What news?
The wreck of the Musashi, a Japanese warship sunk during the biggest sea battle of the Second World War, has finally been discovered. It was located off the Philippines after an eight-year search led by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft.
Details, details
The Musashi, named after a Japanese province, was considered the biggest warship the world had then known. Launched in 1940, it was 863ft long and weighed 73,000 tons. (Although, to be fair, this weight is now considered in some parts of modern America to be merely big boned.)
To give you some idea of the Musashi’s size, the latest version of the Ark Royal was 22,000 tons and 689ft long.
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But size isn’t everything, eh?
It’s an obvious design flaw in battleships: the larger the vessel, the bigger the target it presents to the enemy. The Musashi proved to be particularly vulnerable to air attack.
How was IT sunk?
The Musashi was part of a 67-strong fleet that had arrived in the Sibuyan sea to help thwart the American invasion of the Philippines. They were seen by US spotter planes on October 23, 1944, and so began the three-day Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Battle stations, battle stations!
The Battle of Leyte Gulf is regarded as the largest battle in naval history. It’s also noted as the first battle in which Japanese air crews flew organised kamikaze missions. The Japanese navy was heavily outnumbered — it was facing a combined American-Australian fleet of 300 ships.
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The Musashi was hit about 30 times and sank on October 24.
Stiff upper lips all round
It quickly became clear that, to adapt the words that Emperor Hirohito would later use, the battle situation was not necessarily developing to Japan’s advantage.
Admiral Matome Ugaki, commander of the Japanese 1st battleship division, noted in his diary with magnificent understatement: “The small number of enemy planes shot down is regrettable.”
Family at war
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The captain of the Musashi, Rear Admiral Toshihira Inoguchi, went down with his ship. Ordering the crew to save themselves, Inoguchi handed his sword to a junior officer and gave his briefcase to a petty officer, who found it did not contain fresh orders but money and seven pieces of sweet bean paste.
The admiral’s son, Satoshi Inoguchi, was a lieutenant in the kamikaze squadron. On hearing of his father’s death, he ordered a junior pilot out of a plane as it was about to fly a mission, and took his place. He never returned.
What next?
According to Unesco, the UN’s cultural arm, there are 3m wrecked ships littering the sea bed. Enough to keep Paul Allen busy anyway.