Posted on 03/04/2015 3:37:21 PM PST by mojito
Sunk without trace in what some historians consider the greatest naval battle ever fought, the mightiest battleship ever built has been found off the Philippines by one of the worlds wealthiest men.
Paul Allen, the multibillionaire Microsoft co-founder, on Tuesday posted photographs of the wreck of the Musashi, a second world war Japanese battleship that, with its sister-ship the Yamato, was the largest and most heavily-armed warship ever launched.
WW2 Battleship Musashi sank 1944 is FOUND, Allen announced on Twitter, beneath a ghostly underwater photograph of the mammoth vessels rusting, coral-encrusted bow clearly bearing the chrysanthemum crest of the Japanese imperial family.
Other pictures taken on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea by a team from the Octopus, Allens luxury yacht and undersea exploration vessel, showed one of the warships enormous anchors and a heavily encrusted valve captioned: RIP crew of Musashi, approximately 1,023 lost.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
...and his real long form BC! ;)
I recommend The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors for a good account of this battle.
Thanks. Actually, he was on a tin can. All over PTO. From Kiska to Milne Bay and lots in between. He took some shrapnel in his leg to his grave. He was typical of that generation. Not much interested in the historical aspect of what he did. In his later years he did like telling a few anecdotes about his sailor buddies. Adventures on liberty, etc.
great read!
Last Stand ... focuses on the engagement off Samar, Sea of Thunder is an overall view of the battle from both sides.
Thanks for the tip on Sea of Thunder. I now have it on my list!
No. Your thinking of the last sortie of the Yamato during the naval battle off Okinawa in 1945.
More than one thousand submarines and tens of thousands of their crews went to the bottom in World War 2. It’s obvious that submarines are obsolete.
I think Shinano was the only vessel Archerfish sank.
Will there ever be another naval battle or should we just scrap all these expensive toys?
Will there ever be another naval battle or should we just scrap all these expensive toys?
Will there ever be another naval battle or should we just scrap all these expensive toys?
One day the technology will exist that underwater drones will find and sink without warning any submarine, anywhere. Then indeed submarines will be outmoded. Technology advances have always defined how and with what wars are fought. It will continually evolve.
Very good question(s).
I suspect large ships are very near the point where they’re just really big targets.
Saw a bit about railguns. Very difficult to see how a round from one could be stopped or diverted.
Reactive armor might. But given a hypervocity railgun shell, it would have to be a very large charge that triggers incredibly fast. Possibly even using proximity radar, before the round makes physical contact.
Since the end of the Cold War, US naval forces have been restructured with a focus on projecting power ashore, or supporting the projection of power ashore.
That was the Musashi’s sister ship Yamato. She was essentially sent on a naval Kamikaze mission She carried only enough fuel to reach Okinawa in late 1944. She was also sunk by our aircraft before she even got close.
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