The name of the largest
battleship ever built.
Commissioned in December, 1941, just days after the start of the Pacific War the Yamato was a 65,000 ton behemoth that sported nine 18.1-inch guns as her main armament. As the flagship of the Japanese Pacific Fleet throughout World War II, the Yamato served as a mobile command center, and did not see significant action until the battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, when she suffered light damage. The Yamato met her inglorious end in 1945 when she was ordered to take part in a kamikaze mission to defend Okinawa. This bizarre plan called for the ship to beach herself to serve as a stationary gun platform against the impending American attack. Yamato was still 200 miles north of Okinawa when she was discovered by the Americans and sunk by an overwhelming force of carrier-based aircraft on April 7, 1945.