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We SCUBA dive a Japanese sub and an American bomber aeroplane in the Pacific Theatre – Diving World War II history in the Solomon Islands
They say that loose lips sink ships – but so do guns and wars!
This season of Expedition Drenched has brought our crew to (probably) the most beautiful place on earth, both above and below the water. The crystal-clear, warm, turquoise waters gave us almost too many excellent SCUBA dives to count and the lush green hills of the Solomon Islands introduced us to village after village of friendly and welcoming locals.
The Expedition Drenched crew spends a lot of time fighting to keep man-made things out of our ocean waters, but sometimes these things get into the water anyway. Wars around the world have left an untold number of shipwrecks and aeroplane wrecks on the ocean floor. One war, in particular, left a huge impact on the South Pacific – World War II.
The fighting in the Pacific Theatre during WWII was intense and a good deal of it was centred around the Guadalcanal area. So while we’re here we just had to strap on our SCUBA equipment and jump in to check out some of the wreckage left behind from the worst war in human history.
Guadalcanal is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area and the second most populated. It is a tropical paradise with deep blue and turquoise waters surrounding lush green flatlands and jungle-covered mountains. The tallest peak in the Solomon Islands is on Guadalcanal too.
Despite Guadalcanal and the rest of the Solomon Islands being one of the most idyllic places on earth, this area of the world saw some of the most intense battles during WWII. It was an extremely important strategic outpost in the Pacific Theatre for both the Allied forces and the Japanese.
At the beginning of 1942, Japanese forces landed in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Their goal was two-fold: to build a naval base that could protect the Japanese offensive and to create bases that could break supply lines for the Allied forces. The Allied forces didn’t really like this Japanese tactic and they launched their Guadalcanal campaign on August 7, 1942. The fighting was bloody and drawn out, but eventually, the Allies were able to stop the Japanese by inflicting terrible losses on their military assets. While the Japanese kept resisting and engaging in the odd, isolated battle, the Allies were able to reclaim many of the Solomon Islands and neutralize strategic Japanese positions.
The I-1 type of Japanese submarine was a large cruiser sub and was the lead unit of the four submarines in her class. The specific I-1 sub that we were looking to dive was originally commissioned in 1926 and she has one heck of a history.
This submarine served in the Second Sino-Japanese War and WWII. During the latter, she supported the attack on Pearl Harbor, ran anti-shipping patrols in the Indian Ocean, and participated in the Aleutian Islands campaign and the Guadalcanal campaign. This particular submarine was no stranger to combat and was pretty lucky during her lifetime – until her mission near Guadalcanal where she was attacked by two New Zealand warships, the HMNZS Moa and Kiwi.
The Moa and the Kiwi began patrolling the Guadalcanal area on December 19, 1942, and on the night of January 29, 1943, they found themselves near the Kamimbo Bay area of Guadalcanal, a Japanese-controlled area. The I-1 sub surfaced and headed for the port but was spotted by the Moa and the Kiwi.
A heavy battle ensued and the sub submerged itself to avoid the powerful guns on the two attacking ships. But, not only did the ocean not give her a safe place to hide, but the ocean also gave away her position. The large submarine was moving through bioluminescent plankton-filled water that lit up the underwater vessel for the attacking forces to clearly see. The New Zealand warships took advantage of this natural help and dropped depths charges that successfully brought the I-1 back up to the surface. The Kiwi rammed the submarine three times and eventually ran it aground on a shallow reef near the shore where it still sits today.
Bioluminescence is one of the most amazing phenomena in the natural world. It’s a process where a living organism is capable of producing certain chemicals that produce light. That’s right. Bioluminescent creatures come with their own lightbulbs.
The most well-known example of bioluminescence is fireflies. Also known as glowworms or lightning bugs, fireflies are soft-bodied beetles that live in the marshes and wooded areas of temperate and tropical climates. They have specialized cells in their abdomens that allow them to produce light. The entire chemical process that occurs within these cells is super complex but essentially the cells contain chemicals that produce light when exposed to oxygen. Believe it or not, a firefly can also control the beginning and end of the chemical reaction. It can turn its light on and off by allowing or disallowing oxygen access to the cells.
