Concentrated Ship Wrecks

Discussions on WW2 in the Pacific and the Sino-Japanese War.
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Pips
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Concentrated Ship Wrecks

#1

Post by Pips » 21 Dec 2017, 01:40

Found this fascinating map of ships sunk in Iron Bottom Sound, made infamous during the Guadalcanal sea battles of '42 and '43.

Quite mind-boggling, and testament to the savage sea battles throughout the Guadalcanal campaign. Losses among US destroyers were exceptionally severe. I remember reading in 'South Pacific Destroyer' by Russell Crenshaw that life expectancy of surviving a deployment was very low.

The only other spot that would come close to the naval losses suffered around Guadalcanal would, I suppose, be in the Mediterranean. But I don't have any numbers for that Sea; and of course it is a far larger area.

By the by, the map is courtesy of: By User:W.wolny, Upload from German Wikipedia
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Wrecks_in_the_Ironbottom_Sound.jpg

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Kingfish
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Re: Concentrated Ship Wrecks

#2

Post by Kingfish » 19 Jan 2018, 12:38

Had the map been extended just a bit more to the NW it would have included the cruiser Furataka and destroyers Natsugumo and Murakumo, all lost during the battle of Cape Esperance and subsequent retreat
The gods do not deduct from a man's allotted span the hours spent in fishing.
~Babylonian Proverb


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Takao
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Re: Concentrated Ship Wrecks

#3

Post by Takao » 20 Jan 2018, 02:36

Truk(Chuuk) Lagoon & Truk Islands would be another
Image

Bikini Atoll would be a third location in the Pacific that comes to mind.

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dgfred
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Re: Concentrated Ship Wrecks

#4

Post by dgfred » 23 Jan 2018, 21:56

Thanks for those maps! Nice.

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Pips
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Re: Concentrated Ship Wrecks

#5

Post by Pips » 24 Jan 2018, 01:24

Good heavens. I hadn't realised that so many ships were sunk in and around Truk lagoon.

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Kingfish
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Re: Concentrated Ship Wrecks

#6

Post by Kingfish » 24 Jan 2018, 03:03

Pips wrote:Good heavens. I hadn't realised that so many ships were sunk in and around Truk lagoon.
TF 58 had a field day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hailstone
The gods do not deduct from a man's allotted span the hours spent in fishing.
~Babylonian Proverb

Rob Stuart
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Re: Concentrated Ship Wrecks

#7

Post by Rob Stuart » 24 Jan 2018, 04:34

The only other spot that would come close to the naval losses suffered around Guadalcanal would, I suppose, be in the Mediterranean.
A hell of a lot of ships were sunk in the English Channel during the war. Possibly there are some places of similar size, perhaps off Dunkirk or Normandy, where there are as many wrecks as there are in Iron Bottom Sound, but I'm just guessing.

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Kingfish
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Re: Concentrated Ship Wrecks

#8

Post by Kingfish » 24 Jan 2018, 23:59

The fjords around Narvik also contain multiple wrecks. In addition to the 10 German destroyers there are also 2 British and one Polish destroyer, a U-boat, two old Norwegian coast defense ironclads and a score of merchant ships.
The gods do not deduct from a man's allotted span the hours spent in fishing.
~Babylonian Proverb

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