January 29, 1999 I don't usually make patrol reports, but I sank the Yamato last night, in a prolonged approach and attack. Despite complaints on the Silent Hunter web page that the Yamato and other big game are encountered repeatedly, this was the first time I had run into her in over two years of playing the game. So here is a report of how I sank her, as best as I can remember. The realism setting was 115%. I saved the game as I went along in case my machine crashed, but I did not at any time get killed and then restart. Ironically, in real life the sub I was captaining, Trutta (SS-421, a Tench class sub) nearly encountered the Yamato on April 7, 1945, according to the Subnet pages. Subject: U.S.S. Trutta (SS-421) encounters Yamato in the Yellow Sea. April 6, 1945. 1000. Contact report of battleship group near Tsingtao. Heading: 120, speed: 26 knots. Our current position is roughly 100 miles east and 50 miles south of hers. We set course north at flank speed to intercept the contact's projected track. Seas are moderate, skies partly cloudy. 20 Mark 18-2 torpedos remaining. 1200. On the projected track. Set course to 300. 1400. Radar contact at 35000 yards, bearing 320 degrees relative. This is considerably south of the contact's projected track. Set course to 170. Contact is now at bearing 90 degrees relative. 1400-1600. Several course changes to keep the contact at 80-90 degrees relative. Final course is 160 degrees. 1600. Visual sighting at roughly 20000 yards. Target course is 120. Lose contact after two minutes when target zigs away. Cannot ascertain course during that leg of the zig. Target appears to be Yamato class BB. 1600-1730. Repeatedly regained and lost visual contact. Target appears to be zigging on courses of 120 and 215 at 8-12 minute intervals. Distance is now 10000-15000 yards. Target group includes a Yamato class and an Ise class BB, two CL's, several DD's. Bearing is now 100-120 degrees relative. 1800. Set course to 190. Going in to intercept. Dive to periscope depth when contact distance is 8000 yards. Speed set to 2/3 after dive. Target bearing 150 degrees relative, course 215. There appears to be 6 DD's and 2 DE's. Yamato leading Ise. 1810. Target zigs to course 120. We are now considerably off its track. Cannot close distance submerged. Nearest destroyer is 4000 yards. Set speed to full, course to 160 in an attempt to intercept target on the next zig. 1820. Target zigs toward! Distance to Yamato's track is approximately 2000 yards. Two DD's and one CL between us and Yamato, two other DD's on collision course with us. Speed set to 1/3 as closest DD's are within 3000 yards. Left full rudder to bring forward tubes to bear on target. 1823. Fired all 6 forward torpedos at 3 second intervals, depth set to 26 feet to pass underneath DD's. Yamato at 2000 yards, bearing 350 relative. Gyro angles were between 0 and 20 degrees right. Left full rudder, speed set to standard, to bring aft tubes to bear. 1824. Fired all 4 aft torpedos at 3 second intervals. Gyro angles were large, roughly 140 degrees. Used manual offset of 2-4 degrees left since target should be slowed down and/or turning away by the time these torpedos hit. 1825. First torpedos hit. DD's pinging like mad. Planes set on dive, course set to 350, speed set to flank. Most sonar contacts between 90 and 180 degrees true. 1826. At depth 90 feet, begin to see a thermal layer. Run aground at 100 feet. Only 2-3 degrees of temperature change. Engines set to all stop. No pings have found us yet. Perhaps 2-3 degrees is enough to hide us. Sonar contacts all around. 1830. No such luck: First pings find us. Bracketed. Set depth to 90 feet, engines to standard, course to 180. 1831. Depth charges. All ahead flank at splash, then 1/3 after explosion. 1835. Pings find us again. Most sonar contacts to the north, two low sped contacts to the south: Yamato and Ise. 1837. Depth charges. All ahead flank. 1840. More depth charges. Force of explosions drives us into the sea floor at 95 feet. Damage reports: stern planes critical, sound heads critical, engine #3 critical, aft battery critical. Minor pressure hull damage throughout the boat. Speed set to 1/3. Returning to periscope depth. 1842. Periscope depth. 2 DD's ahead, remaining DD's and CL's astern. Single aft torpedo launched as a decoy. 1845. Decoy works: DD's and CL's hightailing it to the north. Going to radar depth. Single large contact bearing 30 degrees relative, 12000 yards. Group of contacts spread astern from 4000-8000 yards. 1850. Surface. All ahead flank. Course set to 210 to bring single large contact dead ahead. 1855. Two DD's chasing, one within sight at 3500 yards. Open fire with deck gun. Maximum speed without engine #3 is 11-12 knots. 1900. Second DD now in sight. First DD closed to 3000 yards but damage from deck gun drops its speed to 9 knots. Open fire on second DD. 1905. Second DD's speed drops to 9 knots. Neither DD visible. Distance to single large contact has closed to 10000 yards. 1940. Distance to contact is 5000 yards. Still not visible. 1945. Contact visible--it's the Yamato. Open fire with deck guns. Distance is 4500 yards. Her speed is 9 knots, heading 190. Would try an end-around and then submerge ahead for a torpedo attack, but afraid she will make repairs and get away from us. 2000. Yamato slowly turning to port. Reduce speed to standard to maintain distance so that Yamato doesn't fire her guns at us, and begin slowly turning to port to keep our profile small. Her speed is now 8 knots. 2010. Target destroyed, after roughly 50 rounds of ammo.