"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 U.S. Navy 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.