The 50-mile wide lagoon of Truk Atoll, far out in the remote
expanses of the Pacific, is quite simply the greatest wreck diving
location in the world. Scores of virtually intact Japanese WWII
wrecks of transport ships, still filled with cargoes of tanks,
trucks, artillery, beach mines, shells and aircraft, rest in the
crystal-clear waters of the lagoon - along with two Japanese
destroyers and one submarine - each today a man-made reef teeming
with sea life. The seemingly impregnable fortress islands of Truk
Atoll were a powerful air base and the main forward anchorage for
the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). By 1944, the Allies were pushing
westwards across the Pacific islands towards the Japanese homeland.
On 4 February 1944, a daring 2,000-mile long-range U.S.
reconnaissance flight revealed the Truk lagoon to be full of the
might of the Imperial Japanese Navy, along with scores of large
supply ships and transports. The Allies decided to attack
immediately. Sensing this, the Imperial Japanese Navy scattered,
but the merchant ships remained, as crews rushed to offload their
war cargoes of aircraft, tanks, artillery, mines and munitions.
Other heavily laden supply ships continued to arrive from Japan,
unaware of the Allied assault plans. Task Force 58, codename
Operation HAILSTONE, was formed for an immediate attack. In total
secrecy, nine U.S. aircraft carriers, holding more than 500 combat
aircraft, steamed towards Truk - supported by a screen of
battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines. At dawn on 17
February 1944, an initial fighter sweep of Truk by 72 F6F Hellcat
fighters roared in over Truk under Japanese radar - catching the
Japanese by complete surprise. The Hellcats immediately began
strafing Japanese airfields and soon hundreds of aircraft were
involved in one of the largest aerial dogfights of WW II. The F6F
Hellcat was by now vastly superior to the Japanese Zero fighter,
and the Japanese planes were shot out of the sky within an hour.
With air superiority established, U.S dive-bombers and
torpedo-bombers spent two days sinking all the large ships trapped
in the lagoon. These sunken ships, with their war cargoes, were
largely forgotten about until 1969, when Jacques Cousteau located
and filmed many of the wrecks. The resulting TV documentary, Lagoon
of Lost Ships, went viral. Truk's secret was out - and the
beautiful wrecks, untouched since WWII, have proved an irresistible
lure for thousands of divers each year since then. New
illustrations of most of the previously unillustrated wrecks have
now been specially created to make this book the most comprehensive
guide to diving Truk Lagoon that has ever been produced.
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