During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Yamato became Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's flagship of Center Force once his former, IJN Atago, was sunk in an attack by USS Darter and USS Dace. Yamato Survived the air assault in the Sibuyan Sea while her sister was destroyed, only taking moderate damage and stabilized by damage control. I'm assuming that everyone knows of her flop failure in the Battle off Samar so I will not devulge into that. Her Decks during the battle were coated with a black camo paint that was comprised mainly of soot from her own engines, and had to be reapplied several times during the voyage to the Philippines. As splinter protection, rolled up mattresses bordered the open 25mm positions on her superstructure.