⌛ World War II Wreck Diving

I have been watching a TV show about very experienced divers who explore old WW II sunken ship wrecks and document them before they eventually waste away into nothing.

I know there are some remarkable divers here like Rhoody, and a few others. Have any of you ever discovered any WW II wrecks while diving around the Philippines? Or maybe a shot down plane or something similar?

Since my dad was in the War in the Phil., I have always had a natural curiosity about these relics.

All the best,
2 blackbelts

 

Hello 2BB,

I was on one exploration trip, and the expierience by itself was a good thrill,
cruising and searching an area, watching fathometer readings, dropping shotlines, getting ready, descending into the unknown with no idea what to find...
But sadly we found some bits and pieces, but no new wrecks (can a wreck be new?). As this trip was very expensive for my standard, it was the only up to now.
But I love wreck-diving and in Subic Bay and Coron are still so many things to explore for me that I have to stick to that for now. The coastguards try to take good care that artifacts don"t disappear from the known wrecks. If I would have a bit more time and money I would organise some people to go to different places, to talkt to the local old fishermen. I am pretty sure they know plenty of interesting things what we long-noses never will find out with our internet-and book knowledge. I still have hopefully some years in my life, maybe someday I'll be able to do so...

cheers

Rhoody

 

There is a lot of existing stories(also very lokally).
Know some of them. But probably most of them is out of ordinary diving range depths.As we know, a lot of deep water around.

 

I dove on the USS New York off of Cubi the first month the Navy allowed divers back down on it in 85.

People caught "brass fever", should of seen the speaker tubes and battle lanterns people were pulling off that hulk. Everyone was taking their salvaged souvenirs out into Olongapo and having it polished and mounted.

We used the sonar in our submarine to locate and check out all the wrecks accessible in Subic Bay. Heres our sub....



We found lots of cool stuff.

 

How about stories of galleon and WW 2 PT gunboat wrecks in Tanon Strait? I read some history books of it back in college? ANy facts to it?

 

A lot of wrecks in the Leyte Gulf where heavy sea battles took place. But maybe the water depth is too deep and choppy surface all the time.

 

Go to the Google community and you'll find a download for worlds visible shipwrecks. If you do that you'll have an easy directory of divable wrecks around the islands, theres a bunch.

The Phil Coast Guard is pretty strict, but if you ever hear of them allowing a dive expedition around Corregidor, than check into it. We were looking for the crates of silver pesos that they dumped during the Jap advance on Manila, didn't find em though.

But the bottom there off of Corregidor is just littered with all kinds of war junk.

 

Yeah many believed its where the Japanese dumped many of the asian treasures carted from the occupied countries and hauled to the Phils. When the end days were nearing, they could have just thrown them overboard thinking they can find them later on.

 

Supposedly 2 Japanese gunboats were caught in the open by American AC off the Southern tip of Cebu island. I've referenced this through 2 sources but I've never heard of anyone knowing where these wrecks may lie, but it would most likely be a deep dive on a cherry wreck, massive swag payoff.

I heard theres one of the old inter island boats off of Sipalay on the other side of the island. Somebody told me there's still gas masks, but everything else of interest is gone-gone.