The Akutan Zero – the first intact to be captured by the US in 1942 and the last flight of Tadayoshi Koga
By Pierre Kosmidis In June 1942, as part of the Japanese Midway operation, the Japanese attacked the Aleutian islands, off the south coast of Alaska. A Japanese task force led by Admiral Kakuji Kakuta bombed Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island twice, once on June 3 and again the following day. Tadayoshi Koga, a 19-year-old flight […]
The WW2 submarine wreck sticking out of the seabed!
By Pierre Kosmidis Photos: Ura Tamaki The graveyard of no less than 24 Japanese submarines was located at a depth of approximately 200 metres close to Goto Islands in Japan. These submarines, along with other Imperial Japanese vessels were scuttled by the US Forces, after the end of WW2, following a close evaluation of their […]
The Greek ship turned into a Japanese “Hell ship” that took 688 US PoW’s with her
By Pierre Kosmidis In May 1942 Japan began transferring POWs by sea in ships that were rightfully called “Hell Ships”, due to the fact that prisoners were not being treated as humans, receiving no respect whatsoever by the Japanese and were often crammed into cargo holds with little air, food or water for journeys that would […]
Aviation Archaeology: Unearthing the WW2 treasures of “Project Lusty”
By Pierre Kosmidis Photos: David J. Gray/Freeman Field Recovery Team Additional reading: Planehunters: Finding WW2 crashed aircraft and keeping the memories alive Shot down but not forgotten: The search for lost WW2 airmen and their crashed aircraft (PHOTOS and VIDEO) Aviation enthusiasts and archaeologists unearthed possibly the largest “treasure trove” of WW2 aircraft parts and […]
Rod Pearce: Searching for WW2 aircraft wrecks and giving closure
By Pierre Kosmidis Rod Pearce has dedicated his time and efforts finding underwater aircraft wrecks and seeking closure to the families of hundreds -if not thousands- of Missing in Action (MIA) airmen from all nations that fought during World War Two. Rod has been diving in Papua New Guinea for 40 years and is credited […]
Photogrammetry: Documenting WW2 Wrecks in 3D
By Pierre Kosmidis Images: NOAA Bert Ho from the National Park Service Submerged Resources Center explains a new approach to documenting WW2 Wrecks: “Photogrammetry is a method of taking measurements or distances between objects from photographs. Usually, these measurements and distances can produce underwater 3D models of WW2 aircraft wrecks. Photogrammetry is visually a great […]
The Battle of the Coral Sea “stray” Zero
By Pierre Kosmidis A Japanese Zero fighter is resting in the shallow waters of Deboyne Lagoon, since 1942. This aircraft was ditched by her pilot, when the Zero ran out of fuel, because the carrier out of which it started her mission was sunk by US forces, during the Battle of the Coral Sea. […]
The bamboo war: Japanese dummy aircraft of WW2
By Pierre Kosmidis Photos: U.S. National Archives Since antiquity, fooling the enemy was an important element of warfare. The Japanese during WW2 used a series of decoy tactics, in order to fool their enemies in targeting dummy aircraft instead of the real ones. Some of their attempts proved to be so successful that after the […]
The intact Nakajima B5N “Kate” of Kavieng, Papua New Guinea, by Rod Pearce
By Pierre Kosmidis Rod Pearce has dedicated his time and efforts finding underwater aircraft wrecks and seeking closure to the families of hundreds -if not thousands- of Missing in Action (MIA) airmen from all nations that fought during World War Two. Rod has been diving in Papua New Guinea for 40 years and is credited […]
FOUND! An intact Mitsubishi Zero A6M2b “Reisen” 零式艦上戦闘機
By Pierre Kosmidis Rod Pearce has dedicated his time and efforts finding underwater aircraft wrecks and seeking closure to the families of hundreds -if not thousands- of Missing in Action (MIA) airmen from all nations that fought during World War Two. Rod has been diving in Papua New Guinea for 40 years and is credited […]