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Research vessel found first US ship to fire a shot in WW II

A deep sea exploration mission funded by billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen has found five Japanese naval ships that sunk during World War II in the southern Philippines, the team’s leaders said on Dec 7, 2017, aboard the "Petrel", which on Dec 3 had docked in Suriago on the northernmost tip of Mindanao island, the team presented images of what are believed to be wrecks of the Japanese warships "Yamashiro", "Fuso", "Yamagumo", "Asagumo" and "Michishio" found between Nov. 22 and 29 on the seabed in the Surigao Strait. The five were among seven Imperial Japanese Navy ships that took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait from late at night on Oct. 24 until before sunrise on Oct. 25, 1944. Although greatly outnumbered, the Japanese vessels engaged in a ship-to-ship battle with the U.S. and Australian naval forces seeking to wrest control of the Philippines from Japan. Some 4,000 Japanese combatants perished in that battle. The Fuso-class dreadnought battleships "Yamashiro" and "Fuso" were found upside down, with the former mostly intact and the latter broken. The Asashio-class destroyers "Asagumo" and probable "Michishio" were found intact, while the probable "Yamagumo", a destroyer of the same class, was severed into two. Wrecks suspected to be the "Yamagumo" and "Michishio", which were 2 kilometers apart at the same latitude, were found in shallower areas of just above 100 meters depth. The research team explained they could not ascertain positive identification of the "Yamagumo" and "Michishio" due to their identical features. The three other vessels were submerged some 200 meters deep. The ships were in very poor condition, obviously, because of what happened to them. And the overgrowth is very prolific. They now provide a fantastic marine habitat. Since the exploration was only external, no interior images of the ships were generated. No remains of Japanese sailors were found, either. The data was to be provided to Japan’s National Institute of Defense Studies in Tokyo, and to the Kure Maritime Museum, also known as the Yamato Museum, in the Hiroshima Prefecture. The team did not remove anything from the sites asthese ships are war graves, so they need to be treated with due respect to these brave men that served on these ships and perished there. After the Surigao Strait expedition, the survey mission proceeded to nearby Ormoc Bay where it found the wreckages of two U.S. Navy destroyers, the USS "Ward" and the USS "Cooper", in waters some 250 meters deep. USS "Ward" was the U.S. Navy destroyer that fired the first American shot in World War II. On Dec 1, 2017, the expedition crew sent its ROV to explore and document the remains of the vessel. The Wickes-class destroyer serving the U.S. Navy, had been patrolling the Pearl Harbor entrance on the morning of Dec 7, 1941, when the Officer-of-the-Deck spotted an 80-foot-long, midget submarine, trailing the USS "Antares" into the harbor. The USS Ward accelerated to bear down on the submarine. Just three minutes after first sight of the submarine, the USS "Ward" fired the first American shot in World War II. The submarine the crew sank was one of five top secret Japanese vessels, each armed with two torpedoes that intended to penetrate the harbor under cover of darkness before the attack began. The enemy air attack on Pearl Harbor, and throughout Oahu, started about an hour after the USS "Ward" sank the midget submarine. On Dec 7, 1944, three years to the day, the USS "Ward" was lost after coming under attack by several kamikazes. She had been patrolling Ormoc Bay off the island of Leyte, serving as a high-speed transport for troops. She was hit at the waterline amidships by one of the attacking kamikaze. Unable to extinguish the resulting fire that was now consuming the ship, the crew was ordered to abandon ship. She was soon scuttled by an accompanying ship, the USS "O’Brien" with commanding officer Lt. Cmdr. William Outerbridge, who had been in command of the USS "Ward" during the attack on Pearl Harbor three years earlier. Only one USS "Ward" crew member was injured throughout the day’s events. Reports with photos and video: https://maritime-executive.com/article/uss-ward-wreck-found-in-philippines https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/12/07/national/history/wrecks-believed-5-japanese-wartime-ships-found-southern-philippines/#.WilsT3aDPIU

Research ship explored sunken war relics

From Dec 1 to 2, 2017, the "Petrel" has conducted a two-day exploration for the World War II battleship USS "Ward" that sank in the waters of Ormoc Bay. The historic warship from the United States fired the first shot against the Japanese during the Pearl Harbor bombing in Hawaii. It was sunk by a kamikaze, or a Japanese suicide pilot, on Dec 7, 1944. There was no update yet on whether the underwater wreckage found included the remains of the USS "Ward". there were three U.S. destroyers, six Japanese destroyers, a Japanese submarine, and many Japanese cargo ship on the sea bed. Six targets in deep water are not accessible by divers and thus not exposed to the risk of salvage. However, there have been other discoveries in these waters, as the "Petrel" explored five shipwrecks in Surigao Strait on Nov 21. These were the sunken battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), possibly "Yamashiro", "Fuso", "Yamagumo", "Michishio" and "Asagumo". Apositive identification of the wrecks of the "Yamagumo" and "Michishio" remained unanswered and will need further study by historians. The "Yamashiro", "Fuso" and "Asagumo" were identifiable based on the class of ship and their geography. Report with photos: http://cnnphilippines.com/regional/2017/12/04/rv-petrel-search-sunken-battleship-USS-Ward-Ormoc-Bay.html