Wreck of HIJMS Musashi (武蔵)
Philippines /
Southern Tagalog /
Pansoy /
World
/ Philippines
/ Southern Tagalog
/ Pansoy
World / Philippines / Romblon / Calatrava
Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck
HIJMS Musashi was the second member of the Yamato Class of SuperBattleships built by the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built under the utmost secrecy to be larger, faster and more heavily armored and armed than any Battleship in history. Laid down in clear violation of the Washington Naval Treaty at the Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard on March 29th, 1938 and officially commissioned into service on August 5th, 1942, Musashi displaced a staggering 72,800 long tons at full load and was armed with nine 18.1 inch (40cm) main guns mounted in triple turrets, each of which weighed more than a contemporary Destroyer. Her massive main armament, the largest rifles ever fitted to a warship, was augmented with a equally impressive amount of secondary and AA batteries, all of which sat upon a propulsion system comprising 12 Kampon boilers which drove 4 steam turbines and four 3-bladed propellers which gave the massive 839ft (263m) long and 121ft (36.9m) wide ship a top speed of 27 knots (31mph/50km/h). Crewed by 2,400 officers and sailors of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Musashi put to sea for her trials as a member of Battleship Division 1, IJN Combined Fleet.
Spending the first four months of her service engaged in intensive maneuvers and exercises with other members of the Japanese Navy, Musashi put to sea for her first wartime deployment in January 1943 and steamed for Truk, where she assumed duties as Flagship of the Combined Fleet from her sistership HIJMS Yamato. Hosting Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and his Flag Staff for two months, Musashi remained at Truk as Admiral Yamamoto departed for a trip to the front lines in the Solomons, a trip which resulted in his death after his transport aircraft was shot down over Bougainville in April 18th, 1943. Receiving the Admiral’s ashes aboard ship on April 23rd, Musashi weighed anchor and returned to Japan where she took part in Yamamoto’s state funeral, an inspection by the Emperor and a period of overhaul, upgrade and trials which lasted through August before returning to Truk. Departing on her first combat sortie in October 1943, Musashi led a sizeable naval force to the waters off Wake Island in the hopes of intercepting American Carrier forces conducting air raids on the island, but finding no sign of the enemy Musashi returned to Truk where she remained for the balance of the year and into early 1944.
Forced out of Truk by the ever-increasing likelihood of American air attack from their recently captured bases in the Marshall Islands, Musashi returned to Japan and was reassigned to the IJN 2nd Fleet before taking up station in the Palau Islands where she remained until the treat of American Carrier air strikes there became too great for her to remain. Departing under heavy escort after dark on the 29th of March, Musashi crossed the bow of the American Submarine USS Tunny (SS-282) which promptly sent six torpedoes churning towards the slow-moving Battleship, striking her once on her Port Bow and blowing a 20ft hole in her hull. Shipping 3,000 tons of water and suffering 18 casualties to her crew, Musashi was nonetheless able to maintain her headway and after her damage control teams shored up her damaged compartments and got her flooding under control, she shaped a course to Japan where she spent two months under repair.
Returning to the fray in May 1944, Musashi and her crew departed Japan and began intensive battle and gunnery exercises with the Combined Fleet at Tawi Tawi which continued until the American Invasion of the Marianas brought the entire Fleet to Battle in the Philippine Sea. Screening what remained of the Japanese Carrier Force during the violent air battle that resulted, Musashi and her crew got their first real taste of combat against their American enemy, but like much of the Japanese Surface force were limited to an anti-aircraft role as devastating losses to Japanese Carrier Aircraft forced the Combined Fleet to break contact and withdraw in defeat. After stopping over briefly in Japan for the final time to load provisions, Musashi stood out for Singapore where she joined the IJN Mobile Fleet in August and resumed intensive battle training exercises. With word of the American Invasion of the Philippines came orders for all remaining units of the Japanese surface fleet to mobilize for the long-awaited “Decisive Battle” which Musashi and her sister were built for, and after receiving a final coat of dark paint to conceal her planned overnight movements into the Philippine Islands, Musashi joined her sistership Yamato at Brunei and along with three other Battleships, ten Heavy Cruisers and fifteen Destroyers stood out for battle on October 22nd, 1944 as the “Center Force” of a three-part Japanese Naval Assault on the American beachhead at Leyte.
