On this day, one of the most fearsome battleships ever created was sent to the bottom of the sea. On October 24, 1944, the Imperial Japanese Navy’s super-heavy battleship Musashi was sunk by American carrier aircraft as part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Laid down in 1938, Musashi was the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleship ever constructed, displacing almost 72,000 long tons. However, all of that heavy firepower couldn’t save the Musashi when American scout planes spotted it on the morning of October 24. Over the next eight hours, Musashi was attacked by aircraft from four American carriers, sustaining 19 torpedo and 17 bomb hits before it finally sank in the late afternoon. The sinking of the Musashi proved once and for all that the era of the battleship was over, and that the aircraft carrier was the new king of naval combat.
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