While fireflies might be the most common example of bioluminescence in the natural world, the majority of creatures who are bioluminescent live in the oceans. From tiny little bacteria to large predatory sharks, the examples of marine bioluminescence are endless and extraordinary. Not only does the bioluminescence adaptation exist throughout the entire range of marine organisms, but it’s also found in all marine habitats from the surface to the deep sea floor.
The bioluminescence that gave away the I-1 submarine’s position occurred in the surface waters and was generated by a bloom of plankton. It might seem crazy that a bloom of microscopic creatures can produce enough light to give away the position of a well-designed submarine, but it’s true. As the plankton are disturbed in their watery home, they become bioluminescent to (it’s believed) deter any more interaction from a potential predator.
SCUBA divers often take advantage of this apparent defence mechanism to give themselves a little fun when they’re diving at night. If you turn off your underwater torch during a night dive so that it’s as dark in the water as it can be, then move your arms around rapidly, things in the water will start to glow. The small organisms in the water begin to produce light because they believe the rapid change of water movements is a danger to them.
After the Japanese I-1 submarine ran aground on a reef, the surviving Japanese soldiers abandoned the ship, leaving everything behind. The submarine’s commander, Lt. Koreeda, quickly realized that during the evacuation, they’d left behind things that could be very useful to the Allies – like code books, charts, lists of Japanese marine designations, future military plans, and more. He knew that they had to go back to the stricken submarine.
During the night of February 2, 1943, Lt. Koreeda, two junior officers, five crew members, and eleven other Japanese sailors returned to the I-1 sub-armed with depth charges that they hoped would destroy the vessel. The charges weren’t quite strong enough but they did do enough damage to make most salvage attempts useless. Not all attempts, however. The Americans were able to retrieve a code book from the destroyed I-1 sub that eventually allowed them to crack the Japanese code.
It’s estimated that there are 200 shipwrecks and 690 aeroplane wrecks in the Guadalcanal area. That’s a lot of history hidden beneath the waves! We couldn’t bear sailing to such a history-filled area and only diving one of the WWII wrecks. After exploring the Japanese submarine, we piloted our little boat over to an American B17 bomber just offshore from the village of Ndomo.
This particular aeroplane wreck is a Boeing B17 ‘Flying Fortress’ Bomber originally built in Seattle, Washington. The plane was affectionately called Bessie by its crew. In September 1942, Bessie was relocated to Henderson Airbase in Guadalcanal. On the 24th of that month, she took part in a bombing mission to Tonolei in New Guinea to destroy a Japanese seabase.
During the bombing raid, Bessie was heavily attacked by Japanese Zeros (a type of fighter plane). She was in rough shape and she tried desperately to return to Guadalcanal, but she didn’t make it. She ditched at sea a mere 180m from the shore, 30km inside a Japanese-controlled area.
Bessie’s captain was badly injured in the crash but managed to make it to shore and evade capture by the Japanese for six days. A gunner also survived the crash and managed to escape capture. His remains were found in the Guadalcanal hills after the Japanese retreated. The fates of the other crew members remain a mystery.
The final resting place for this proud American aircraft is a patch of black volcanic sand sitting on the fringes of a lush coral reef. She’s missing her tail but otherwise, she’s still intact with her four large engines still hanging from the wings and seats still attached in the cockpit. The wreck is now crusted in brightly-coloured corals and sponges and its aluminium alloy construction means that it’s been able to withstand the corrosive effects of an eternity at sea. It still looks just like an aeroplane!
The marine life that call the waters of the South Pacific home didn’t ask for war and certainly were not part of the conflict that brought so many countries to arms. WWII was destructive on land and also on our seas. Years of constant fighting, explosions, fuel spills and metal vessels littering the ocean floor brought havoc to the marine world. SCUBA diving on these WWII wrecks really helped the Expedition Drenched crew to remember a very uncertain time in the history of the world, but it also reminded us that the marine environment is capable of regrowth and regeneration. Just look at all the coral and life that you can find on these historical wrecks.
Happy (history) bubbles!
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