As Musashi and the Center Force passed along the coast of Palawan Island under the cover of darkness that evening, they ran straight into an American two-Submarine picket line which reported the contact and attacked the formation, causing the loss of three Heavy Cruisers and the entire formation’s element of surprise. With no choice but to continue onward, Musashi and the ships of the Center Force sent their crews to their battle stations, readied their damage control parties, posted extra lookouts and steamed into the Sibuyan Sea on the morning of October 24th. For the crew aboard Musashi, the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea began at 0810hrs when lookouts sighted a single American aircraft shadowing the formation out of gun range. Despite several hours of effort to jam the American planes radio communications, the formation’s position was duly reported, leaving only a matter of time before the inevitable air strike arrived. Slightly over two hours passed without further incident or contact as the ships continued at high speed through the Sibuyan Sea, but Musashi’s lookouts were first to sight the first thirty American aircraft of what would turn into five separate waves of Carrier Strikes launched against the Center Force at 1018hrs. Immediately going to flank speed and beginning evasive maneuvering in concert with the rest of the force, Musashi’s formidable anti-aircraft battery barked fire at 1025hrs.
Like her sistership Yamato, Musashi drew much of the attention from the American pilots in the first wave, and despite her strident AA fire she was struck by a torpedo amidships that resulted in a 5.5-degree list to Starboard as 3,000 tons seawater flooded the ship and four near-miss and one direct hits from dive bombers which caused minor damage to the ship’s hull but jammed her vital main armament director. Correcting her list and securing her damaged compartments as the first American wave withdrew, damage control parties aboard Musashi were unable to restore her gun director by the time the second and third wave of inbound aircraft were detected shortly before noon, forcing the formation back into evasive maneuvers. Caught in the middle of several coordinated “hammer and anvil” attacks by dive bombers and torpedo bombers, Musashi was struck with three more torpedoes on her Portside midship area and hit with two bombs, one of which severed a steam main that filled her Number 2 engine room with superheated steam and forced its abandonment, causing the inboard Port propeller shaft to be shut down and slowing the Battleships top speed by five knots. As air attack continued, Musashi’s crew were able to switch control of the main battery from her jammed primary director to the secondary director, enabling the ship’s massive main armament to fire its first shots in anger on the ships attackers. Hurling a full nine-gun salvo of 18.1-inch “3 Shiki tsûjôdan” anti-aircraft shells towards a formation of torpedo bombers, Musashi’s turret crews were loading her second salvo when a near-miss bomb impact on her bow caused a loaded shell to cook off in the barrel of her #1 turret’s center gun, destroying the turrets elevating mechanism and knocking the gun out of action in addition to causing several dozen casualties among the turret crew.
Still making 22 knots as the second wave of American aircraft withdrew, Musashi’s crew were given less than an hour to effect damage control before the next wave of American aircraft were overhead, and despite a further 75 main gun rounds being fired in addition to her AA guns, Musashi took a further five torpedo hits on both sides while dive bombers struck the ship with six more direct hits across her length. Aggressive counter-flooding measures returned the battered ship to an even keel but the additional water weight and heavy damage to the ships fore section brought Musashi down heavily by the bow and reduced her speed to 20 knots, leaving her steadily falling behind the main body of the Central Force as it was attacked by a fourth wave of American planes at 1412hrs. Spared further damage during this attack, reports from American pilots that the massive Battleship was steaming alone and heavily damaged brought much of the fifth wave of 69 aircraft towards Musashi at 1455hrs, and in the subsequent series of coordinated attacks a further three torpedoes and four 1000lb armor piercing bomb hits on the ship which sent her bow further down in the water and reduced her speed to only 13 knots as the last of her available counter-flooding spaces are sacrificed to keep the ship on an even keel. No sooner had the fifth wave of aircraft begun to depart the area than the sixth wave of 75 torpedo and dive bombers closed in, with 37 of the aircraft directing their attacks on the battered Musashi. Obscured by onboard smoke and fire and operating many of the ships AA turrets by hand due to damaged hydraulic systems, Musashi’s gun crews were only able to down three of their attackers as multiple formations of dive bombers made simultaneous runs on the ship, striking her across her length with eleven 500lb and 1000lb bombs causing massive damage and heavy casualties. Reeling from the numerous blasts, surviving gun crews had to quickly shift their focus to the multiple formations of torpedo bombers closing in on both sides of the lumbering ship, but had little success in repelling the low flying planes as they sent a further eleven torpedoes into Musashi, causing extensive flooding and knocking off the ship’s outer Portside propeller shaft.
