Wreck of WW2 Japanese superbattleship Musashi found in dive

[CougarKing]

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, tweeted this with a photo of the Musashi's bow earlier this week:

Twitter

   

For those unaware, the Musashi was the sister ship of the Japanese superbattleship Yamato; these two battleships were the largest battleships ever built. They were even bigger than largest US battleships, the Iowa class, built in the same era.

The Musashi was sunk by bombs and torpedoes from dozens of US carrier aircraft during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944.

I suspect the rumours a few years ago of a Swiss firm wanting to raise the wreck, as mentioned in an older thread, were merely rumours.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I saw this elsewhere, looking forward to some excellent video at some point. I suspect she rolled, dumped her turrets, righted again and seems to have landed on her bottom which means a lot of the battle damage will be visible.

 

[Halifax Tar]

They were beautiful ships.  Its a good things those 18in guns never got the chance to do their intended task, engage the USN and RN in surface combat.  I'm not sure we would have fared well in a slugging match. 

And I don't have faith the RN learned much from their mistakes at Jutland in the way of ammunition and propellant storage.

 

[McG]

HMS Hood would appear to suggest that they did not.

 

[CougarKing]

They were beautiful ships.  Its a good things those 18in guns never got the chance to do their intended task, engage the USN and RN in surface combat.

Not the Musashi. But her sister ship Yamato certainly got a chance to fire her guns at smaller American warships during the Battle of Samar the day after Musashi was sunk.

But both ships were dinosaurs made obsolete by carrier warfare, since both ships were sunk by air attack within 5 months of each others' demise.

0558: Force A opens fire at escort carriers of "Taffy 3": USS ST. LO (CVE-63), WHITE PLAINS (CVE-66), KALININ BAY (CVE-68), FANSHAW BAY (CVE-70) (F), KITKUN BAY (CVE-71) and GAMBIER BAY (CVE-73). Carriers screened by destroyers USS HOEL (DD-533), JOHNSTON, (DD-557), HEERMANN (DD-532), destroyer escorts USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (DE-413), DENNIS (DE-405), RAYMOND (DE-341) and JOHN C. BUTLER (DE-339).

Both of YAMATO's forward turrets open fire at a distance of 20 miles. Of her six forward rifles only two are initially loaded with AP shells, the remainder with Type 3s. YAMATO's F1M2 "Pete" spotter plane confirms that the first salvo is a hit. The carrier starts to smoke. Three six-gun salvos are fired on the same target, then the fire is shifted to the next carrier. It is concealed immediately by a smoke screen made by the American destroyers.

0606: YAMATO continues on an easterly course, firing her 155-mm (6.1-inch) secondary guns.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Not the Musashi. But her sister ship Yamato certainly got a chance to fire her guns at smaller American warships during the Battle of Samar the day after Musashi was sunk.

But both ships were dinosaurs made obsolete by carrier warfare, since both ships were sunk by air attack within 5 months of each others' demise.

Point taken however they were intended to engage other battleships (Iowa Class for example) and never got that chance. 

I would argue the role of the battleship has never actually gone away.  And I would argue that the amount of damage it took to send these two to the bottom is more indicative of a lack of air cover and anti submarine capability than the demise of the class of ships as a whole.  Sadly these great ships are too expensive for today's tastes. 

 

[CougarKing]

One of the Musashi's junior gunnery officers comes forward; at least he got to see the ship one more time in very old age:

Inquirer (Philippine newspaper)

Ex-crew recognizes photos of sunken Japanese battleship

Associated Press 10:04 PM | Thursday, March 5th, 2015

TOKYO — A former crewmember on a Japanese battleship that sank during World War II said Thursday he recognized photos of wreckage discovered this week off the Philippines by a team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Shizuhiko Haraguchi served as a gunnery officer on the Musashi, one of the largest battleships in history, when it was being fitted in Japan before it departed for the Pacific in 1943.

He said he recognized underwater photos taken by Allen’s team of a large gun turret and a catapult system used to launch planes.

“I recognized that main turret, which I was assigned to,” Haraguchi, 93, said in a telephone interview from his home in Nagasaki in southern Japan where the ship was built, fitted and tested. “I felt very nostalgic when I saw that.”

(...SNIPPED)

 

[Halifax Tar]

One of the Musashi's junior gunnery officers comes forward; at least he got to see the ship one more time in very old age:

Inquirer (Philippine newspaper)

Very cool. 

 

[Privateer]

Live now (12 Mar 2015):  http://musashi.paulallen.com/

Live video feed:  "Paul G. Allen and his research team will broadcast a live-stream tour of the wreckage of the Japanese battleship Musashi, one of the most renowned and technologically advanced battleships in history. The event will begin at 9 a.m. PHT/10 a.m. JPT, Friday, March 13, 2015. (6 p.m. PDT Thursday, March 12)"