Wednesday, April 3, 2013

TRUK: DIVING INTO HISTORY

Greetings from the Graveyard of the Pacific. We're now in Chuuk, also known as Truk, wreck diving capital of the world. Our mission is to explore dozens of Japanese shipwrecks sent to the bottom of Truk Lagoon during Operation Hailstone in 1944. Intense bombing by American planes dealt the Japanese fleet a fatal blow, and we're immersing ourselves in history, swimming through the dark inner passageways of 500' long warships, discovering caches of unexploded bombs and torpedoes, cargo holds with demolished Zero planes, tanks frozen in time, and even the remains of soldiers who perished at sea. Here's a picture of Melissa soaring overtop a Japanese battle tank at rest on the deck of the Nippo Maru at 125' feet down.