# WW2 Ship Wrecks



## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 7, 2006)

Well we were talking about the wrecks of the Bismarck, Hood, Yamato and Graf Zeppelin in other threads. This topic greatly interests me so I started this thread so that people can post info and links to sites to individual ship wreck sites or to wrecks in general. 

Whether it is U-Boot, Battleship, Destroyer, Aircraft Carrier, US, British, Japanese, French, or German, post the info here and we can discuss them.


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## syscom3 (Sep 7, 2006)

Its a book, but I felt it worthy enough to post it in this thread.

"Graveyards of the Pacific offers exactly what readers expect from National Geographic: A beautiful book full of outstanding photos and graphics. It is worth reading (bestselling historian Stephen E. Ambrose writes the introduction), but even better to look at. Coauthor Robert D. Ballard, of course, is the explorer best known for discovering the Titanic on the Atlantic seabed. As the title suggests, Graveyards of the Pacific focuses on the Second World War. It includes fewer underwater photos than what one might expect from a book coauthored by Ballard--no more than a dozen or so. But each is well selected: A Japanese torpedo lying on the floor of Pearl Harbor, planes encrusted by decades of marine growth, the mast of an aircraft transport surrounded by fish and covered with seaweed--in the shape of a cross, it looks "like an underwater shrine"--and vessels sunk during the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests. Most of the photographs and other illustrations (there are more than 150 in total) are contemporary pictures taken during the war, from a blurry image of Japanese battleships heading toward Pearl Harbor before the sneak attack to a sequential series of photos showing a kamikaze plane approaching an American aircraft carrier, and then smashing into it. The text of the book moves back and forth between historical descriptions of the naval war and accounts of how Ballard found many of the ships lost during the fighting. His most significant discovery in the Pacific was probably the U.S.S. Yorktown, destroyed during the battle of Midway in 1942 and now resting 17,000 feet below the waves. The description of its dark, final resting place is eerie: It "looks like a huge craft dropped down from space, shorn of many of the antenna and cables and protrusions that had once made her serviceable, but now reduced to her core, which is still massive and formidable. ...[A] huge sunken sea-beast from another time, a steel dinosaur out of another era, when deluded men still thought they could conquer the world." As Graveyards of the Pacific proves once again, we are fortunate to have Ballard embarking on an altogether different kind of conquest. --John Miller"

Product Details
* Hardcover: 224 pages
* Publisher: National Geographic (June 1, 2001)
* Language: English
* ISBN: 0792263669


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 7, 2006)

Cool thanks I will check that one out.


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## Wildcat (Sep 7, 2006)

Here's something a bit different.
HMAS Sydney II Appeal
This site is about the search for HMAS Sydney which has never been found.


Virtual Tour: ANZAC Hall [Australian War Memorial]
Have a squizz at the virtual tour to see a Japanese midget sub sunk in Sydney Harbour in WWII


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 8, 2006)

Cool! I wish we could find all of these underwater graves.


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## timshatz (Sep 8, 2006)

Wildcat said:


> Here's something a bit different.
> HMAS Sydney II Appeal
> This site is about the search for HMAS Sydney which has never been found.



I thought they found a sonar target that seemed to be the same size as the Sydney? A few years back and they were going to investigate....probably some time around now.


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## timshatz (Sep 8, 2006)

During WW2, there were a large number of ships that sank on the Murmansk-Scottland run. All of the outbound from Scottland were packed with supplies. They went down in some very cold water. Doubtless, this has slowed substantially any deterioration that could be going on. 

It is interesting to think what might be down there. The whole gamut, Tanks, Aircraft, Artillery, small arms, ect. No idea how cold salt water affects things but not as much decay as in the Pacific.


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## Wildcat (Sep 9, 2006)

timshatz said:


> I thought they found a sonar target that seemed to be the same size as the Sydney? A few years back and they were going to investigate....probably some time around now.



Nope, the only thing ever found was a bullet riddled lifeboat which contained a dead body. It washed up on the Cocos Island in WWII where the unidentified man was buried. In the paper the other day it said a forensic team is flying out there to exhume the body to try to ID him to finally clear up wether he actually came from the Sydney.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 9, 2006)

The 2 right now that I would like to find the most would be the USS Indianapolis and whats left of the Tirpitz. (I think they took most of it away did they not?)


