Rod Macdonald's video: Diving the wreck of the Japanese transport ship Hanagawa Maru - Truk Lagoon

On the night of 16 February 1944, the 9 aircraft carriers of Task Force 58, carrying some 500 strike aircraft, arrived undetected about 100 miles off the Japanese Pacific stronghold of Truk. Truk was home to the Japanese Combined Fleet - and a heavily fortified powerful air base with several airfields and seaplane bases. At 0430 the following morning, 17 February 1944, 72 Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters launched in darkness from the carriers for a surprise initial fighter sweep of Truk. The Hellcats arrived undetected over Truk, catching and destroying many Japanese Zero fighters on the ground.Many other Zero's however were able to rise into the air to challenge the Hellcats - in what became one of the largest aerial dogfights of WWII. The Hellcats shot the inferior Zero's from the sky and then over the 2-days of Operation HAILSTONE, successive waves of dive bombers and torpedo bombers sunk some 50 Japanese ships in the lagoon and destroyed some 275 aircraft. Truk had been neutralised and could be bypassed. The 4,793-ton transport ship Hanagawa Maru was anchored at the fuelling dock on Tol Island offloading her volatile cargo of aviation gasoline in 55-gallon drums when she was attacked by four TBF torpedo bombers from the carrier Bunker Hill. One torpedo hit her on the starboard side of Hold No 2. The explosion ignited her dangerous cargo and blew a large hole in the side of the ship. She sank quickly, ablaze. Today the wreck of Hanagawa Maru sits upright in 30 metres of water.