Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "The Drydock - Episode 240" video.

  1. Regarding Yamato's 5-inch secondary guns...bear in mind that the Japanese used a completely different gun on their battleships and cruisers than they did on destroyers. Destroyers carried the 12.7cm/50 3rd Year Type, which from the Ayanami-class onward were given high enough elevation to be nominally dual-purpose, but were really bad at it. Battleships and cruisers, on the other hand, used the 12.7cm/40 Type 89, which was designed as a pure AA gun. "Dual-purpose" capability for it was purely incidental, simply a result of 1.9kg of Shimose powder being adequate to damage unarmored surface targets too. Six twin turrets per side (incidentally, what the real Yamato ended up after her final refit, so very much doable if the 15.5cm triple turrets had never been part of the design) is therefore a pretty decent heavy AA battery. Not as good as the US battleships achieve with five twin turrets per side, because the 5"/38 is just plain better than the 12.7cm/40 (higher rate of fire, better velocity, better fire control system), but above average for the 1930s.
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