The Rise Of A Billionaire 1943-Chapter 167 - 179: Sank

When the Shark fired torpedoes at the battleship Yamato, it was positioned right in the middle of the formation led by the Yamato.

Yes, it was a suicide position.

The cruiser Yahagi, and the destroyers Fuyutsuki, Suzutsuki, Yukikaze, Isokaze, Hamakaze, Kasumi, Hatsushimo, and Asashimo were all around her.

Didn’t they notice the Shark?

In the decades that followed, many naval historians debated this surprise attack, discussing this great miracle.

Many attributed it to chance—the bad weather created too much underwater noise, the Japanese Navy’s poor sonar equipment failed to pick up the Shark amid the cacophony, and of course, there was a bit of luck. If the Yamato hadn’t blundered right in front of the Shark, penetrating the escort screen would not have been easy.

Another reason was that the Shark used German-made G7e electric torpedoes, which, unlike conventional torpedoes, left almost no wake as they traveled. This meant that until the torpedoes were actually fired, no one in the Special Attack Fleet noticed the Shark’s presence.

But only the crew of the Shark knew that when they launched their attack, they did so with the resolve to die.

Even if it meant death, as long as they fired those torpedoes, it would be worth it.

Even if they didn’t score a direct hit—so what?

At the very least, they tried. They gave it their all. They risked their lives to launch torpedoes at the Yamato.

At 8:15 a.m. on April 7, Morita Masashi stood on the lookout tower, his eyes fixed intently on the sky for any sign of American planes. Suddenly, a deep and violent explosion startled him. At the same moment, he saw a massive column of water rise from the port side, soaring over a hundred meters high. Then, the Yamato, as immense as a mountain, shook violently.

"A mine!"

Almost instinctively, everyone assumed they had struck a naval mine.

Before Morita could figure out what was happening, a second explosion followed, and the towering spray even splashed onto the lookout tower. Some sailors on deck were thrown to the ground by the violent shock.

"A mine! It must be a mine!"

The panicked sailors shouted almost reflexively—after all, the Americans had laid numerous mines in the Bungo Channel.

The sailors on deck cried out, and the damage control teams immediately sprang into action.

Captain Itō Seiichi, his face tense, asked,

"Are we sure it’s a mine?"

"It should be..."

Before the staff officer could finish, a third explosion sounded.

After scoring hits in the first salvo, the Shark submarine launched a second attack, firing two more torpedoes, one of which struck home.

The heavy torpedo blasts tore open the Yamato’s hull at the waterline. Thousands of tons of seawater flooded into the lower compartments in an instant. Despite the damage control teams’ desperate efforts, it was already too late.

As the surging seawater poured in through three massive holes on the port side, the Yamato quickly began to list.

The officer in charge of dewatering called the bridge:

"Flooding has reached the maximum limit. To prevent further listing, we must flood the starboard engine room."

Captain Aruga Kōsaku immediately ordered counter-flooding of the starboard compartments to restore balance, reducing speed to 18 knots.

"A submarine! It must be an American submarine!"

It must be said, people are often trapped by fixed ways of thinking. Because so many ships had been sunk by American mines in the Bungo Channel, they stubbornly believed this was another mine.

Only after the third torpedo hit did they remember the Americans also had submarines.

By now, the Yamato’s port midsection and stern had been struck by three torpedoes, and the list had reached 16 to 18 degrees. With the starboard dewatering areas already full, they could only continue flooding the engine rooms, crew quarters, and boiler rooms.

"Where is the American submarine?"

After the Yamato was hit by a submarine attack, the entire escort fleet fell into chaos.

While they were using sonar to search for the submarine, at 9:15 a.m., the Shark, having already fired all four bow torpedoes, changed course deep underwater, bringing its stern to bear on the Yamato’s port side. Once again, they executed an almost perfect approach, surfaced for the attack, and fired two stern torpedoes.

After firing, Zou Tongjie shouted,

"Dive to 110 meters!"

The Shark’s maximum safe depth was only 100 meters—110 meters was already pushing the limit, but there was no time to worry about that now.

As they dove at full speed, the sonar operator heard two successive explosions—hits!

This time, they were lucky. Both torpedoes struck the Yamato’s port side. It was the most devastating blow. After being hit by five torpedoes in succession, the Yamato’s speed dropped to 7 knots, and the massive flooding sealed its fate.

