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Message: <blockquote data-quote="soberups" data-source="post: 2765974" data-attributes="member: 14668"><p>On this day...April 7th 1945, the Japanese super-battleship Yamato was sent on a last-ditch Kamikaze mission against the US invasion fleet off of Okinawa. Lacking air cover, and with only enough fuel for a one-way trip, the plan was for the Yamato to fight her way to the coast of Okinawa and beach herself to create an unsinkable gun platform that would fire on the US fleet until her ammunition was spent. She never made it; concentrated air attacks by over 300 US dive bombers and torpedo bombers sent her to the bottom long before she could bring her guns to bear on the US fleet. She was Japan's last remaining capital ship and her sinking left the once-mighty Imperial Japanese fleet reduced to a mere handful of destroyers with virtually no fuel available to operate them. The era of the battleship was over.</p></blockquote><p></p>