Dive Truk Lagoon: The Japanese WWII Pacific Shipwrecks by Rod MacDonald

Truk Lagoon is uite simply the greatest wreck diving location in the world Scores of virtually intact large WWII wrecks filled with cargoes of tanks trucks artillery beach mines shells and aircraft rest in the crystal clear waters of the Lagoon each a man made reef teeming with life Truk was the main forward anchorage for the Japanese Imperial Navy and merchant fleet during the early days of WWII Protected by a 140 mile coral barrier reef with only a few heavily defended entrances it seemed a well protected safe anchorage The lagoon had been fortified by the Japanese in great secrecy during the 1930s the Allies knew little about it By 1944 the tide of war had turned against the Japanese the Allies were pushing westwards across the Pacific islands towards the Japanese homeland A daring US long range aerial survey showed the lagoon with the full might of the Imperial Japanese Navy; battleships cruisers aircraft carriers submarines and destroyers along with scores of large supply ships and transports The Allies decided to attack immediatelySensing this the Imperial Japanese Navy scattered but the merchant ships remained to offload their cargoes of aircraft tanks artillery mines and munitions Other heavily laden supply ships continued to arrive unaware of the Allied assault plans Fresh from the Kwajalein Atoll assault Task Force 58 was formed for an immediate attack Operation Hailstone In total secrecy nine US carriers holdingthan 500 combat aircraft steamed towards Truk supported by a screen of battleships cruisers destroyers and submarines Before dawn on 17 February Strike Groups of 12 Hellcat fighters swept in low towards Truk under Japanese radar and immediately began strafing Japanese airfields Soon hundreds of aircraft were involved in one of the largest aerial dogfights of WWII which was over within an hour With air superiority established US dive bombers and torpedo bombers spent the remainder of the day and the following day sinking all the large ships trapped in the lagoon With Truk neutralised as a naval and air base the Pacific war soon endedThe sunken ships of Truk Lagoon with their war cargoes were largely forgotten about until 1969 when an expedition by Jacues Cousteau located and filmed many of the wrecks The resulting TV documentary Lagoon of Lost Ships went viralTruk's secret was out and the beautiful wrecks untouched since WWII have proved an irresistible lure for thousands of divers each year since then