Operation Ten-Go (天号作戦 ten-gō sakusen) was a Japanese naval operation in the Pacific campaign of World War II.
Following the invasion of Okinawa on April 1 1945, the Japanese battleship Yamato and her escorts were sent to attack the US fleet supporting the US troops landing on the west of the island. Yamato was to beach herself between Hagushi and Yontan and fight as a shore battery until she was destroyed. Since this was from the start intended to be a suicide mission, the battleship was supposed to be given only enough fuel for a one-way trip to Okinawa. However, the crews at the fuel depot at Tokuyama defied orders and supplied the task force with much more.
On 6 April Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi , and eight destroyers left port at Tokuyama. They were sighted on 7 April as they exited the Inland Sea southwards. The U.S. Navy launched around 400 aircraft from eight carriers of Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58
(Hornet ,
Bennington,
Belleau Wood,
San Jacinto,
Essex,
Bunker Hill,
Hancock, and
Bataan),
and assembled a force of six battleships
(Massachusetts,
Indiana,
New Jersey,
South Dakota,
Wisconsin, and
Missouri),
supported by cruisers and destroyers to intercept the Japanese fleet if the air-strikes did not succeed.
The planes engaged the Japanese ships starting in the mid-afternoon. Yamato took up to twenty bomb and torpedo hits from the attacking planes before, at about 14:20, her magazines detonated. She capsized to port and sank, still some 200 km from Okinawa. Around 2,475 of her crew were lost and 269 survived. Of her escorts Yahagi and four destroyers
(Isokaze ,
Hamakaze ,
Asashimo , and
Kasumi )
were sunk and the rest were disabled and forced to return to Japan. US losses were ten aircraft and twelve aircrew.
Ten-Go was the last major Japanese naval operation of the war.
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