Scary and fascinating: the world's largest underwater cemetery (12 photos)

The remains of thousands of American and Japanese military personnel are buried there.





The Truk Islands in Micronesia were discovered by Spanish navigators. Then they passed to the USA, Germany, and at the beginning of the 20th century they were occupied by the Japanese. And they set up a military base there with almost a thousand ships and 500 aircraft.





It was Japan's most formidable and equipped supporter in the Pacific. And then the American Air Force took over it.





In 1945, the base was subjected to a two-day bombardment: 400 aircraft and most of the Japanese fleet ended up at the bottom of the lagoon. He was already battered by that time, and these blows simply finished him off. At the same time, runways, hangars, workshops and shipyards were destroyed.







The depth there is small - up to 60 meters. And now researchers and divers of all stripes are exploring a real underwater cemetery. Entirely made of military equipment, overgrown with corals, and thousands of remains of soldiers.