 Fusō and Yamashiro were the only two Japanese battleships at the Battle of Surigao Strait , the southernmost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf , and both were lost in the early hours of 25 October 1944 to torpedoes and naval gunfire . Some eyewitnesses later claimed that Fusō broke in half , and that both halves remained afloat and burning for an hour , but historian Anthony Tully has made the case that she simply sank after forty minutes of flooding . Six battleships and eight cruisers were lying in wait for Yamashiro ; she did not survive the encounter , and Vice @-@ Admiral Shōji Nishimura went down with his ship . Only ten crewmembers from each ship survived . 
