In 1944—following extensive anti-aircraft and secondary battery upgrades—"Yamato" joined the Second Fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, serving as an escort to a Japanese Carrier Division. In October 1944, as part of Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force for the Battle of Leyte Gulf, she used her naval artillery against an enemy vessel for the only time, helping sink the American escort carrier and the destroyer before she was forced away by torpedoes from , which put her out of combat. Lightly damaged at Kure in March 1945, the ship was then rearmed in preparation for operations. "Yamato" was deliberately expended in a suicide mission as part of Operation Ten-Go,