So could someone explain to me this particular pairing? Was there some historical basis or was it done just because they thought they looked good together?
Battle of Surigao strait, Yamashiro sunk covering for Shigure's retreat. Then Shigure's 2nd remodel gave her hair ornament that looks very similar to Yamashiro's
So could someone explain to me this particular pairing? Was there some historical basis or was it done just because they thought they looked good together?
Yamashiro covered Shigure's escape from the ill-fated Surigao Strait Battle.
So could someone explain to me this particular pairing? Was there some historical basis or was it done just because they thought they looked good together?
Well there is, but it is only Ryuuhou and Shigure.
Yamashiro covered Shigure's escape from the ill-fated Surigao Strait Battle.
Correction: Yamashiro was shelled to incapacitation, and Shigure barely managed to escape, largely because the American battleships didn't follow her. There was no heroic last stand. New advanced radar-guided fire control systems meant that the Americans could fire upon the Japanese long before the Japanese could even see their targets. From the Japanese perspective, shells just started falling, and everyone died. Shigure, being a destroyer, and hence, a smaller, less valuable and harder to hit target, simply limped away by virtue of taking only one hit.
... and Shigure was sunk by a submarine not long afterwards, anyway. (But only 37 of her crew died from that, so there's something positive, there. Fusou and Yamashiro went up in flames, with virtually everyone onboard dying. (only around a dozen from either battleship survived.) This was helped by the fact that badly-refined Japanese fuel set the battleships ablaze when shelled, and that they went down so fast, plus the destroyers that rescued their crews also were shelled to oblivion, further picking off survivors.)
Correction: Yamashiro was shelled to incapacitation, and Shigure barely managed to escape, largely because the American battleships didn't follow her. There was no heroic last stand. New advanced radar-guided fire control systems meant that the Americans could fire upon the Japanese long before the Japanese could even see their targets. From the Japanese perspective, shells just started falling, and everyone died. Shigure, being a destroyer, and hence, a smaller, less valuable and harder to hit target, simply limped away by virtue of taking only one hit.
Yamashiro was shelled by angry USN battleships (angry because of Pearl Harbor except for Mississippi), 3 of the 6 battleships present in the engagement were equipped with Mark-8 Fire Control System (FCS) while the rest were equipped with the Mark-3 FCS. The engagement began at 03:53 and lasted for more than 20 minutes. West Virginia, Tennessee and California fired the most shells, Maryland and Mississippi also participated in the action (Mississippi fired the final salvo against Yamashiro, this makes her the last battleship that fired against a battleship), while Pennsylvania failed to contribute. The USN battleships fired a total of 285 16-inch shells out of 1,637 AP shells they carried at the approaching IJN force, Shigure was in front of the formation which made her able to react quickly as the USN battleships commenced firing, the USN battleships prioritized larger targets making Yamashiro mostly suffered the punishment (Yamashiro was in front of Mogami when the firing commenced, Shigure was struck by 1 shell and many near misses, Mogami was struck by 8 shells). For more than 20 minutes of gunfire, Admiral Oldendorf ordered ceasefire since USS Albert W. Grant DD-649 was caught in the middle of the exchange of fire, this gives chance for the three to retreat, despite the damage Yamashiro sustained, she was able to turn 90 degrees and headed south at 15 knots, 2 minutes later Yamashiro was hit by 2 torpedoes from USS Newcomb DD-586 which exploded, and another 8 minutes later, Yamashiro sunk. Mogami was able to fire her torpedoes which disorientated the battleship formation, this gives another chance for the two to escape, the battleships resumed firing but they later notice that there were no enemies to be sighted.
After the engagement, Mogami sustained more punishments, she collided with Nachi, she was under attacked by cruisers, PT-boats and then aircraft until she was scuttled by Akebono.
Fusou and Yamashiro went up in flames, with virtually everyone onboard dying. (only around a dozen from either battleship survived.) This was helped by the fact that badly-refined Japanese fuel set the battleships ablaze when shelled, and that they went down so fast, plus the destroyers that rescued their crews also were shelled to oblivion, further picking off survivors.)
Fusou already sunk before the battleship engagement commenced, she was hit by many torpedoes from the USN destroyers which set her on fire, exploded and sunk afterwards, most of her crew that were floating on water were engulf by the flames, 10 of her crew survived. On Yamashiro's case, USS Claxton DD-571 attempted to rescue 150 sailor from Yamashiro that were floating on waters but still they refused, in the end the destroyer only rescued 3 survivors with another 7 of her crew survived.
