When America Unleashed Hell to Sink this WW2 Ship



In the Sibuyan Sea, Musashi, one of the two heaviest and largest armed battleships ever assembled, faced the onslaught of American air power. The sky and sea had turned into a battleground as US aircraft descended upon the defiant giant to send her to the depths.

Four waves of hellish torpedoes, strafing runs, and dozens of bombs had pierced Musashiโ€™s heart. She was fighting alone against more than 40 enemy aircraft, and more enemy reinforcements were coming.

Nonetheless, her anti-aircraft fire had erupted in a desperate defense. The multiple explosions had battered Musashi and decimated her crew, but she had weathered the storm with the resilience of a Japanese warrior.
The sea had witnessed a clash of steel and fire, and Musashi was the center. She was the jewel of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the only threat to American victory in the Pacific.

Musashi was on her last dying breath, but she was not going to beg for mercy. If she was going down, sheโ€™d take with her as many war trophies as she could.

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41 thoughts on “When America Unleashed Hell to Sink this WW2 Ship”

  1. A remarkable ship, able to sustain insane levels of damage but was obsolete the moment the first sheet of steel was laid for her keel. Col. Billy Mitchell's 1921 demonstrations of aerial bombardment sealed the fate of all battleships afterwards.

    The Japanese bureaucracy realized that too late, even going so far as to re-engineer the third Yamato-class battleship Shinano as an aircraft carrier, with regrettable results. The days of the gunboat were over. Airpower was the new king.

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  2. "Fortunately for the allies, Musashi, and her more popular sister, Yamato, never received the wave motion engine outfit that would allow faster than light travel, 10x more power to her primary weapons, and a special bow based cannon that could vaporize a target the size of the entire continent of Australia in one punch. "

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  3. The Musashi was in the northern squadron along side the Yamato and the squadron including both ships were attacked Musashi became the target allowing Yamato along with the rest of the squadron to escape but not intact. Yamato was hit by one torpedo and a bunch of bombs but escaped, leaving Musashi to die. She had to take 19 torpedoes, along with a number of 1,000 and 2,000 lbs bombs hits to destroy her. Her decks were continually raked by 50 cal. bullets across her AAA a batteries, reducing the AA crews and weapons. During the first stages of her battle she lost her port anchor to even bad list. Torpedo damage began to over take her torpedo defenses with tons of water and the need to flood her machinery spaces was necessary to control the lists. Unfortunately the bombs kept dropping and the torpedoes kept coming until she finally lost her forward motion and the crew could not stop the continuous flooding. The crew was trying to beach herself, but lost the fight with her interior spaces burning fiercely. Between the flooding and the fire became a losing battle. The captain order all to abandon the ship , and while as the crew was trying to fight to live, she capsized. Shortly after leaving the surface one or possibly two of her 18โ€ shells magazines exploded, sending what was left of her to the bottom, mercifully killing over a thousand crewmen. The complete middle section of her hull is scattered over 5 miles in diameter. They found the remains and there is a series of photos (2 hrs) of what is left of this one time massive ship.

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  4. The Axis was self-deceiving. I saw a Newsreel recently, it's on youtube somewhere, from 1943 of an Italian sub captain being congratulated by a German Admiral. The names of the ships on his superstructure were MISSISSIPPI and MARYLAND. If anyone has any evidence at all that an Italian Submarine sank two famous American battleships, let me know. I have Skittles. The same is true for Japanese Air Forces ability. Flying a tin foil kite against 6 or 8 .50 caliber machine guns is not a winning proposition. Moving in with a battleship with no air cover is a suicide mission by 1944 against the Americans. We live for that moment. We learned it from you at Pearl Harbor,

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  5. Today's carriers are going the way of the capital ships of WW2.60 years of dominance are ending.The U.S. is not keeping up with the latest technologies.A simple Ukrainian drone to down Russia's flagship in their war.It's only time that that will happen to carriers as well.The U.S. has to adjust their way of thinking.It's frightning the U.S. keeps cutting the budget while countries like China and others keep expanding their's at an alarming rate.Time to wake up to the 21st century.

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  6. Gadfly here ๐Ÿ™. What good did Japan think putting depth charges on, the ๐Ÿ˜ขlargest ship ever, was going to accomplish. Were they planning on using this leviathan to chase submarines. No depth charge would go out to attack range of a submarine ๐Ÿซฃ๐Ÿซ 

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  7. ใ„ใ‚„ใ—ใ‹ใ—ใ€ๅ›ใŸใกใฏใใ‚“ใช่งฃใ‚ŠใใฃใŸๅธธ่ญ˜ใ‚’ใ“ใ‚Œ่ฆ‹ใ‚ˆใŒใ—ใซ็นฐใ‚Š่ฟ”ใ—ใฆใใ“ใพใงๆฅฝใ—ใ„ใฎใ‹ใญ๏ผŸๆ˜Žใ‚‰ใ‹ใซใƒใƒชใ‚ฆใƒƒใƒ‰ใ™ใŽใ‚‹ใƒŸใƒƒใƒ‰ใ‚ฆใ‚งใ‚คใจใ‹ใ‚‚้ฃฝใใชใ„ใฎใ‹๏ผŸใ‚‚ใฃใจๆฅฝใ—ใ„้Šใณๆ–นใ‚’ใ—ใŸใ‚‰ใฉใ†ใ ใญใ€‚

    ่ถ…ๅค‰ๅฝขๅˆไฝ“่ฃ…็”ฒไบบใ‚ขใ‚คใ‚ชใƒฏใŒไบบ้กžใ‚’ใƒใƒชใ‚ณใƒฌใ‹ใ‚‰ๆ•‘ใฃใŸใ‚‰ใฉใ†ใ ใ€‚่‰ฆ้ฆ–ใ‹ใ‚‰ใƒˆใƒฉใƒณใƒ—็ ฒใ‚’็งปๆฐ‘ใซ็™บๅฐ„ใ—ใ‚ใ€‚

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  8. The Musashi and Yamato were not cruising the Pacific to lure out the Americans. For most of the war, they were hiding in Port mostly in Japan or in Truk, sometimes Rabaul. The Superbattleshipes were a White Elephant, a waste of steel and resources. A big disappointment.

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  9. WW2 battleships are just so much cooler than modern missile cruisers. The insanely thick armor, the teak wood decks, the massive guns, and just the sheer size of the thing. A modern missile cruiser would take it out and the battleship would never even know what hit it, but it still wins the cool factor.

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  10. It was indeed very difficult to sink either the Yamato or the Mushashi, but neither battleships did very much before they were finally sunk. That amount of steel and manpower contributed precious little given the immense expenses involved.

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  11. She sure took a beating. I mean it took a big beating on the first hit. Then came back out for another beating. This is when it took a lot. I give the Japanese a lot of props. Fierce people. But the American Navy took it to it. Some amazing power. I sure hope it never happens again.

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  12. She only survived so long because for every hit on one side she was also hit on the opposite side so it helped counter flood which is why it stayed afloat for so long. Very impressive none the less but we took lessons learned and against the Yamato they only attacked one side causing it to lean heavy and sink rapidly.

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  13. Itโ€™s all the same with naval warfare of the Second World War. Hundreds of thousands of tons of steel, bronze, copper, engineered and put to use, only to fall miles to the floor of the Pacific, useless forever. Lives are the worst senseless waste.

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  14. She was struck with nineteen torpedo and several bombs!
    The length is exactly the same as for the Iowa class battleship. 262 m, but she had 40.6 cm armor compared to 30.7 cm for the Iowa class.
    I didn't know that steel can float.

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