Quote:
Originally Posted by xerxes
just curious .... When did the existance of Yamato and Musashi became known to the Americans?
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American naval intelligence had been aware only of 2 battleships being built and launched at Kure and Nagasaki for some time (the incredibly draconian security measures at Nagasaki were a pretty big clue that
something major was being built there). Their actual details were completely unknown.
The first foreigner to actually see a Yamato-class battleship was Lieutenant Commander Eugene B. McKinney, CO of USS
Skate when he torpedoed Yamato herself on December 25 1943.
Actual details about the ship were only estimates (ranging from pretty good to pretty lousy) until after the war.
Japanese security on the Yamatos was nearly perfect...which would have been decisive during World War I.