Soon, an emergency call came from the steering compartment:

"There’s too much water here. We can’t steer anymore."

Then the voice from steering control was cut off.

"Commander..."

Captain Aruga Kōsaku looked at Vice Admiral Itō Seiichi with sorrowful eyes. His expression was solemn, his gaze unfocused.

Perhaps they had imagined that the Yamato was destined to sink, but in everyone’s mind, it would be after a fierce battle. They would use their 460mm guns to blast the American ships, and with their willpower, prove to the world the courage of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

But who could have imagined it would end like this—just like that, sunk!

Just like the Shinano, sunk by a submarine right after leaving port!

It was nothing short of a disgrace to the navy!

They hadn’t even had time to fire a single shot, hadn’t even entered the battle, and they were finished...

The world’s greatest battleship!

Sunk just like that—without firing a single shot!

Faced with such an outcome, Vice Admiral Itō Seiichi, the fleet commander, closed his eyes in pain. There was nothing more they could do.

"Bow to the north,"

Captain Aruga Kōsaku ordered. According to tradition, the dead should face north; Aruga wanted the dying Yamato to do the same. But the sailors in the emergency steering room had already drowned at their posts, and the warship began to slowly swing to port. The temporary infirmary at the bow had been destroyed. After taking five torpedo hits, the Yamato’s list exceeded eighteen degrees.

Soon, as the Yamato listed to thirty degrees, the executive officer, Nomura, called Captain Aruga.

"It’s almost over," he said.

"It is now time for all crew members to assemble on deck."

Then, Yuge used the voice tube to inform Ito that there was no longer any hope of correcting the ship’s list.

"Fleet Commander, your life is precious. Please leave the ship with the crew—I will stay behind alone."

After that, Yuge ordered all crew members to assemble on deck, then called Nomura, who was still on the second bridge.

"Executive Officer,"

Yuge Yukio said hoarsely,

"Leave the ship immediately and report the details of the battle to the Combined Fleet."

Nomura protested repeatedly, insisting on staying aboard, but Yuge ignored him.

"I will remain on the ship. You must return alive."

"Captain," Nomura persisted, "let me stay with you."

"Executive Officer, that’s an order!"

With that, he hung up the phone.

He then had a sailor tie him to the compass stand. Some sailors had already begun to tie themselves to the compass box on the bridge.

"What are you doing?" Yuge shouted angrily.

"You young men should jump overboard and swim to safety! The Empire of Japan still needs your service."

Ito also refused to leave the ship. He shook hands with Chief of Staff Morishita. His staff watched with mixed emotions as Ito balanced himself on the slanting deck and walked away. Ito opened the hatch to the spiral staircase and disappeared. When his aide moved to follow him, Morishita shouted:

"Idiot! The young must live on to serve the Emperor!"

At 9:25 a.m., the list increased rapidly. The battleship, once hailed as the most powerful in human history, finally capsized. The roar of seawater flooding in drowned out the voices of the sailors, drowning out their cries of "Banzai!"

Soon, the Yamato lay on her side, like a giant whale unable to move.

Bodies slid mercilessly into the sea, and the lights went out. Sailors struggled to climb the nearly vertical deck, sometimes slipping and falling to their deaths or into the sea. At the top, they clambered over the starboard rail, crowding onto the ship’s side.

Executive Officer Nomura felt himself sucked into the sea by a tremendous force. In the clear water, he saw sailors "flailing their arms and legs" in the whirlpool. Beneath his feet was a deep blue abyss. The light above his head gradually faded. Just as he thought he was about to die, he suddenly felt an inexplicable clarity of mind. As he sank deeper in pain, a bright red flash pierced the water. A series of shockwaves hammered him like battering rams. It truly felt like "the sky was collapsing and the earth was shattering"—the ammunition was exploding underwater, and Nomura was propelled to the surface. Fireballs rolled across the waves. Floating on his back, he thought, "Yamato is gone. The Imperial Navy is finished."

On the destroyer Yukikaze, Captain Terauchi Masamichi looked on in despair at the Yamato—whose name means "Japan"—as Japan rolled over and disappeared into the sea.

He signaled Captain Yoshida Masayoshi, the new senior officer aboard the destroyer Fuyuzuki, suggesting they continue with their mission.

