Until now, only one of the seven ships that went down in the June 1942 air and sea battle - five Japanese vessels and two American - had been located. "You see the damage these things took, and it's humbling to watch some of the video of these vessels because they're war graves." But when you see these wrecks on the bottom of the ocean and everything, you kind of get a feel for what the real price is for war," said Frank Thompson, a historian with the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C., who is onboard the Petrel. "We read about the battles, we know what happened. The find comes after the discovery of another Japanese carrier, the Kaga, last week. "She's sitting upright on her keel, we can see the bow, we can see the stern clearly, you can see some of the gun emplacements on there, you can see that some of the flight deck is also torn up and missing so you can actually look right into where the flight deck would be," Kraft said. The vessel is sitting among a pile of debris and the ground around the warship was clearly disturbed by the impact of it hitting the seafloor. "I'm sure of what we're seeing here, the dimensions that we're able to derive from this image (are) conclusive," Kraft said. The first scan used low-resolution sonar, so the crew sent their AUV back to get higher-quality images. The vehicle had been out overnight collecting data, and the image of a warship appeared in the first set of readings Sunday morning. The researchers used an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, equipped with sonar to find the ship. The Akagi was found in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument resting in nearly 18,000 feet (5,490 meters) of water more than 1,300 miles (2,090 kilometers) northwest of Pearl Harbor. Vulcan Inc.'s director of undersea operations Rob Kraft and Naval History and Heritage Command historian Frank Thompson reviewed high frequency sonar images of the warship Sunday and said that its dimensions and location mean it must be the carrier Akagi. ![]() We've been planning to locate the Lexington for about six months and it came together nicely," Kraft said in a statement.MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (AP) - A crew of deep-sea explorers and historians looking for lost World War II warships have found a second Japanese aircraft carrier that went down in the historic Battle of Midway. "Based on geography, time of year and other factors, I work with Paul Allen to determine what missions to pursue. "Lexington was on our priority list because she was one of the capital ships that was lost during WWII," said Robert Kraft, director of subsea operations for Allen. The search team said that 11 planes had been found including Douglas TBD-1 Devastators, Douglas SBD-3 Dauntlesses and Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats. The USS Lexington was carrying 35 aircraft when it went down. "We honor the valor and sacrifice of the 'Lady Lex's' Sailors - and all those Americans who fought in World War II - by continuing to secure the freedoms they won for all of us," he said. "As the son of a survivor of the USS Lexington, I offer my congratulations to Paul Allen and the expedition crew of Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel for locating the 'Lady Lex,' sunk nearly 76 years ago at the Battle of Coral Sea," Harris said in a statement. More than 200 members of the crew died in the battle but most were rescued by other US vessels before the Lexington sank.Īdmiral Harry Harris, who heads up the US military's Pacific Command (PACOM) - and whose father was one of the sailors evacuated - paid tribute to the successful research effort. The badly damaged Lexington, nicknamed "Lady Lex," was deliberately sunk by another US warship at the conclusion of the battle. ![]() The USS Lexington and another US aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown, fought against three Japanese aircraft carriers from May 4-8, 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first ever between carriers. The search team also released pictures and video of parts of the ship, including a name-plate, and anti-aircraft guns covered in decades of slime. On one aircraft, an emblem of the cartoon character Felix the Cat can be seen along with four miniature Japanese flags presumably depicting "kills." ![]() Remarkably preserved aircraft could be seen on the seabed bearing the five-pointed star insignia of the US Army Air Forces on their wings and fuselage.
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