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## syscom3 (Sep 9, 2006)

Another mass grave of ships is at Bikini Atoll.

All were sunk during the operation crossroads nuclear tests. 60 years later, the radiation is gone and the whole area is open to scuba dives.

Bikini Dive/Tourism Information: The Ships

Amazon.com: Ghost Fleet: The Sunken Ships of Bikini Atoll: Books: James P. Delgado


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## syscom3 (Sep 9, 2006)

This German cruiser was heavily damaged at Bikini Atoll during the nuke tests and brought back to Kwajelein Atoll for study. You can dive this ship IF and that a BIG ONLY IF you work at Kwajelein Atoll. This atoll is an active US military base, hence the atoll is closed.

The Prinz Eugen

Prinz Eugen - Gallery - The Wreck

Prinz Eugen


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## timshatz (Sep 9, 2006)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> The 2 right now that I would like to find the most would be the USS Indianapolis and whats left of the Tirpitz. (I think they took most of it away did they not?)



They said they took most of it away but I've seen pics on the net where it showed there is still some good sized chunks of it down there. Not suprising, it was a big ship. 

I've seen pics of left over steel from the Bismark that is still in the port where she was built. I believe it is from the armor belt. Saw it on a TV show some time back. 

As for the Indy, she is probably in very deep water. Went down close to the Mariana's Trench. She's probably not in it but has to be at least 3 miles down.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 10, 2006)

syscom3 said:


> Another mass grave of ships is at Bikini Atoll.
> 
> All were sunk during the operation crossroads nuclear tests. 60 years later, the radiation is gone and the whole area is open to scuba dives.
> 
> ...



Cool would love to take a dive there. That is awesome to see those ships. Too bad though that they all had to go down that way.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 10, 2006)

Thats also cool on the Prinz Eugen. Man that is awesome that parts of it still stick out of the water and what not. Amazing how she survived those blasts like that too.


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## trackend (Sep 12, 2006)

This is my local wreck Adler although not sunk in action the old SS RICHARD MONTGOMERY Liberty ship has laid on the bottom since 1944 about 4 miles from my front door.
SS RIchard Montgomery


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## syscom3 (Sep 12, 2006)

1500 tons of explosives are still on board!

I wonder why they didnt blow the ship up after the war.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Sep 13, 2006)

There was this D-day wreck muesuem near some town in Normandy where I stayed in hotel for a few days, and if I recall there was some Duplex Drive Shermans brought up from the channel and placed in that muesuem that was cool.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 14, 2006)

Intersting stuff trackened.

I have been to that museum as well Vasilli.


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## timshatz (Sep 14, 2006)

The following is a news article about Chemical Weapons off the New Jersey, USA coast. Seems the Army just dumped them 20 miles off the coast after the war ended.

"Chemical Weapons Dumped Off NJ’s Coast
The US Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines, and rockets, and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste, either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels. These weapons virtually ring the country’s coast. The Army has examined only a few of its 26 dump zones and none in the past 30 years, and records are sketchy, missing, or were destroyed. Army cannot say exactly where all the weapons were dumped from World War II to 1970 and, furthermore, the Army has not reviewed World War I-era records, when ocean dumping of chemical weapons was common. 

In the summer of 2004, a clam-dredging operation off New Jersey pulled up an old artillery shell. The long-submerged World War I-era explosive was filled with a black tar-like substance. Three bomb disposal technicians from Dover Air Force Base, DE, who were brought in to dismantle it, and were injured from exposure to mustard gas. The shell was filled with mustard gas in solid form and was pulled up with clams in relatively shallow water only 20 miles off Atlantic City. In fact, 1985 charts from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) identify numerous areas where explosives and weapons were disposed in the NY/NJ Bight. 

When mustard gas is exposed to seawater, it forms a concentrated gel that lasts for at least five years, killing or contaminating sea life. When released in the ocean, nerve agent lasts up to six weeks, killing every organism it touches before breaking down into its non-lethal chemical components. 

