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US billionaire Paul Allen discovers wreck of Japan's biggest warship Musashi
Guardian/AFP ^ | 3/4/2015 | Unattributed

Posted on 03/04/2015 3:37:21 PM PST by mojito

Sunk without trace in what some historians consider the greatest naval battle ever fought, the mightiest battleship ever built has been found off the Philippines by one of the world’s wealthiest men.

Paul Allen, the multibillionaire Microsoft co-founder, on Tuesday posted photographs of the wreck of the Musashi, a second world war Japanese battleship that, with its sister-ship the Yamato, was the largest and most heavily-armed warship ever launched.

“WW2 Battleship Musashi sank 1944 is FOUND,” Allen announced on Twitter, beneath a ghostly underwater photograph of the mammoth vessel’s rusting, coral-encrusted bow clearly bearing the chrysanthemum crest of the Japanese imperial family.

Other pictures taken on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea by a team from the Octopus, Allen’s luxury yacht and undersea exploration vessel, showed one of the warship’s enormous anchors and a heavily encrusted valve captioned: “RIP crew of Musashi, approximately 1,023 lost.”

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: australia; battleofleytegulf; billionnaires; godsgravesglyphs; japan; musashi; paulallen; philippines; sibuyansea; usnavy; visayasislands; worldwareleven; ww2; yamato
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To: Kickass Conservative

...and his real long form BC! ;)


21 posted on 03/04/2015 4:53:33 PM PST by twister881
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To: llevrok

I recommend “The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors” for a good account of this battle.


Thanks. Actually, he was on a tin can. All over PTO. From Kiska to Milne Bay and lots in between. He took some shrapnel in his leg to his grave. He was typical of that generation. Not much interested in the historical aspect of what he did. In his later years he did like telling a few anecdotes about his sailor buddies. Adventures on liberty, etc.


22 posted on 03/04/2015 5:20:22 PM PST by lodi90
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To: llevrok

great read!


23 posted on 03/04/2015 5:33:09 PM PST by norton
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To: llevrok; colorado tanker
Also:

Sea of Thunder

Last Stand ... focuses on the engagement off Samar, Sea of Thunder is an overall view of the battle from both sides.

24 posted on 03/04/2015 5:54:17 PM PST by pa_dweller (If just one life can be saved, isn't CCW worth it?)
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To: pa_dweller

Thanks for the tip on Sea of Thunder. I now have it on my list!


25 posted on 03/04/2015 6:06:33 PM PST by llevrok (I fear the US government more than I do al Qaeda)
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To: yarddog

No. Your thinking of the last sortie of the Yamato during the naval battle off Okinawa in 1945.


26 posted on 03/04/2015 6:16:34 PM PST by Tallguy
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To: allendale

More than one thousand submarines and tens of thousands of their crews went to the bottom in World War 2. It’s obvious that submarines are obsolete.


27 posted on 03/04/2015 6:48:45 PM PST by Rockpile
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To: forgotten man

I think Shinano was the only vessel Archerfish sank.


28 posted on 03/04/2015 7:04:42 PM PST by Rockpile
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To: norton

Will there ever be another naval battle or should we just scrap all these expensive toys?


29 posted on 03/04/2015 8:04:50 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: norton

Will there ever be another naval battle or should we just scrap all these expensive toys?


30 posted on 03/04/2015 8:04:59 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: norton

Will there ever be another naval battle or should we just scrap all these expensive toys?


31 posted on 03/04/2015 8:05:08 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: Rockpile

One day the technology will exist that underwater drones will find and sink without warning any submarine, anywhere. Then indeed submarines will be outmoded. Technology advances have always defined how and with what wars are fought. It will continually evolve.


32 posted on 03/04/2015 8:28:13 PM PST by allendale
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

Very good question(s).

I suspect large ships are very near the point where they’re just really big targets.

Saw a bit about railguns. Very difficult to see how a round from one could be stopped or diverted.


33 posted on 03/04/2015 8:30:54 PM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan

Reactive armor might. But given a hypervocity railgun shell, it would have to be a very large charge that triggers incredibly fast. Possibly even using proximity radar, before the round makes physical contact.


34 posted on 03/04/2015 8:34:41 PM PST by tanknetter
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To: mojito

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFG7Oi7roes

Short video of what was found.


35 posted on 03/04/2015 8:36:21 PM PST by exit82 ("The Taliban is on the inside of the building" E. Nordstrom 10-10-12)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

Since the end of the Cold War, US naval forces have been restructured with a focus on projecting power ashore, or supporting the projection of power ashore.


36 posted on 03/04/2015 8:38:27 PM PST by tanknetter
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To: PLMerite

That was the Musashi’s sister ship Yamato. She was essentially sent on a naval Kamikaze mission She carried only enough fuel to reach Okinawa in late 1944. She was also sunk by our aircraft before she even got close.


37 posted on 03/05/2015 4:05:45 AM PST by X Fretensis
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