Musashi

Musashi (武蔵), named after the ancient Japanese Musashi Province, was a battleship belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was the second and final ship of the Yamato class to be completed as a battleship. With her sister ship, Yamato, she was a member of the largest and most heavily armed and armored class of battleships ever constructed.

[edit] History

In June of 1937, executives from the Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard, including Director Kensuke Watanabe and yard engineer Kumao Baba, were ordered to begin preparations for construction and fitting out of one of the new series of battleships. Expansions of the Number 2 slipway had originally inspired naval executives to issue Nagasaki Shipyard the lucrative contract. Floating cranes of 150 and 350 metric tons capacity were built for heavy lifts. Built under the strictest of security, including the erection of large screens to hide the construction from the U.S. consulate across the bay, the battleship was launched November 1, 1940, and spent the better part of eighteen months fitting out. The completion date was revised to accommodate the changes requested by the Navy, including strengthening armor on the 15.5 cm turrets, and the installation of extra communications gear.

Commissioned on 5 August 1942, she proceeded to Truk Lagoon, where Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto made Musashi his flagship. After he was killed on 18 April 1943 (having been shot down by a special U.S. Army Air Forces operation) in the Solomons theater of operations, Musashi returned to Japan carrying his ashes. Musashi returned to Truk on 5 August 1943, and remained there until 10 February 1944. Her only activity during this time was a sortie toward the Marshall Islands, which resulted in no contact with American forces. On 29 March 1944, Musashi was hit by one torpedo from the submarine USS Tunny, and had to return to Japan for repairs and modifications to her anti-aircraft armament.

She formed part of Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita's Centre Force along with Yamato at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. During this battle on 24 October 1944, she was attacked in the Sibuyan Sea by American carrier-based aircraft: first at 10:27 AM by eight SB2C Helldiver dive bombers from the USS Intrepid armed with 500-lb (227 kg) bombs. Wave after wave of American aircraft from the USS Intrepid, Essex and Lexington eventually scored 17 bomb and 20 torpedo hits and 18 near misses. Most of the ship's destruction was due to David S. McCampbell and Air Group 15. The Musashi capsized to port, and sank at 7:25 PM on October 24, taking more than 1000 of her 2399 crew with her; 1376 of the crew were rescued by the destroyers Kiyoshimo and Shimakaze. That battle was the only time that the Mushashi had fired her guns in anger, using the "San Shiki" (the Beehive) Model 13 anti-aircraft shell.[1]

For more details on this class of ship, see the entry for Yamato.

Bismarck

Bismarck
Displacement:
41,700 tonnes standard50,405 tonnes full load (1943)
Length:
250.5 m overall241.5 m waterline
Width:
36.0 m waterline
Draft:
9.3 m standard10.2 m full load
Armament:
8 × 380 mm/L48.5 SK-C/34 (4×2)12 × 150 mm/L55 SK-C/2816 × 105 mm/L65 SK-C/37 / SK-C/3316 × 37 mm/L83 SK-C/3012 × 20 mm/L65 MG C/30 (Single)8 × 20 mm/L65 MG C/38 (Quadruple)
Armor:
Belt: 145 to 320 mmDeck: 50 to 120 mmBulkheads: 220 mmTurrets: 130 to 360 mmBarbettes: 342 mmConning tower: 360 mm
Aircraft:
4 × Arado Ar 196 A-3, with 1 double-ended catapult
Propulsion:
12 Wagner high-pressure;3 Blohm & Voss geared turbines;3 three-blade propellers, 4.70 m diameter150,170 hp (121 MW)
Speed:
30.8 knots (57.0 km/h)
Range:
8,525 nautical miles (15,800 km) @ 19 knots (45 km/h)
Complement:
2,092: 103 officers 1,989 men (1941)

Design of the ship started in the early 1930s, following on from Germany's development of the pocket battleship Deutschland class cruisers and the Gneisenau class "battlecruisers". Construction of the second French Dunkerque class battleship made redesign necessary, and Bismarck's displacement was increased to 42,600 tons, although officially her tonnage was still only 35,000 tons to suggest parity with ships built within the limits of the Treaty of Versailles. Fully laden, Bismarck and her sister-ship Tirpitz would each displace more than 50,000 tons. The prototype of the proposed battleships envisaged under Plan Z, Bismarck's keel was laid down at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg on 1 July 1936. She was launched on 14 February 1939 and commissioned on 24 August 1940 with Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann in command.
This formidable ship was intended primarily as a commerce raider, having a broad beam for stability in the rough seas of the North Atlantic and fuel stores as large as those of battleships intended for operations in the Pacific Ocean. Still, with eight 15 inch main guns in four turrets, substantial welded-armour protection and designed for a top speed of not less than 29 knots (she actually achieved 30.1 knots in trials in the calmer waters of the Baltic, an impressive speed when set against any comparable British battleship), Bismarck was capable of engaging any enemy battleship on reasonably equal terms. Her range of weaponry could easily decimate any convoy she encountered. The plan was for Bismarck to break through into the spacious waters of the North Atlantic, where she could refuel from German tankers and (the Germans hoped) remain undetected by British and American aircraft, submarines and ships, while attacking the convoys.