TRUK LAGOON

11 Tortuga Bay divers journeyed to the islands of Chuuk in Micronesia.  These islands are the site of Truk Lagoon.  In the late 1930's, the Japanese built a major naval base at Truk Lagoon.  It's natural reef formation which completely circled the island chain, combined with the string of islands scattered around inside the reef, made this area a natural fort and very difficult to attack.  The Japanese used Truk Lagoon as a staging area and repair facility for it's Navy and air corps. In so doing, they were able to stage attacks on many of the Pacific war areas not accessible from their mainland.  Since there were no satellites in the early 1940's, Truk Lagoon was kept a secret for many years.  In late 1943, the US Navy sent a long distance bomber over the area and took photos.  From the data gathered on that flight Operation Hailstone was planned.  In the early morning hours of February 17, 1944,  United States Navy task force 58, complete with 5 fleet carriers and 4 light carriers,  launched an air attack on Truk Lagoon.  For two days more than 500 US aircraft bombed and straffed the air bases and ships at anchor in Truk Lagoon.  In the end, all the air bases were out of commission and over 40 Japanese war vessels were sunk or sinking.  The US armed forces decided against pursuing a ground attack as they had essentially isolated the area and none of the 40,000 or so Japanese troops could go anyplace.  It was a major turning point of WWII.

Our group enjoyed a wonderful week of glass smooth surface waters and living in luxury aboard the Odyssey.  In total we dove on 14 of the more popular wrecks, including the San Francisco Maru, one of the deepest and more famous of all the wrecks.  The following photos are but just a few taken on the trip.

The bow of one of the wrecks	Artifacts from a wreck
Coral growth was abundant	A deck winch
A typical view from the inside of a vessel	An operating room, complete with human remains
Japanese bath	Ladder leading to upper deck
One of MANY Saki bottles	Coral growth was amazing
Gauges in an engine room	Interior of vessel
Coral growth on a railing stanchion	Unique coral formation with  Clown Anenomie Fish
Telegraph on Deck	Some friends came to join us outside the reef
Preparing for a Shark feed	Feeding Frenzy
This is where we suffered between dives	Our lounge on the Odyssey
Telegraph in an engine room	One of the two massive screws on the Rio de Janerio Maru
Ghostly shadows on deck	Exploring the interior
Ron flies a "real" Japanese Zero	Plaque placed on 50th anniversary
The torpedo hole that sunk the Fujikawa Maru	A truck in a hold
Machine guns, cannon shell and gas mask	Artillery guns strapped to deck
Steering console in main control station	A Betty Bomber
Interior looking out of the Betty Bomber	7.65 mm ammunition in a hold
Same 7.62 mm ammunition stacked in hold.  Thousands were there.	Japanese tank on the deck of the San Francisco Maru
The main Japanese communications center on island.  Now a High School.	Interior of school, complete with bomb proof doors.
A tunnel built into the side of a hill on the main island	This is what the tunnel led to.
One of the many islands making up Truk Lagoon	And the sun sets on our adventure
The luxurious "Odyssey" awaits it's next group of adventurers.

Thanks to the adventurous travelers who made this journey.