Yamato was a Japanese battleship laid under the keel in 1937, launched in August 1940, and commissioned in the Imperial Japanese Navy in December 1941. The total length of the ship was 263 meters, width 38.9 meters, and a full displacement of 65,000 tons. The maximum speed of battleship Yamato was around 27-28 knots. The main armament at the time of the launch was 9 460 mm guns in three turrets of three guns each, and the secondary armament was mainly 12 152 mm guns.
Yamato was the first battleship of the type with the same name - ie Yamato. The genesis of this type of battleships dates back to the early 1930s, when the command of the Japanese Navy, hoping for the Washington Treaty to expire soon (from 1922) and preparing for the war in the Pacific, decided to create the most powerful and best battleship in history, which would outclass their counterparts in the US Navy or Royal Navy, and keep its construction completely secret. As a result, when it entered service in 1941, Yamato was the most powerful battleship (the 460 mm cannon had a shot range of 42,000 meters!) And was the best armored ship of this type in the world! So the assumptions of the Imperial Navy were fully realized! Yamato became the flagship of the entire Japanese Navy in 1942. It was from his deck that Isoroku Yamamoto commanded the defeat for Japan at the Battle of Midway (June 1942). Yamato spent the years 1943-1944 in the Japanese mother waters, taking a limited part in the fighting in the Pacific. In June 1944 he took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, but his role in it was marginal. He also fought in the Battle of Leyte in October 1944. Yamato's last combat mission was his suicide voyage against the American forces landing in Okinawa (Operation Ten-Go) - after being hit with at least 11 torpedoes and 8 bombs, this largest battleship in history sank on April 7, 1945.
The Mitsubishi A6M Reisen (also known as Zero or Zeke) is a Japanese single-engine, full-metal low-wing fighter aircraft from the Second World War. The flight of the prototype took place on April 1, 1939, and it was put into service in the summer of 1940. The first prototypes were powered by a Mitsubishi Zuisei 13 engine, but from the A6M2 Model 11 onwards, the Nakajima NK1B Sakae 12 engine with 950 HP was used, which made the aircraft one of the best fighters early war period. New versions were created just before and during the war. One of the most famous was the A6M2 Model 21, a special version with folding wings designed for aircraft carriers, prepared at the beginning of the Pacific War, which became the basic Japanese on-board fighter. The next versions are A6M3 and A6M5, each of which had several versions. The first one used the 1130 HP Nakajima Sakae 21 engine with a compressor, which, however, meant an increase in weight and a decrease in range and maneuverability. Attempts were made to solve this problem in the A6M5 version by changing the exhaust system, changing the shape of the wings and resigning from folding them, which increased the top speed. The flight of this version took place in 1943 and was in production until the end of the war. It is worth noting that one of the most widely produced versions of the A6M5 was the A6M5C Model 52C «Hei» aircraft, of which nearly 5,000 were produced. "Zero" planes took part in the entire war in the Pacific, serving primarily as deck fighters, but also to a large extent as Army fighters. The "father" of this famous aircraft was the engineer Jiro Horikoshi, who relied on the experience gained from working on the M5A aircraft. He managed to develop a very maneuverable plane, with excellent aerodynamic properties, perfect for combat and with a large range. However, this was achieved at the expense of armor and the lack of self-sealing fuel tanks. What's more, due to the lack of aircraft engines with a power comparable to American machines, every year of the war, "Zero" from the "supercar", from 1943, evolved towards the weaker rival P-51, P-47 or F-4 or F- 6. It also turned out to be a machine vulnerable to damage and very vulnerable to fire. However, this does not change the fact that the Allies, until 1943, did not have an aircraft that would be able to compete with the A6M Zero. Technical data (A6M2 model 21 version): length: 9.06m, wingspan: 12m, height: 3.05m, maximum speed: 533km / h, rate of climb: 15.7m / s, maximum range: 3105km, maximum ceiling 10000m , armament: fixed - 2 20mm Type 99-1 cannons and 2 7.7mm Type 97 machine guns, suspended - up to 250 kg of bombs.