Truk Lagoon or Chuuk Lagoon
Imperial Japanese Navy's Fourth Fleet Base
At the start of WWII in 1939, Truk Lagoon became the the base for the Imperial Japanese Navy Fourth Fleet, becoming the base for the Combined Fleet between 1942 and 1944. It acted as Japan’s main forward navel base in the Pacific.
In the early part of the war and as victories came easily to the Japanese onslaught, Truk served as the forward anchorage for the Japanese Imperial Fleet. When the Japanese Imperial Army arrived in numbers in January 1944, Truk was considered poorly equipped to defend itself. To defend against any amphibious invasion, the army established numerous coastal defence and anti-aircraft positions.
Operation Hailstone
The IJN warships immediately left the lagoon to Palau, Singapore and Japan. Many of the smaller warships, destroyers and other vessels, including navel auxiliaries stayed behind. The auxiliaries could not depart so quick as they were offloading or still had supplies of tanks, mines, artillery, land vehicles, aircraft parts, aviation fuel and ammunition.
Toxic Aftermath
After the war, the sunken Japanese ships were left to rust at the bottom of the lagoon. The world moved on and the sunken ships of Truk Lagoon were forgotten about by the outside world.
Lagoon Of Lost Ships
The First Dive Shop
Since these days, Truk Lagoon has gone on to become the most celebrated diving location in the world. But even today and despite the countless millions of dives made in the lagoon, several of the ships known to have been sunk in the lagoon still remain undiscovered. Other vessels, known to have been present in Truk at the time of the attack have submerged outside of the lagoon and too deep for conventional scuba divers. Their exploration will be left to the divers and underwater explorers of the future.
Ship Identifiers, Silhouettes, Location and Description
Scuba Diving In Truk Lagoon Today
Getting There
Dive Operators - Resorts
Dive Operators - Liveaboard
This section is outdated. More details coming soon…..
Diving The Nippo Maru
Her five holds are packed full with ammunition and armaments of all kinds. Hemispherical mines, cannon barrels, gun mounts for shore batteries, machine guns, gas masks, bronze rangefinders and small arms ammunition of all kinds lie scattered all around this wreck. The bridge is almost intact with its ships compass and engine telegraph.
Engine Room Penetration Of The Shinkoku Maru
On 17th February 1944 and while anchored northwest of Fefan Island, Shinkoku Maru was hit amidships by a bomb dropped by a Douglas SBD “Dauntless” dive-bomber from USS Yorktown. Grumman TBF “Avengers” from USS Bunker Hill dropped six torpedoes on her, but all their torpedoes miss.