The Army’s secret ocean-dumping program spanned decades, from 1944 to 1970. The dumped weapons were deemed to be unneeded surplus. US Congress banned the practice in 1972. Three years later, the United States signed an international treaty prohibiting ocean disposal of chemical weapons."

Have also read articles that there is a huge amount of Chemical Weapons from the same war off the Belgian Coast.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2006)

Wow makes you feel great about eating seafood does it not!


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## timshatz (Sep 15, 2006)

And they go staight out, pick up the clams and bring them back to sell in the local area. ERRRGGGGHHHHH! Another reason for me to beg off when the big pile of steamed clams comes out at Charlie's in Sommer's Point. Pitcher of beer and plate of chicken wings will do...


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## syscom3 (Sep 17, 2006)

I believe this is the cruiser.

If you look just to the north of the reef line, you will see the outline of the ship, with some disturbances in the water from where the hull is still above the surface. 

This is in Kwajelien atoll, only a few hundred meters from where some sources say the ship is resting.


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## Henk (Sep 17, 2006)

Tha is the Prinze Eugen.


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## zerum (Sep 18, 2006)

Here is some links :www.skovheim.org
Schlachtshiff Tirpitz


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 18, 2006)

Cool good stuff guys.

I really would love to go and see the Eugen since it right there on the surface.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 18, 2006)

Here is another intersting one on the Tirpitz.

Part of the remains of the ship stick out of the water when the tide is low.

Tirpitz - Håkøy, near Tromsø, Norway - Then Now


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## Hunter368 (Sep 18, 2006)

Cool link Chris.


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## HealzDevo (Nov 5, 2006)

As I recall the navy were reluctant to call the Tirpitz a sinking due to the fact that it was only on its side. However, that is a big crater from the tallboy bomb. No wonder Tirpitz sank!


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## pbfoot (Nov 6, 2006)

Here is one on the Yamato 
NOVA | Sinking the Supership | PBS


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Nov 6, 2006)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> Intersting stuff trackened.
> 
> I have been to that museum as well Vasilli.



I think too in France I saw the wreck of a Mulberry, near the British beaches. It was some concrete ruins in the water off shore, and I can think of no other explanation for the ruins.


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## jacobtowne (Nov 6, 2006)

Exploring the Pacific battles island by island on Google Earth reveals many visible shipwrecks. Following the campaigns of the Central Pacific (Nimitz) starting with the Gilberts and ending with Okinawa, I found quite a few.

1. Iwo Jima
2. Taroa, Maloelap Atoll, Marshalls
3. Betio, Tarawa Atoll, Gilberts.

JT


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## Gnomey (Nov 6, 2006)

Interesting site Pbfoot.


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## pbfoot (Nov 6, 2006)

Gnomey said:


> Interesting site Pbfoot.


yep they make the best documentaries they will make it to Discovery and History Channel in a couple of years 
check out their flight menu


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## Gnomey (Nov 6, 2006)

Yeah there looks to be some good ones there, shame they are being shown mostly over in the US and Canada.


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## syscom3 (Nov 6, 2006)

I remember watching this Jacque Cousteau's documentary on this in 1971. It really ignited my interest in the war in the Pacific.

Truk Lagoon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...In 1969, the famous French oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau and his team explored Truk Lagoon. Following Cousteau’s 1971 television documentary about the lagoon and its ghostly remains, the place became a scuba diving paradise, drawing wreck diving enthusiasts from around the world to see its numerous and virtually intact sunken ships. Scattered mainly around the Dublon, Eten, Fefan and Uman islands within the Truk group, a number of the shipwrecks lie in crystal clear waters less than fifteen meters below the surface. In waters devoid of normal ocean currents, divers can easily swim across decks littered with gas masks and depth charges and below deck can be found numerous human remains. In the massive ship holds are row upon row of fighter aircraft, tanks, bulldozers, railroad cars, motorcycles, torpedoes, mines, bombs, boxes of munitions, radios, plus thousands of other weapons, spare parts, and other artifacts.

In the politically incorrect times of 1971, the show he prodiced even showed some Japanese skulls and bones still left in one of the IJN ships that was sunk!


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