Space does not permit me to cover her entire history, but Yamato (like Bismarck) remains one of the best known battleships in naval history and certainly the largest of WW2. Her stats are impressive: 73,000 tons, 863 ft length, 128 ft beam, 34 ft draught, 9x 18" main guns supported by 12x 5", and 12x 4" + 25 AA guns, belt armor of 16", deck and turret armor from 9"-25", carried 5 aircraft, and 2500 crew at 27 knots!!! But in April 1945 the Yamato and her battlegroup of the cruiser Yahagi and 8 destroyers were engaged by aircraft twice. The first raid by 280 aircraft had sunk the Yahagi and destroyer Hamakaze. Yamato was hit by 2 bombs and a torpedo but was largely unscathed. The second attack by 100 aurcraft hours later claimed 3 more destroyers and Yamato took 9 torpedoes and 3 bomb hits. She began flooding with a list and then a fire spread up through her to the magazines and while rolling over blew up with a tremendous explosion taking 2498 lives. Only 10 of the attacking aircraft were shot down. Her sister ships Musahi and Shinano were also sunk. The former in Oct '44 by air attack and the latter (converted as the largest aircraft carrier of WW2) was sunk while on trials by a US sub. A larger 100,000 ton supercarrier to be named Hakuja was envisioned but never built...