The reply came:

"Rescue survivors first, then decide on our next move."

The Yukikaze’s torpedo officer wanted to lower a boat to rescue survivors, but Terauchi stopped him.

"This mission is different from the usual," he shouted.

"This is a special attack operation. Yamato has sunk, but we must press on."

He signaled Yoshida again, asking him to reconsider, then ordered the crew to rescue survivors—but only those still able to fight.

"Don’t bother with the wounded!"

At that moment, a large number of planes appeared overhead—American planes. They had gotten up early, only to arrive late; by the time they reached the scene, the Yamato had already sunk!

The American pilots saw the Yamato lying on its side in the sea like a dead whale and immediately radioed back.

"Damn it, who beat us to it?"

Marc Mitscher almost roared in frustration. A few hours earlier, after receiving intelligence that the Yamato had set out, Admiral Spruance, commander of the Fifth Fleet, had told him to let the enemy ships continue south and engage them with battleship guns. But Mitscher wanted to use this opportunity to prove once and for all that his pilots could sink the most powerful surface warship ever built. Although naval aviators had claimed to have sunk Musashi in the Philippines, it was entirely possible that a submarine had done it. The sudden appearance of Musashi’s sister ship, Yamato, was, in Mitscher’s view, "a golden opportunity to prove the superiority of aircraft—if any proof was needed."

But just as Mitscher finally secured the right to attack the Yamato, he never expected this would happen.

The ripe peach had been snatched away by someone else!

Who got there first?

It was the USS Shark!

However, the timing of the American air force’s arrival was perfect, because at that moment, Japanese warships were continuously dropping depth charges. Although the Yamato had sunk, the American aviators still attacked the Japanese ships, which also helped the Shark below.

After all, when the American planes arrived, the Shark was teetering on the brink under the relentless pounding of depth charges.

Below was an endless abyss; above, a dead end.

Sometimes, friendly forces really do come through, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Not just help—this was salvation!

Even though the officers and men aboard the Shark were prepared to die heroically, surviving was even better.

Because of the American air attack above...

Japanese warships no longer had the capacity to worry about the Shark submarine lurking below; all their efforts were focused on air defense.

Under the relentless waves of attacks by over a hundred American aircraft, one Japanese warship after another was hit.

Yet, the Shark did not seize the opportunity to slip away. Instead, it took advantage of the Japanese warships’ distraction to quickly reload its torpedoes. It took nearly an hour to complete the reloading process, and by then, the aerial assault on the surface was drawing to a close.

The cruiser Yahagi, having been hit multiple times, was sinking rapidly. The deck was already awash. After an hour-long battle by sea and air, the Japanese fleet was either fleeing or sinking—only the Yahagi stubbornly held on.

Suddenly, a massive column of water erupted off Yahagi’s starboard side. The already struggling cruiser sank swiftly into the sea like a lump of iron. In the skies above, American aviators watched this scene in astonishment.

Everyone had the same question in their hearts—who sank the Yahagi?

Similarly, people were still asking in bewilderment—who sank the Yamato?

"Where did that torpedo come from?"

For a moment, the radio waves were filled with questions.

Just then, a submarine suddenly surfaced in an emergency ascent, bursting through the waves almost explosively. Amidst the surf and gunfire, the submarine charged out of the sea without hesitation.

Where did this come from?

As everyone stared in shock at the mysterious submarine, a crew member burst out of the conning tower, holding a flag aloft.

Just like the legendary Italian submarines that would surface waving the tricolor after sinking an American warship, that flag fluttered atop the conning tower.

"Hey, you Japanese devils, see this? It was us! We sank the Yamato! We sank you!"

The sailors unfurled the flag toward the Japanese seamen sinking into the sea. With eyes full of tears, they shouted angrily:

"Look! This is the very guy you said would never be a match for you! It was us who sank your Yamato here!"

In that instant, the sea boiled with excitement, and so did the people. Aircraft roared overhead, dipping their wings as if saluting these heroes of the deep... In this moment, the honor belonged to them.

And it was at this moment that the souls of the warriors of the Battle of the Yalu River could finally rest. It was at this moment that the navy men who sacrificed themselves on the Yangtze could finally rest.

Yes, it was also at this moment that, from the Battle of the Yalu River to now, all those navy men could let go.

At that moment, the crew of the Shark wept. They laughed, smiling through their tears...