun turrets were squeezed onto the hull wherever they could fit, the ship’s internal layout was so bizarre it was laughable: magazine, boiler room, magazine, boiler room, magazine…

Anyone who wasn’t a fool could see that in a battleship duel that emphasized gunnery, this layout was tantamount to suicide. If the ship’s hull were hit by the enemy, it would instantly become a giant firecracker, erupting in a most brilliant flash of light.

Furthermore, all six gun turrets, magazines, and the boilers had to be protected by a long belt of armor to ensure their safety. This greatly extended the area of the ship that required armor protection. As a result, the armor thickness was insufficient in every place it was needed. This highlighted the ship’s awkward situation from another angle: it had more areas that needed protection than other ships, increasing the likelihood of being hit, but because the armor was spread so thin, it was more easily penetrated.

However, these shortcomings were trivial matters in the face of the Japanese Navy’s fanatical Bushido spirit. After all, they firmly believed that Heaven protected the Emperor. Since God was protecting their emperor, they, who fought for him, would naturally not be defeated by the enemy. Therefore, the Japanese high command never considered issues like insufficient armor protection and magazine placement to be particularly important.

Captain Ko-den Nagasaemon stood with his hands behind his back in his command room. Not far from him, the helmsman stood motionless, his hands on the ship’s wheel. Nagasaemon had received the news of Yamamoto’s retreat from Pearl Harbor. At the same time, he received an order from the 2nd Battleship Division to lead a squadron south to support the Japanese offensive in eastern Australia.

Following the battleship Yamashiro were two heavy cruisers, the Takao and the Maya. This fleet had been ordered south to support the Japanese soldiers advancing along the coast towards the densely populated eastern regions of Australia. Their mission was very simple: to cover the coastal troops and bombard the defenders’ lines.

Of course, in addition to these three capital ships, several destroyers were also in company. These warships formed a complete Japanese squadron, sailing majestically towards their operational area.

“How could Marshal Yamamoto retreat during the Battle of Oahu? This is extremely irresponsible to the Great Japanese Empire! The samurai of the Great Japanese Empire do not have a habit of clinging to life! They would rather die on the battlefield than make the despicable choice to retreat!” Nagasaemon was an extremely fanatical Japanese militarist. This fellow had once commanded a warship to shell Chinese defenders during the Battle of Shanghai and had earned the nickname “Wolf of the Ocean” in the navy for his belligerence.

At this moment, he still did not understand why Yamamoto had chosen to withdraw from Oahu, an action that seemed to cause a great loss of face. In his view, even if they had to fight to the last man there, they should not have made the despicable choice to fall back. It was precisely because Nagasaemon’s philosophy clashed with Yamamoto’s that Yamamoto had secretly instructed Admiral Kurita to transfer him to the 2nd Battleship Division, sending him far away on an unimportant mission to prevent him from ruining the bigger picture at a critical moment.

As the captain of a ship and the supreme commander of the entire detached squadron, when he complained about Marshal Yamamoto, most of his subordinates could only pretend not to hear. Everyone remained silent, letting General Nagasaemon curse his own supreme commander with a foul mouth. They not only had to stand, but they had to stand steady on the swaying bridge, which was a skill in itself.

To be honest, the towering central superstructure of Japanese warships seriously affected their appearance and even compromised their comfort. But stubborn Japanese naval designers and users, based on conclusions drawn from the ancient Russo-Japanese War, believed that the higher a warship’s command tower was built, the better.

World War II was an era of great technological development. Before this era arrived, everyone was in a budding period of independent exploration without experience. At that time, every country had its own unique insights summarized from warfare. For example, America’s bizarre tank destroyer theory, Germany’s strange high-speed bomber theory, and Britain’s stubborn adherence to biplanes.

Don’t think the Americans were so amazing and powerful. In fact, the wrong turns they took could blind anyone who worships American power. During World War II, the theory of the U.S. Armored Forces was as follows: tanks were for supporting infantry, while tank destroyers were for destroying tanks.

Thus, the standard operating procedure for American armored units was this: M4 tanks would advance bravely with the infantry. If they encountered enemy tank units, the M4 tank commander would call for the nearby M10 tank destroyers, which were responsible for support, to come and eliminate the troublesome enemy tanks. What the Americans encountered in actual combat was this: the M4 tanks would be beaten to a pulp by German tanks, and by the time the M10 tank destroyers arrived, the Germans had already cleaned up the battlefield, eaten a meal, and withdrawn.

And the lesson the Japanese Navy learned was that the higher the aiming equipment on a naval warship was installed, the better. This way, they could spot their enemies faster and provide more accurate firing parameters for gunnery duels. This theory sounded perfectly correct—if, of course, an invention like radar didn’t exist.

Don’t be fooled by the prominence of Japanese electronics companies like Panasonic and Sony today, which seem to be involved in all the world’s advanced electronic technologies. In 1938, the Japanese really didn’t have much advanced technology. They could keep up with world trends on conceptual items like aircraft carriers, but when it came down to details like radar, the gap immediately became apparent.

In 1934, before the war, Germany had purchased and applied for a series of technology patents and began to produce and improve the latest Plan Position Indicator (PPI) equipment. This device eventually allowed Germany to use planar scanning imaging for its radar in early 1937—what is commonly known as the circular scan that intuitively displays targets within a 360-degree range.

Meanwhile, America’s radar systems were still the old, primitive oscilloscopes. Only very experienced radar operators could find the required target echoes from the chaotic waveforms. Of course, even with this kind of radar, the U.S. Navy had managed to preserve its fleet in the waters near Oahu, forcing Yamamoto to ultimately return without success.

From a series of intelligence reports provided by the Germans, the Japanese military learned of the American lead in radar. But the current Japanese military was completely unable to replicate it. Due to their falling out with the Germans and the secrecy of the latest technology, Japan was unable to learn the world’s newest technologies from Germany. So, to this day, the Japanese Navy could only rely on the ancient method of “standing high to see far” to increase the aiming distance of its warships.

Of course, because Britain had its own unique technology in the magnetron, with British help, the American radar, despite using inscrutable cathode-ray tubes, had actually closed the gap with Germany in terms of detection accuracy and range.

But this did not mean the radar technology gap between Germany and America had narrowed. The reason was that weapons are meant to be used, not just for comparing data. American radar was inherently unreliable due to technical reasons and lacked stability in operation. One day it would be tuned just right, and the next day you’d turn it on and have no idea what state it would be in. In the eyes of American radar operators, radar was something that was determined not to be used by people.

The Japanese fleet advanced across the sea, its huge bow cutting through the water, leaving a massive wake. The large, round chrysanthemum crest on the bow glittered in the reflection of the sea and sunlight. Of course, by modern standards, installing a chrysanthemum on one’s face as a decoration feels a bit like low-class taste.

Nagasaemon was still venting his dissatisfaction with Yamamoto’s withdrawal, completely unaware that on his fleet’s course, a German U-boat that had never before appeared in the Pacific was staring intently at his warship through its periscope. Of course, if he had known, he wouldn’t be bothering with trivial matters like Yamamoto’s withdrawal from Oahu.

“Just like that Soviet battleship! Not a shred of anti-submarine sense!” Prien muttered to himself, leaning against the periscope and focusing on his prey. “Let it get closer! Let it get closer! Don’t rush! This is a battleship! If we sink it, we’ll all go back to Germany and have the Führer open the champagne for us!”

Published: 2025-09-11T02:03:41.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-24T16:36:24.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c618-138630624

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