By JH ( April 25, 2010 at 10:13 am) · Filed under Eastern Caroline Islands, B-17 bomber wreck underwater, kapingamarangi atoll, Polynesia, RAAF bomber discovered, RAAF Hudson bomber underwater, royal australian air force
The remains of a bomber where there was a Japaese seaplane base during WWII. There is doubt as the the origin of this aircraft. Originally believed to be a USAF B-17 that was brought down by ground fire.
The other possibility is it is an Australian RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) Hudson bomber missing from Rabaul, New Guinea.
“No. 24 Squadron had four Hudsons and 12 Wirraways in Rabaul. In January 1942 the Hudson’s and the Catalina’s were engaged in long range reconnaissance of Kapingamarangi and Truk.
On 20 January 1942 Japanese carriers launched 100 bombers and fighters to attack Rabaul. Wing Commander J. Lerew CO of No.24 Squadron had four Hudsons and 11 Wirraways to oppose this Japanese force. (The Wirraways were virtually training aircraft and no match against the Japanese aircraft). After the raid they were left with one Hudson and one Wirraway.
The Japanese invaded the next day outnumbering the Australian defenders by five to one.
Commanding HQ in Melbourne ordered the Australians to defend Rabaul.
The return message sent to Melbourne was in Latin “Nos morituri te salutamus”, which is taken to mean “We who are about to die salute” – term used by the gladiators to spectators at the Colosseum in Rome about 2000 years earlier”.
Text W.J. Gibbs
Permalink
By JH ( April 24, 2010 at 10:28 am) · Filed under Underwater models, atlantis, free diving, luc besson, marina kazankova, the big blue
Marina Kazankova is a Russian movie star and ‘champion free diver’ who also races sports cars. We hope she will visit us in Australia one day?
An Italian TV station has filmed her underwater, some clips are on You Tube.
Her website says she is a ‘champion deep free diver’. There is no doubt she is a champ at holding breath.
Australian girls were ‘held back’ – none encouraged to try deep free diving in the 1970′s and eighties. Why? It’s a question we can now ask ourselves. There was no reason except the guys just didn’t think about it and there was no promotion for it to happen.
An example of how promotion works is the Luc Besson movie The Big Blue which sparked greater interest in extreme breath holding underwater.
(Another fine film by the same film maker is Atlantis. Fabulous underwater scenes yet the film failed miserably in cinemas).
Permalink
By JH ( April 22, 2010 at 12:01 pm) · Filed under Free divers and Spear fishermen, australian spear fishing champions, ben cropp, brown spotted cod, coral trout, John Harding, nor west island, riversong, ron taylor, spearfishing 1963, sykes reef, vic ley, wally muller, world spear fishing champion 1965
Permalink
By JH ( April 21, 2010 at 5:03 pm) · Filed under Solomon Islands, solomon islands dive, tridacna gigas, uepi island
Same diver, different clam – typical size on GBR
Permalink
