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Text: Zhang Runchen
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introduction
The vast Pacific Ocean looks quite beautiful, both from the sky and from the sea. But on this beautiful ocean, there was an incomparably tragic war, and this war was the Pacific War.
And in the Pacific War, both the United States and Japan were sunk a large number of ships. In general, the vast majority of sunken ships were found by the host country after the war. But there is one exception to this, and this exception has not been seen for 75 years, and that is the US Navy submarine "Gray Whale".
(Submarine wreckage)
1. Gray whale, gray whale, where are you
The "Gray Whale" is a diesel-electric submarine of the US military's "Sparrow Eel"-class diesel-electric submarine. Its main armament was ten 533-mm torpedo tubes, one 76-mm deck gun, and two machine guns. The submarine carried 24 torpedoes, enough to sink several Japanese Navy warships. During World War II, the role of the U.S. military's submarines can be said to be quite large.
During World War II, the Japanese army had more than 20 aircraft carriers, and nine of them were eventually sunk by US submarines. It can be seen that the submarines of the US military can indeed be called "aircraft carrier killers". The "Gray Whale" also has a very dazzling record, with a total of 10 combat cruises, almost every time it is a long-distance operation.
(Submersible)
Submarines are lurking beneath the surface and often operate alone, with little support from friendly forces, especially in long-range missions. This kind of loneliness and fear under the surface of the water has never been something that ordinary people can bear. And the fact that the "Gray Whale" was able to complete it ten times also shows the strength of its crew.
During its ten combat cruises, the Gray Whale sank enemy ships and rescued friendly troops, but it was never hit by enemy troops. However, in 1944, on the eve of the imminent victory in World War II, the good fortune of the "Gray Whale" came to an end. On February 24, 1944, the "Gray Whale" successfully attacked a Japanese escort formation and began to retreat towards its home port.
(Web image)
On February 27, the "Gray Whale" sank the Japanese freighter "Ceylon Maru" in the East China Sea, but was discovered by Japanese seaplanes. Subsequently, Japanese fighters began to attack the "Gray Whale", and the "Gray Whale" was hit and "sank immediately". In fact, the "Gray Whale" did not sink immediately, but the Japanese fighters called the destroyer.
The destroyer repeatedly dropped depth charges, completely destroying the "Gray Whale", and even the sea surface was covered with a large amount of oil at that time. After the Japanese sunk the "Gray Whale", the location where the "Gray Whale" was sunk was recorded as usual. And this has become the only clue to find the whereabouts of the "Gray Whale".
(Submarine wreckage)
2. Look for the "Gray Whale".
After the war, the United States never gave up the search for the "Gray Whale". The U.S. military retrieved the relevant archives of the Japanese Navy and successfully found the relevant information of the "Gray Whale". However, according to the relevant information of the Japanese army, they found that there was no "Gray Whale" at all.
The U.S. military began to wonder if the Japanese file was mismarked. But in fact, there is no error in the relevant records of the Japanese Navy, but the US military omitted a number when translating the records. It was this missing figure that caused the US military to look for a position that deviated by a full 160 kilometers from the real location.
(Wreckage)
It wasn't until 2010 that this omission was discovered. In the same year, the American Explorers Association organized a search, but did not find the Gray Whale at the sinking location. It was not until November 2019 that the United States finally found the wreckage of the "Gray Whale" 80 nautical miles south of Okinawa, about 430 meters underwater.
Indeed, there is indeed a certain deviation in the location of the wreckage of the "Gray Whale" from the marked position of the Japanese army. But this is due to the peculiarities of submarines, which, after being sunk, do not sink immediately. As long as the corresponding containment measures are not completely destroyed, then the submarine will be suspended for some time.
(Submersible)
During this time, the wreckage of the submarine will float with the currents and slowly descend until it finally bottoms out. It is likely that the Gray Whale had a similar experience and eventually drifted from the marked position to a location south of Okinawa. At that time, the relevant scientific content had not yet been discovered.
Even if this could be supported theoretically, there is no technology to find it. This is one of the main reasons why the "Gray Whale" was not discovered until the 21st century. The discovery of the "Gray Whale" is considered to be the fulfillment of the obsession in the hearts of many people, but the US government does not plan to salvage the "Gray Whale", why is this?
(Submersible)
3. Reasons for not salvage
It has been a full 75 years since the original sinking of the Gray Whale. In the past 75 years, the "Gray Whale" itself has actually become a part of the local marine ecology, and to some extent, it is not that the United States is unwilling to salvage it. Rather, as the country where the "Gray Whale" sank site, as well as China and Japan within the influence of the sinking site, do not want the local ecological environment to be destroyed.
It's like if a volcano destroys a coral reef, it will cause the local ecological fabric to collapse. In a way, the Gray Whale has truly become a "whale fall", providing a habitat for a large number of marine life. In the long years of 75 years, the corpse of the crew of the "Gray Whale" is likely to have been completely degraded naturally, and it is of little significance to salvage it.
(Submersible)
Even if the bodies of the crew are still there, the rough salvage work is likely to lead to the destruction of the corpses. Because of the environmental impact of 75 years, it will definitely cause the corpses of the crew to become very fragile. To a certain extent, forcibly salvaging the submarine is a kind of "disturbance" to the dead crew.
However, although the corpses of the crew may have degraded, it is very likely that the ammunition in the wreckage of the submarine has not completely "lost its effect". Although the "Gray Whale" consumed all the torpedoes, not a single shell from its deck main guns was fired. Therefore, there is still a certain danger in salvage, which is actually a problem that all warships need to face in salvage.
Therefore, in the international naval community, it has become an "unwritten rule" not to salvage the wreckage of warships. As for the United States, they also do not need to worry about whether China will salvage the Gray Whale. After all, in the era when humans have been able to go to space, what is the significance of the wreckage of the "Gray Whale" in addition to its own historical value?
Resources
The United States has found a World War II submarine that has been missing for 75 years, located near Okinawa, and is suspected to have been bombed. [OL].2019.11.12.
U.S. World War II submarine was found on the bottom of Okinawa: missing for 75 years due to a mistranslation of the sunken information. [OL].2019.11.13.
The United States found a World War II submarine that had been missing for 75 years, located near Okinawa, and was suspected to have been bombed.People's Daily Online [Citation date:2019-11-12]