Japanese battleship Musashi

Type

Battleship

Period

20th Century

Nation

Japan

Overview: Musashi was one of two completed Yamato-class battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and along with her sister ship Yamato she belonged to the heaviest and most powerfully armed class of battleships ever constructed. She is a favorite modeling subject because of her enormous scale and the dramatic story of her final battle. Specifications: The Yamato-class ships displaced nearly 72,000 long tons fully loaded and carried nine 460mm (18.1 in) main guns, the largest naval artillery ever fitted to a warship, supplemented by four triple 155mm secondary turrets originally used on Mogami-class cruisers. She also carried six to seven floatplanes for reconnaissance, and her anti-aircraft battery was substantially increased later in the war after she returned to Japan for repairs. Service History: Commissioned in mid-1942, Musashi was modified to serve as flagship of the Combined Fleet and spent her first months working up before transferring to Truk in early 1943, from where she sortied several times in unsuccessful searches for American forces. In 1944 she was used to ferry troops and equipment between Japan and occupied islands, was torpedoed by a US submarine and repaired, and was present but not engaged at the Battle of the Philippine Sea. She was sunk on 24 October 1944 during the Battle of Sibuyan Sea (part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf) after being struck by numerous US carrier aircraft bombs and torpedoes. Notable Facts: Her wreck was located in March 2015 by a team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen aboard the research yacht M/Y Octopus, resting roughly a kilometer deep in the Sibuyan Sea off the Philippines, bringing closure after decades of uncertainty about her final resting place. Her captain, Toshihira Inoguchi, chose to go down with the ship, and roughly half of the 2,399-man crew were lost in the sinking.