For many years, the U.S. Navy has been the most important unit of the United States with the world’s largest fleet. When all American naval officers and soldiers saw the old Japanese naval battle flag, which had been displayed in the Annapolis Naval Academy, which was already outdated, they would rise with a strong heart of gratitude. One of the main culprits of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor!
The battleship Nagato once represented the highest shipbuilding level in Japan and even Asia.
The Pearl Harbor incident was regarded as the worst failure in the history of the U.S. Navy and was regarded as a national humiliation by the U.S. Why did the U.S. Navy be so? Is uncharacteristically grateful to one of the culprits? The story begins in the 1920s, when the newly emerged Japan tried its best to develop a powerful fleet to counter the United States. One of its typical representatives is the Nagato-class battleship. The ship’s eight main guns have a caliber of up to 410 mm, creating a world precedent. Compared with the British and American contemporaries, the Nagato-class speed can reach 26.5 knots, which has advantages in maneuverability. After refitting in the 1930s, the armor thickness of the front of the turret and the ammunition depot reached 457 mm and 500 mm, respectively! And with the new Type 91 armor-piercing projectile, the firepower of the Nagato class has also been greatly improved. Before World War II, the Nagato and Mutsu, the two British Nelson-class battleships and the three Colorado-class battleships of the United States were known as the world’s seven giants of the navy at that time, and the Nagato has been the flagship of the Japanese combined fleet since it entered service in 1920. It was not until 1941 that the Yamato entered service. But unlike Yamato, which has always been kept secret and mysterious, Nagato has been regarded as a national idol by Japan for many years and has been extremely popular.
Nagato suffered air raids in the latter part of World War II, and was eventually captured by the U.S. Army.
Before the Pacific War, the commander of the Japanese Joint Fleet Fifty-Six Yamamoto had been in the command room of the Nagato. Planning an attack on the US military base Pearl Harbor, and officially issued the order to attack Pearl Harbor here. When the Japanese aircraft sent out a radio signal for a successful raid from Hawaii, thousands of miles away, the Nagato received this information directly and passed it on to the Japanese base camp. From this perspective, the Nagato was naturally the culprit of the Pearl Harbor incident and was naturally hated by the US military. However, because Japan started the Pacific War with its carrier-based aircraft, not only did the U.S. Navy immediately wake up and transform, but also made the main guns of battleships such as the Nagato class and Yamato class basically useless, so that these battleships Stationed in the rear for a long time, was satirized as a fleet stationed on the island. It was not until 1944 that the ship had the first opportunity to fire its main guns in the Battle of Wright Bay, but it had only a few records. In 1945, the Yamato was sunk by a US carrier-based aircraft during a special attack, but the Nagato escaped death due to lack of fuel. However, the subsequent bombing of a large number of carrier-based aircraft by the U.S. Army brought bad luck to all remaining Japanese ships, including the Nagato. On July 18, the Nagato was the most obvious target in the Seto Inland Sea. The nets prevented him from being sunk by air-dropped torpedoes, but several bombs by the US army killed his captain.
After the first atomic bomb was air-blasted, the Nagato was the largest target in the shooting range. The damage was slight.
However, the damage of the Nagato was relatively limited, and the combat power was not greatly affected. Even on the eve of Japan's surrender, it almost attacked again because of a non-existent enemy situation. The Second World War ended soon after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by the US atomic bomb. The Nagato ushered in the battleship Missouri and many other US ships into Tokyo Bay during the standoff, and witnessed the Japanese surrender ceremony. Soon after, the Nagato became a huge trophy of the US military. After being received, his battle flag was also captured by the US army and sent to the museum. At the same time, Colonel Frings of the US Army became the new captain after the surrender of the Nagato. It was only half a year later that he was ordered to drive the ship to Bikini Atoll as a target for nuclear testing at the crossroads. At this time, all the main turrets of the Nagato were still intact. Although the air attack caused 2,000 tons of water, it did not affect its voyage from Japan to Bikini Atoll. According to records, Nagato used 4 boilers and two outer propellers at this time, and the maximum speed was only 10 knots. Before the first air-explosive atomic bomb was dropped on July 1, 1946, the U.S. military reported that its other six boilers were out of operation only because of long-term lack of maintenance rather than damage. At this time, Bikini Atoll was home to many retired U.S. warships, including the Nagato, the Japanese light cruiser Shuni, and the German heavy cruiser Prince Eugen.No one would have thought that the enemies on the battlefield not long ago would face the terrorist power of the atomic bomb together.
After being baptized by two atomic bombs and large mines, the Nagato has almost no scars on the surface.