By 1530hrs the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea was over, as American aircraft withdrew back to their Carriers, leaving the Center Force badly battered. Down 26ft by the bow, her foredeck awash, making only 10 knots and listing 10 degrees to Port, Musashi remained defiantly afloat despite having absorbed no fewer than total of 19 torpedoes, 17 bombs and 18 near miss explosions. As the entire Center Force turned West to retire from the Sibuyan Sea, Musashi’s crew attempted to effect whatever damage control measures they could to get the ship back into formation, but the damage she sustained all but guaranteed that she would not be able to escape the Philippine Islands by daybreak. After passing the order at 1621hrs to flood the ships Starboard crew's spaces, boiler rooms and Number 3 Engine Room in a final attempt to correct her list, Musashi’s Captain turned the ship Northward towards Quezon in an attempt to beach her but the battered ship had taken all that she could. Shortly after making her final course change, Musashi’s remaining engine failed and the enormous Battleship went dead in the water. As her surviving crew mustered topside and prepared to abandon ship onto awaiting Destroyers, the Musashi’s colors were struck at 1915hrs as her list passed 12 degrees and began to increase, followed fifteen minutes later by the order to remove the Emperors Portrait and abandon ship as the list passed 30 degrees to Port. With her last living crew safely off the ship, HIJMS Musashi rolled onto her Port side and sank Bow-first at this location at 1936hrs on October 24th, 1944, taking 1,023 of her crew with her.
www.combinedfleet.com/musashi.htm
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFG7Oi7roes
Spending the first four months of her service engaged in intensive maneuvers and exercises with other members of the Japanese Navy, Musashi put to sea for her first wartime deployment in January 1943 and steamed for Truk, where she assumed duties as Flagship of the Combined Fleet from her sistership HIJMS Yamato. Hosting Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and his Flag Staff for two months, Musashi remained at Truk as Admiral Yamamoto departed for a trip to the front lines in the Solomons, a trip which resulted in his death after his transport aircraft was shot down over Bougainville in April 18th, 1943. Receiving the Admiral’s ashes aboard ship on April 23rd, Musashi weighed anchor and returned to Japan where she took part in Yamamoto’s state funeral, an inspection by the Emperor and a period of overhaul, upgrade and trials which lasted through August before returning to Truk. Departing on her first combat sortie in October 1943, Musashi led a sizeable naval force to the waters off Wake Island in the hopes of intercepting American Carrier forces conducting air raids on the island, but finding no sign of the enemy Musashi returned to Truk where she remained for the balance of the year and into early 1944.
Forced out of Truk by the ever-increasing likelihood of American air attack from their recently captured bases in the Marshall Islands, Musashi returned to Japan and was reassigned to the IJN 2nd Fleet before taking up station in the Palau Islands where she remained until the treat of American Carrier air strikes there became too great for her to remain. Departing under heavy escort after dark on the 29th of March, Musashi crossed the bow of the American Submarine USS Tunny (SS-282) which promptly sent six torpedoes churning towards the slow-moving Battleship, striking her once on her Port Bow and blowing a 20ft hole in her hull. Shipping 3,000 tons of water and suffering 18 casualties to her crew, Musashi was nonetheless able to maintain her headway and after her damage control teams shored up her damaged compartments and got her flooding under control, she shaped a course to Japan where she spent two months under repair.
