The US lost 30 aircraft in Operation Hailstone and to date only three have been recovered. Much respect to the local people who have maintained the war graves of the combatants on both sides.
Indeed, much work has been done in recent years by Project Recover in the lagoon. I came back from Chuuk a couple of weeks ago, and heard there that the TF58 plane that hit the forward holds of Aikoku Maru, and was taken down in the subsequent huge secondary munitions explosion that almost vaporised the foreship, has been located in the last few weeks.
Have all of the missing gauges, seats, machine gun been stolen? Looks like a nice place to dive. Good visibility and weak currents. Thanks for this video.
Who knows what happened - but they are all gone now, 80 years later. They may have been robbed out from the wreck once diving started in the ‘70’s - or perhaps the plane survived the war, was stripped out ashore and then dumped in the sea. Lost in the mists of time ..
Enjoyed that Rod - full of interest, and context is first class
Cheers, ole buddy!
Good one! Thanks, Andrew
Glad you liked it!
The US lost 30 aircraft in Operation Hailstone and to date only three have been recovered. Much respect to the local people who have maintained the war graves of the combatants on both sides.
Indeed, much work has been done in recent years by Project Recover in the lagoon. I came back from Chuuk a couple of weeks ago, and heard there that the TF58 plane that hit the forward holds of Aikoku Maru, and was taken down in the subsequent huge secondary munitions explosion that almost vaporised the foreship, has been located in the last few weeks.
Have all of the missing gauges, seats, machine gun been stolen?
Looks like a nice place to dive. Good visibility and weak currents.
Thanks for this video.
Who knows what happened - but they are all gone now, 80 years later. They may have been robbed out from the wreck once diving started in the ‘70’s - or perhaps the plane survived the war, was stripped out ashore and then dumped in the sea. Lost in the mists of time ..
Great video, thank you
Glad you liked it!