The nuclear test at the code-named crossroads represents the future military battle of the US military. : As atomic bombs and strategic bombers have made the most of the show in the war, some senior officials believe that the large fleet is vulnerable to an atomic bomb and can be completely abolished. In the future, the US Navy can be downsized on a large scale to retain only submarines and light ships. This view was naturally angrily refuted by the U.S. Navy generals, who claimed that nuclear weapons are not omnipotent and warships will not be vulnerable to the shock waves of nuclear bombs. The dispute between the two sides has continued and eventually led to the decision of the U.S. military to collect retired ships to test their survivability during atomic bombs and underwater explosions. On the other hand, the U.S. Navy did not forget the pain of Pearl Harbor at this time and naturally hoped to destroy the Nagato. Prime culprit. In the complex and contradictory ideas of both parties, the test finally started at 9 am on July 1, 1946. An atomic bomb with an equivalent of more than 20,000 tons of TNT detonated 160 meters above the target. The spherical shock wave was 5 kilometers per second. The speed quickly jumped around. Originally, the US military placed the Nagato in the center of the test area, because supporters of the omnipotence theory and representatives of the naval fleet hope to completely destroy it. However, after the atomic bomb fell 1400 meters to the left and rear of the Nagato and exploded in the air, the inspectors found that the damage to the Nagato was very slight. Only some of the valves were leaked. The main rangefinder fell. There was almost no damage to the main building. Its turret The internal parts are damaged. What is even more difficult to understand is that the building boilers of the U.S. warships, including the USS Nevada battleship, have all fallen or malfunctioned, and the four boilers that were previously active on the Nagato had no damage! Even after the US military in protective clothing boarded the Nagato again to turn on its No. 7 boiler, it still worked for 2 days until it was manually shut down! At this time, even the US warship designers proposed to learn from the power system structure of the Nagato and use it for the design of future new warships. The Japanese warship unexpectedly became the target of the US warship when it was a target after the defeat, and only Japan could design it. The teacher has mixed flavors.
In recent years, an underwater scientific expedition team took a close-up shot of the Nagato propeller
Because the damage to the ship by the air blast was far less than expected, the US military launched follow-up tests as scheduled to ensure The Nagato sank, and the US military also planted large mines under its ship. In the early morning of July 25, an atomic bomb of the same equivalent detonated 30 meters underwater. The atomic bomb detonated underwater would quickly create an underwater shock wave with huge energy, which was far more destructive than an air explosion. The burst point is only 800 meters. Millions of tons of seawater rushed towards the Nagato and other American warships at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour. Soon after, the American battleship Arkansas and the aircraft carrier Saratoga sank within a few hours. However, after the mushroom cloud and huge waves dissipated, the image of Nagato's reappearance was once again shocking. Except for the two-degree tilt due to shock waves and mines, its turrets and buildings were still almost intact and there was still no sign of sinking! It is said that after the news came back to Japan, some former Japanese military officers claimed that two atomic bombs could destroy the two cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but could not sink the Nagato. This is because the souls of countless war dead in the past desperately dragged the Nagato. Its sinking confuses many Japanese people for a while, causing them to cry in the direction of the distant bikini. Later, a Japanese shipbuilding engineer commented that a Japanese freighter had a fracture accident due to unqualified manufacturing: The quality of Japanese shipbuilding today is as different as that of naval ships such as the Nagato. The U.S. military also changed its attitude towards the Nagato. Supporters of its fleet secretly even prayed that the Nagato would not sink. They knew very well that if the former enemy finally survived two atomic bomb baptisms, it would completely prove that the large warship was in the nuclear age. The vitality of the ship, then the large fleet that I am proud of will also be maintained, and subsequent ship manufacturing will not encounter obstacles.
The Japanese military flag seized by the US military from the Nagato has been displayed in the museum.
At this time, the Nagato has been washed away by a large amount of seawater contaminated with nuclear dust, and the radiation index is amazingly high. Anyone who approaches is very likely to die, so the plan of the US Navy to tow it for repairs or scuttle it on its own cannot be realized, and the Nagato can only be resigned. In the next three days, the water intake of the Nagato was still verySlowly, it didn't accelerate until the 29th. When the sun rose on the 30th, people discovered that the Nagato had quietly sank at some point in the previous night. An American military historian who was proficient in Japanese culture later praised this: The extremely tenacious Nagato is like a samurai quietly killing himself at a moment when no one knows, this is the immortality realized by glorious death. Today, only the tail of the wreck of the Nagato is broken. Although the entire hull is sinking downwards, the bridge where Yamamoto 56 planned to attack Pearl Harbor is still intact, a silent irony to the US military. However, it is precisely because of the vitality of the Nagato in the two atomic bomb tests that the United States' own large fleet can continue to gain attention and maintain its scale to this day. So to this day, many generals of the US Navy regard the former enemy of the Nagato as a benefactor to avoid losing their jobs.