Returning to the fray in May 1944, Musashi and her crew departed Japan and began intensive battle and gunnery exercises with the Combined Fleet at Tawi Tawi which continued until the American Invasion of the Marianas brought the entire Fleet to Battle in the Philippine Sea. Screening what remained of the Japanese Carrier Force during the violent air battle that resulted, Musashi and her crew got their first real taste of combat against their American enemy, but like much of the Japanese Surface force were limited to an anti-aircraft role as devastating losses to Japanese Carrier Aircraft forced the Combined Fleet to break contact and withdraw in defeat. After stopping over briefly in Japan for the final time to load provisions, Musashi stood out for Singapore where she joined the IJN Mobile Fleet in August and resumed intensive battle training exercises. With word of the American Invasion of the Philippines came orders for all remaining units of the Japanese surface fleet to mobilize for the long-awaited “Decisive Battle” which Musashi and her sister were built for, and after receiving a final coat of dark paint to conceal her planned overnight movements into the Philippine Islands, Musashi joined her sistership Yamato at Brunei and along with three other Battleships, ten Heavy Cruisers and fifteen Destroyers stood out for battle on October 22nd, 1944 as the “Center Force” of a three-part Japanese Naval Assault on the American beachhead at Leyte.
As Musashi and the Center Force passed along the coast of Palawan Island under the cover of darkness that evening, they ran straight into an American two-Submarine picket line which reported the contact and attacked the formation, causing the loss of three Heavy Cruisers and the entire formation’s element of surprise. With no choice but to continue onward, Musashi and the ships of the Center Force sent their crews to their battle stations, readied their damage control parties, posted extra lookouts and steamed into the Sibuyan Sea on the morning of October 24th. For the crew aboard Musashi, the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea began at 0810hrs when lookouts sighted a single American aircraft shadowing the formation out of gun range. Despite several hours of effort to jam the American planes radio communications, the formation’s position was duly reported, leaving only a matter of time before the inevitable air strike arrived. Slightly over two hours passed without further incident or contact as the ships continued at high speed through the Sibuyan Sea, but Musashi’s lookouts were first to sight the first thirty American aircraft of what would turn into five separate waves of Carrier Strikes launched against the Center Force at 1018hrs. Immediately going to flank speed and beginning evasive maneuvering in concert with the rest of the force, Musashi’s formidable anti-aircraft battery barked fire at 1025hrs.
Like her sistership Yamato, Musashi drew much of the attention from the American pilots in the first wave, and despite her strident AA fire she was struck by a torpedo amidships that resulted in a 5.5-degree list to Starboard as 3,000 tons seawater flooded the ship and four near-miss and one direct hits from dive bombers which caused minor damage to the ship’s hull but jammed her vital main armament director. Correcting her list and securing her damaged compartments as the first American wave withdrew, damage control parties aboard Musashi were unable to restore her gun director by the time the second and third wave of inbound aircraft were detected shortly before noon, forcing the formation back into evasive maneuvers. Caught in the middle of several coordinated “hammer and anvil” attacks by dive bombers and torpedo bombers, Musashi was struck with three more torpedoes on her Portside midship area and hit with two bombs, one of which severed a steam main that filled her Number 2 engine room with superheated steam and forced its abandonment, causing the inboard Port propeller shaft to be shut down and slowing the Battleships top speed by five knots. As air attack continued, Musashi’s crew were able to switch control of the main battery from her jammed primary director to the secondary director, enabling the ship’s massive main armament to fire its first shots in anger on the ships attackers. Hurling a full nine-gun salvo of 18.1-inch “3 Shiki tsûjôdan” anti-aircraft shells towards a formation of torpedo bombers, Musashi’s turret crews were loading her second salvo when a near-miss bomb impact on her bow caused a loaded shell to cook off in the barrel of her #1 turret’s center gun, destroying the turrets elevating mechanism and knocking the gun out of action in addition to causing several dozen casualties among the turret crew.
