Musashi

1944

Sibuyan Sea, nineteen torpedoes, Kurita's flagship Location: Sibuyan Sea, Philippines · Coordinates: 12.83°N 122.37°E · Casualties: ~1,023 · Survivors: 1,376 · Depth: 1,000 m · Cause: aerial attack — Attacked repeatedly by American carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 at the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 24 October 1944 while advancing through the Sibuyan Sea. Struck by 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs over approximately six hours. Capsized at 19:35. · Fate: located 2015 · Paul Allen · Type: battleship · Yamato class · Tonnage: 72,800 tons · Crew: 2399 · Flag: Empire of Japan · Launched: 1940 Second and last Yamato-class battleship, flagship of the 2nd Fleet under Admiral Takeo Kurita. Attacked repeatedly by American carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 at the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 24 October 1944 as she advanced through the Sibuyan Sea. Absorbed 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs before capsizing. ~1,023 dead; her loss ended the credible Japanese surface threat in the Pacific. Found in 2015 by Paul Allen at 1,000 metres. The Vessel The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Musashi was the second of the three Yamato-class battleships, the largest battleships ever built. She was laid down at the Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard on 29 March 1938 and commissioned on 5 August 1942. She was 263 metres long, 72,800 tons at full load, armed with nine 46-cm (18.1-inch) guns in three triple turrets, and carried a crew of approximately 2,400. Like her sister Yamato, she was the product of Japanese naval doctrine of the 1930s that had favoured the construction of a small number of overwhelmingly powerful battleships as the core of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her commissioning came nine months after Pearl Harbor, in the war that her class had been designed to fight. The strategic shift from battleship-centred to carrier-centred naval warfare that had been demonstrated by the Pearl Harbor attack (which Musashi's air-group equivalent had conducted) had arrived before Musashi reached operational service. She was, from her first day in commission, a ship whose primary strategic role had already been overtaken by a different weapons system. She served through 1942-1944 in a training and flagship role, principally at Truk and in the Inland Sea, without engaging Allied forces directly. Her modernised anti-aircraft armament (by late 1944, 24 twin 127-mm guns plus 150 25-mm triple mountings) represented the Imperial Japanese Navy's best attempt to protect a Yamato-class ship against modern carrier aircraft attack. It would prove ins The Disaster The first wave of American attacks at 10:26 on 24 October 1944 struck Musashi with one bomb and one torpedo. The second wave at 12:07 delivered three more torpedoes. The third at 13:31 delivered four torpedoes and four bombs. The fourth at 14:50 delivered four torpedoes and four bombs. The fifth at 15:29 delivered three torpedoes and two bombs. The final wave at 16:48 delivered four torpedoes and four bombs. Musashi absorbed 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs over approximately six hours. Her design had been calculated to survive 15 torpedo hits before being critically damaged; by the fourth attack wave she had already exceeded this design limit. Her progressive flooding caused her to develop a 15-degree list to port and to lose speed progressively through the afternoon: from 27 knots at the start of the attacks to 12 knots by 14:00, to 6 knots by 16:00, and to 3 knots by 17:00. Her commanding officer, Rear-Admiral Toshihira Inoguchi, directed damage control efforts that succeeded in keeping the ship afloat far longer than could reasonably have been expected. Her anti-aircraft gunners shot down 18 American aircraft during the six-hour engagement. However, by 17:30 on 24 October her steering had failed, her forward guns were inoperable, and her list had increased to 20 degrees. At 17:30 Inoguchi ordered the ship's company to abandon. Musashi capsized and sank at 19:36 on 24 October 1944 at approximately 13°07′N 122°32′E in approximately 1,000 metres of water. Inoguchi remained aboard;