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In the early morning of September 24, 1944 at 05:50 am, Task Force 38 took off on a flight to their target 350 miles away from their aircraft carriers. A total of 180 aircrafts, F6F Hellcat fighters and SB2C Helldiver bombers were on their way to Coron Bay. This was the longest distance a Task Force flew at this time in history. At 09:00 am, the planes reached Coron and found 15-18 large enemy ships anchored in the bay. Only 45 minutes later, they left the bay, leaving behind a hell of burning oil, manganese and exploding, sinking ships. One of these sinking ships was the AKITSUSHIMA, a real impressive Japanese warship about 140m long.
The vessel was a flying boat tender. It returned fire with all its guns during the raid, but there was no chance to escape the US attack. A bomb exploded near the engine room. The heavy explosion destroyed the superstructure and the ship sunk immediately. 56 years later, on the same day and time, the International Dive Team consisting of seven divers from Luxembourg, three Australian divers, an American Diver and two German dive guides from "DISCOVERY DIVERS" went on a memorial dive at the AKITSUSHIMA, one of the best warship wrecks in the Philippines. The wreck lies on its starboard side. We swam along his impressive crane (at about 37 meters), which was used to lift the seaplanes (Kawanishi H8K-types, nicknamed EMILY) in and out the water. The AA guns can still be seen at a depth of 28 meters. Some of the team entered the ship by the stern and moved on to the bow. We passed a lot of rooms, floors & corridors at different deck levels. As we left the wreck through the bow section, a big school of barracudas escorted us to where we did our decompression stops.
In memory of all the fallen soldiers of the Japanese Navy and the US Navy, may peace remain from this day on. Luxembourg divers were Remy, Lio, Marcel, Carole, Lou, Carlo and Chris. Australian divers were Haydn Edgar John and Gloria Ogir. USA diver was Joel Santos. German Divers from Discovery Divers were Gunter Bernert and Konstantin Buzgar. Note: All divers penetrating the wreck are certified wreck divers and trained in Nitrox and decompression procedures. It was a fantastic but emotional dive for all, remembering what happened on that day in 1944. It was also great to see that 56 years later, multi-national divers could dive together in peace and harmony, enjoying "wreck diving" together. |