Still making 22 knots as the second wave of American aircraft withdrew, Musashi’s crew were given less than an hour to effect damage control before the next wave of American aircraft were overhead, and despite a further 75 main gun rounds being fired in addition to her AA guns, Musashi took a further five torpedo hits on both sides while dive bombers struck the ship with six more direct hits across her length. Aggressive counter-flooding measures returned the battered ship to an even keel but the additional water weight and heavy damage to the ships fore section brought Musashi down heavily by the bow and reduced her speed to 20 knots, leaving her steadily falling behind the main body of the Central Force as it was attacked by a fourth wave of American planes at 1412hrs. Spared further damage during this attack, reports from American pilots that the massive Battleship was steaming alone and heavily damaged brought much of the fifth wave of 69 aircraft towards Musashi at 1455hrs, and in the subsequent series of coordinated attacks a further three torpedoes and four 1000lb armor piercing bomb hits on the ship which sent her bow further down in the water and reduced her speed to only 13 knots as the last of her available counter-flooding spaces are sacrificed to keep the ship on an even keel. No sooner had the fifth wave of aircraft begun to depart the area than the sixth wave of 75 torpedo and dive bombers closed in, with 37 of the aircraft directing their attacks on the battered Musashi. Obscured by onboard smoke and fire and operating many of the ships AA turrets by hand due to damaged hydraulic systems, Musashi’s gun crews were only able to down three of their attackers as multiple formations of dive bombers made simultaneous runs on the ship, striking her across her length with eleven 500lb and 1000lb bombs causing massive damage and heavy casualties. Reeling from the numerous blasts, surviving gun crews had to quickly shift their focus to the multiple formations of torpedo bombers closing in on both sides of the lumbering ship, but had little success in repelling the low flying planes as they sent a further eleven torpedoes into Musashi, causing extensive flooding and knocking off the ship’s outer Portside propeller shaft.
By 1530hrs the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea was over, as American aircraft withdrew back to their Carriers, leaving the Center Force badly battered. Down 26ft by the bow, her foredeck awash, making only 10 knots and listing 10 degrees to Port, Musashi remained defiantly afloat despite having absorbed no fewer than total of 19 torpedoes, 17 bombs and 18 near miss explosions. As the entire Center Force turned West to retire from the Sibuyan Sea, Musashi’s crew attempted to effect whatever damage control measures they could to get the ship back into formation, but the damage she sustained all but guaranteed that she would not be able to escape the Philippine Islands by daybreak. After passing the order at 1621hrs to flood the ships Starboard crew's spaces, boiler rooms and Number 3 Engine Room in a final attempt to correct her list, Musashi’s Captain turned the ship Northward towards Quezon in an attempt to beach her but the battered ship had taken all that she could. Shortly after making her final course change, Musashi’s remaining engine failed and the enormous Battleship went dead in the water. As her surviving crew mustered topside and prepared to abandon ship onto awaiting Destroyers, the Musashi’s colors were struck at 1915hrs as her list passed 12 degrees and began to increase, followed fifteen minutes later by the order to remove the Emperors Portrait and abandon ship as the list passed 30 degrees to Port. With her last living crew safely off the ship, HIJMS Musashi rolled onto her Port side and sank Bow-first at this location at 1936hrs on October 24th, 1944, taking 1,023 of her crew with her.
www.combinedfleet.com/musashi.htm
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFG7Oi7roes
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Musashi
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 13°6'58"N 122°31'57"E
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- Xinjin Airport (ICAO : ZUXJ) 2721 km
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- Broadway Landing Area 3000 km
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- San Francisco, Quezon 22 km
- San Andres, Quezon 26 km
- Sibuyan Sea 32 km
- Sitio Castillo 36 km
- Alimango Bay, Burias Island 45 km
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- Burias Island 71 km
- Romblon 75 km
- Masbate 129 km
- Province of Quezon 131 km
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