WWII’s Largest Battleship Revealed After 70 Years Underwater

The Japanese battleship Musashi, flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II, was one of the largest and most technologically advanced warships ever built. Its colossal scale embodied Japan’s towering ambitions, while its defeat under U.S. fire in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 became a symbol of the country’s flawed naval war strategy. Now, after a nearly decade-long search, a research team sponsored by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen has uncovered the wreckage of the Musashi strewn across the bottom of the Sibuyan Sea in the Philippines.

Launched in 1942 alongside its sister ship, the Yamato, the Musashi became the flagship of the main fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy the following year. The two ships were among the largest and most powerful ever built, measuring 862 feet (263 meters) long and weighing in at 73,000 tons. Their maximum height reached some 183 feet (56 meters), about the height of a 16-story building. Armed with 56-centimeter main guns¬¬—the largest and most powerful of any warship—the Yamato and Musashi were designed to help Japan combat the much larger naval force of the United States during World War II. Read More