New Delhi: A number of spine-chilling images from the eerie depth of Chuuk island have recently emerged in the public domain.
These snippets from the mysterious depths of Micronesia’s Chuuk island, which were captured during a trip underwater, provide a glimpse at mankind’s forgotten dark history and people are seeing them as the pictures of the ‘world’s largest underwater graveyard’.
In these cold & quiet depths of idyllic Chuchuk, fallen ships from the WW2 era can be found sitting still on the seabed, forgotten by time.
Besides the remains of these once mighty warships, this underwater graveyard is also home to wreckage of WW II era’s fighter planes, military vehicles, fallen soldiers’ mortal remains, and their other personal belongings that serve as a living testament to the horrors of human history’s biggest bloodbath of Second World War.
The area has become a center of attraction for brave photographs and tourists who have the guts to dive into these haunting depths of Chuuk island and loot these precious World War-era wastes from the bed of the cold ocean.
Wreckage is from Operation Hailstorm
It is believed that these rotting sunken ships and fallen fighter planes were swallowed by the sea around 80 years ago during the deadly armed conflict between the United States and the Empire of Japan, popularly referred to as Operation Hailstorm (1944)
In this two-day-long deadly conflict between two arch-enemy nations of that time, approximately 250 Japanese fighter aircraft were shot down by the American troops. Over a dozen warships were also sunken during the deadly war that claimed the lives of more than 4,600 soldiers.
The Japanese were never able to recover from the unforgiving consequences of this battle which not only left them with heavy casualties but also resulted in a loss of 17,000 tons of reserved fuel.
What’s incredibly fascinating is that the wreckage of a number of these drowned ships and planes is still lying intact and in good shape under the coasts of the Philippines, Indonesia & Papua New Guinea.
Haunted by the souls of fallen troops
While this erie location is one of the most fascinating diving spots for many, a section of people advise against the same while claiming that the wandering souls of the fallen Japanese & American troops haunt in the darkness of the deep sea beneath the Idylic Chuuk island.
However, despite its association with urban legend & connection with the bloody World War II, the place has always attracted a lot of visitors and divers who have kept coming here to feel and see the remains of one of the most infamous chapters of mankind’s history.
