The Japanese Battleship Musashi

Musashi battleship was the second ship of the Yamato class of Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War. She and her sister, Yamato, were the heaviest and most powerful battleships ever constructed, displacing 72800 tons at full load and armed with nine 46-cm Type 94 main guns. Musashi was commissioned in August 1942 and assigned to the 1st Battleship Division. In early 1943 the ship was transferred to Truk, which was the Empire of Japan’s main base in the South Pacific. During this year she sortied several times with the fleet searching for American forces, without success. In 1944 she was used to transfer forces and equipment between Japan and various occupied islands. In early 1944 she was damaged by an American submarine attack and was forced to return to Japan for repairs. On this occasion she was strongly enhanced with antiaircraft armament. She was present during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June, but she didn’t engage in combat with the American forces. On 24 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, after several hours of fighting, Musashi was sunk by a large number of torpedoes and bombs fired from American carrier-based aircraft. The wreck was located in March 2015 by the team of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, at a depth of about 1350 meters (4430 feet).