Amnorix
03-04-2015, 10:21 AM
Only military history nuts would even know that the biggest battleship ever was not the Missouri or the Bismarck, but the Japanese battleship Musashi. One of only two of her class ever built (Yamato being the other, and the name of the class), it was sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, by an estimated 19 torpedo and 17 bomb hits from American carrier planes.
Her main guns consisted of 9 18 inch guns (compared to America's largest, which were only 16 inches).
Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for the Japanese, by the time these ships were completed, battleships were already an anachronism and no longer the monarch of the seas, having been replaced by aircraft carriers. At the Battle of Leyte Gulf, America had 8 Fleet Carriers, 8 Light Carriers and 18 Escort Carriers carrying a complement of approximately 1,500 planes.
In any event, after a search of nearly EIGHT YEARS, the Musashi was found by Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, in water of approximately 1 KM depth.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/03/intl_world/paul-allen-japanese-battleship-musashi/index.html
Her main guns consisted of 9 18 inch guns (compared to America's largest, which were only 16 inches).
Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for the Japanese, by the time these ships were completed, battleships were already an anachronism and no longer the monarch of the seas, having been replaced by aircraft carriers. At the Battle of Leyte Gulf, America had 8 Fleet Carriers, 8 Light Carriers and 18 Escort Carriers carrying a complement of approximately 1,500 planes.
In any event, after a search of nearly EIGHT YEARS, the Musashi was found by Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, in water of approximately 1 KM depth.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/03/intl_world/paul-allen-japanese-battleship-musashi/index.html