Herbert Houck, 86; Ace Helped Sink Yamato

Herbert Houck, a Navy pilot who led the final assault that sank Japan’s behemoth battleship Yamato in the World War II struggle for Okinawa, has died. He was 86.

Houck, an ace who shot down six Japanese planes and earned three Navy crosses, died Feb. 24 in Cape Coral, Fla. The cause of death was not announced.

The Yamato was one of only two 72,000-ton battleships and carried the largest guns ever sent to sea--nine of them, each of which could hurl 3,200-pound armor-piercing shells.

Once American troops began landing on Okinawa in April 1945, the Yamato, along with an accompanying cruiser and eight destroyers, was sent to thwart the invasion. Its mission was regarded as a kamikaze effort, with only enough fuel to get there. A 1954 book later quoted its captain as saying, “What a glorious way to die! The last banzai!”

But Lt. Cmdr. Houck, as head of 43 fighter, dive and torpedo bomber planes flying off the aircraft carrier Yorktown the afternoon of April 7, 1945, turned the glory to the American side.

Houck later wrote that his group’s primary target was the escort ships. But seeing the Yamato listing at 20 degrees as a result of bombing by other U.S. fighter planes, he gave the order to send some of his torpedo bombers toward the Yamato.

Commissioned shortly after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese juggernaut had its armor increased during the war and participated in both the Battle of the Philippine Sea and Leyte.

“I approved” the attack on the Yamato, he said, “providing the torpedo depth was changed from 10 feet to 20 feet. That done, the torpedo would hit below the thicker armor plate. I saw the runs and figured they got at least five hits. With the 20-degree listing, the torpedoes exploded right into the belly of the ship. A couple minutes later, the Yamato rolled over and blew up.”

Only about 300 sailors were rescued, and nearly 2,500 officers and crew died, mostly in the explosion. Destroying the Yamato effectively crippled the Japanese navy.

“The explosion was horrendous,” Houck wrote, “sending a huge smoke-and-fire ball up to my flying altitude of 1,000 feet.”

Long after the war, the Japanese remained fascinated by the ship and in 1985 located the wreckage at a depth of 1,100 feet.

Houck, from Cromwell, Minn., attended the University of Minnesota for three years before joining the Navy in 1936.

He became known for leading carrier-based bomber flights during the war, including flying in the first wave of a mass strike on Tokyo in 1945. His squadron shot down 120 enemy planes in a nine-month tour of duty, believed to be a record for a carrier-based squadron at the time.

The Navy flier was promoted to captain in 1956 and appointed commander of the aircraft carrier Shangri-La in 1960. He retired in 1968.

Survivors include his wife, Jeannette; a son, Robert; two daughters, Mary Tatman and Susan Houck; one sister; and five grandchildren.