Japanese battleship Musashi
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 Musashi leaving Brunei in October 1944 for the Battle of Leyte Gulf |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | June 1937 |
| Laid down: | March 29, 1938 |
| Launched: | November 1, 1940 |
| Commissioned: | August 5, 1942 |
| Fate: | Sunk October 24, 1944, Sibuyan Sea |
| Struck: | August 31, 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 68,200 tons |
| Length: | 263 m (863 ft) overall 256 m (840 ft) waterline |
| Beam: | 38.9 m (127.8 ft) |
| Draught: | 11 m (36 ft) at full load |
| Propulsion: | 12 Kanpon boilers, driving 4 steam turbines 150,000 shp (110 MW) four 3-bladed 6.0 m propellers |
| Speed: | 27.46 knots (50.86 km/h) |
| Range: | 7,200 nmi. at 16 kt (13,000 km at 30 km/h) |
| Complement: | 2,399 |
| Armor: | 650 mm on front of turrets 410 mm (16.1 in) side armor 200 mm (8 in) deck armor |
| Armament August 1942 (as built): |
9 × 460 mm (18.1 in) (3×3) 12 × 155 mm (6.1 in) (4×3) 12 × 127 mm (5 in) (6×2) 24 × 25 mm AA (8×3) 4 × 13 mm (2×2) |
| Armament October 1944 (as sunk): |
9 × 460 mm (18.1 in) (3×3) 6 × 155 mm (6.1 in) (2×3) 12 × 127 mm (5 in) (6×2) 130 × 25 mm AA (32×3, 34×1) 4 × 13 mm (2×2) |
| Aircraft: | 7, 2 catapults |
Musashi (武蔵), named after the ancient Japanese Musashi Province, was a battleship belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was the second and final ship of the Yamato class to be completed as a battleship. With her sister ship, Yamato, she was a member of the largest and most heavily armed and armored class of battleships ever constructed.
[edit] History
In June of 1937, executives from the Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard including Director Kensuke Watanabe and yard engineer Kumao Baba were ordered to begin preparations for construction and fitting out of one of the new series of battleships. Expansions of the Number 2 slipway had originally inspired naval executives to issue Nagasaki Shipyard the lucrative contract. Floating cranes of 150 and 350 metric tons capacity were built for heavy lifts. Built under the strictest of security, including the erection of large screens to hide the construction from the U.S. consulate across the bay, the battleship was launched November 1, 1940, and spent the better part of eighteen months fitting out. The completion date was revised to accommodate the changes requested by the Navy, including strengthening armor on the 15.5 cm turrets, and the installation of extra communications gear.
Commissioned on 5 August 1942, she proceeded to Truk Lagoon, where Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto made Musashi his flagship. After he was killed on 18 April 1943 (having been shot down by a special U.S. Army Air Forces operation) in the Solomons theater of operations, Musashi returned to Japan carrying his ashes. Musashi returned to Truk on 5 August 1943, and remained there until 10 February 1944. Her only activity during this time was a sortie toward the Marshall Islands, which resulted in no contact with American forces. On 29 March 1944, Musashi was hit by one torpedo from the submarine USS Tunny, and had to return to Japan for repairs and modifications to her anti-aircraft armament.
She formed part of Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita's Centre Force along with Yamato at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. During this battle on 24 October 1944, she was attacked by American carrier-based aircraft armed with bombs and torpedoes. After taking 17 bomb and 20 torpedo hits and 18 near misses, the ship capsized to port, and sank at 19:35hrs. on October 24, taking more than 1000 of her 2399 crew with her; 1376 of the crew were rescued by the destroyers Kiyoshimo and Shimakaze.
For more details on this class of ship, see the entry for Yamato.
[edit] References
- Akira Yoshimura, Battleship Musashi: The Making and Sinking of the World's Biggest Battleship, (Kodansha America, New York, 1991) (Orig. published in Japanese as Senkan Musashi (Shinchosh, Ltd., 1991)); The first half of the book describes the engineering and building of the ship and construction facilities, including the launching; the second half is dedicated to the final battle, an analysis of the battle damage, and its sinking. Includes drawings of internal arrangements of the ship.
- Siegfried Breyer, Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970 (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970, J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970). Contains various line drawings of the ship as designed and as built.
- Robert Gardiner, ed., Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1922 - 1946 (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1980)
- William H. Garzke, Jr., and Robert O. Dulin, Jr., Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battlehips in World War II (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1985)
[edit] External links
| Yamato-class battleship |
| Yamato | Musashi |
| Shinano-class aircraft carrier |
| Shinano |
List of ships of the Japanese Navy |
