The Yamato-class battleships (大和型戦艦, Yamato-gata senkan) were two battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Yamato and Musashi, laid down leading up to World War II and completed as designed. A third hull, laid down in 1940, was converted to an aircraft carrier, Shinano, during construction.
Displacing nearly 72,000 long tons (73,000 t) at full load, the completed battleships were the heaviest ever constructed in the world. The class carried the largest naval artillery ever fitted to a warship, nine 460 mm (18.1 in) naval guns, each capable of firing 1,460 kg (3,220 lb) shells over 42 km (26 mi).
Due to the threat of U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers, both Yamato and Musashi spent the majority of their careers in naval bases at Brunei, Truk, and Kure—deploying on several occasions in response to U.S. raids on Japanese bases.
All three ships were sunk by the U.S. Navy; Musashi by air strikes while participating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, the Shinano torpedoed by Archerfish while under way from Yokosuka to Kure for fitting out in November 1944, and the Yamato by air strikes while en route from Japan to Okinawa as part of Operation Ten-Go in April 1945.
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