Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon 2025

[Bullshark]

Merry Christmas to all the WITP warriors out there. A special thanks to all the regular posters who take the time to explain game mechanics, no matter how obscure. So for all you living history fans and WITP fans this is my Christmas gift to you.

A couple of years into retirement and no close family so I thought I would spend the holidays under the Coco tree's for the first time. Being a diver I was able to go to all the ships attached. I also did a couple of land tours.

The attached book is very detailed and tells you as much as people actually know about Operation Hailstone.

[RangerJoe]

Merry Christmas!

I am glad that you are able to enjoy your retirement.

[Bullshark]

General Observations:

It is so cool to be a WITP grognard and then see how accurate a simulation it is. These ships range from 2k cargo ships to 5.9kton AP, 6.8kt AK to 10kt AO. There is one APD Fumitzuki and sub I 169.

The steel on these ships is probably 1/2" so these ships are still very strong and will be here for a while longer. The building codes for these ships must have had a future war in mind. A lot of ships here already took a sub torpedo or two and made it here. The ships are 4 or 5 hold cargo ships and usually only one or two holds have anything in them and in no real quantity, fairly sparse. So they were mostly off loaded or moving to a smaller island here to offload.

Contents Only once, each ship had different cargo: Empty fuel drums, 14" battleship shells, several zero's, plane parts, cement bags, 47mm AT guns, trucks, 7 ton tank, sub tender had sub periscopes and a dozen torps.

I have no idea if the Japanese salvaged alot or after the war. Here is a gun emplacement on Weno. It faces the Intl AP.
No one know anything about this but it looks like a Naval Gun (No gun carriage) 6 or 8" on a pedestal mount.
My guess is it was taken off a ship (A few AMC went down here). I don't think it was test fired because the cave walls show no damage. 4' from the back of the weapon to the wall and ceiling.

This other picture is the Imperial HQ for the "Combined Fleet" during the war and then today from the rooftop. It is now a
children's religious school. The only school with blastproof doors for windows. It took one bomb on the roof doing little damage.
The Japanese put eaves that stick out from the building, a little beyond the doors. The Germans never did this. The walls are 6 - 8" thick.

[Bullshark]

Weno Gun Emplacement

They filled drums with concrete as protection in the front of the cave. The cave exits about 50 yards away on the other side of the hill. No evidence of use, no cables or metal hooks inside. But the wind really blows through so not an uncomfortable place to shelter.

The Kiyozumi Maru was an AMC with 8 x 14 or 15 cm guns. In late 43 they took the guns off to convert to a freighter. This might be one of them or at least same size. She then was sunk in Hailstone.

[Bullshark]

ETTEN ISLAND

This was a big runway at 3,400 feet. You would not even know it anymore, completely overgrown. These are the control towers, inland near the power station on google maps. Damaged in the war and completely overgrown. The guide says this way and I am simply looking at all the exposed rebar and chunks of loose concrete.

This was an early target of hailstone and some of the bombing caused water to make the taxiways unusable. These are volcanic islands and all the flat land is at sea level. The seawall around Etten is intact. Stacked volcanic rock, with no concrete, still holding up well. There is absolutely no runway to be found. I found alot of loose asphalt in whats now jungle, three deep in coconut shells and twisted roots everywhere.

You can dive a zero, Emily and the last remaining Betty in the world near the end of this runway. All pretty shallow. The Betty is in good shape, that aluminum seems to discourage coral growth. There were so many rivets on the Betty all slightly depressed below the wing surface.

[homer82]

What a rare opportunity, congratulations! Great photos too. Keep 'em coming.

[zebrazwo]

Thanks for sharing!

[Bullshark]

Etten Island 2

This is the Island today facing East. The Japs built a seawall around the runway that is still there. A lot of work that is still
standing. It was this isl that bombs took out the taxiways because of ground water flooding they could never repair. The Japanese did not really start serious construction here until Nov '41. I think they "completed" this runway in the fall of '43.

This was one of five all built during the war. Only the Intl AP still exists. A big Seaplane base and comm/radar buildings all around and they build several hundred buildings on the central islands. It was a serious naval and aviation repair and service facility. Mostly all built during the war and with slave labor, local and Korean. They even pushed 2k convicts from the Tokyo jail to build runways.

If you go to Google Maps and click on some of the icons you will see much better pictures. I regret not having a dive camera, but the net has a lot of good pictures and stories about every ship I dove. The gaping torpedo holes are easy swim throughs and to swim around and in a 450' ship with 40' visibility at 90 - 120' is a thrill for about 20 min. Tech divers get an hour and a half to two hour dive. But I get a second dive and another 20 min.

Most of the ships went down in a 10 mile radius. 'The Combined Fleet Anchorage and 4th Fleet Anchorage.
Those HQ stir the blood of every JFB!! The 26th Air Flotilla ended the war here I believe, but it seems a few other Air Flotilla spent some time here. Rabaul is 650 miles from here and there were Mavis raids on Rabaul from here in Jan '42.

[Bullshark]

4TH Fleet Seaplane Base

South Corner of Weno Island. Blue Lagoon Resort is the Google Search. I am pretty sure this is the seaplane base.
They built a 240' concrete (with volcanic stone fill) ramp to pull the sea planes out. The pic is facing west so it was an E - W runway. There were 50 to 100 small buildings around but only a few remain that could be inhabited after the war.
Then they worked on the now Int'l runway on Weno.

This Bunker is next to the runway facing W. It was probably just back from the waters edge when built. There are two others in bad shape nearby, also falling into the sea.

All these islands have some good hills for tunnelling, and lots of fill for the concrete. Larger volcsnic stones went into the sea walls.,Good Long Distance Comm, Radar and AA locations. There were a few 12 cm around. Alot of US planes came back with holes and not easy for the attackers in Hailstone. But being here you see how spread out everything was, 5 AF, 2 seaplane bases, with small boat docks, on 4 islands and a few small harbors as well.

[Bullshark]

4th Fleet Sea Plane Ramp

The pic faces W. The trade winds are from the NE so it's perfect to pull the planes onto land. They built a side ramp into the water facing south at the end of this runway, probably to launch planes. You can actually see it on Google Maps, with a wrecked LCT in the water. It was refurbished and probably still in use until 10 years ago or so.
On Google Maps the building next to Deep Down Rest. is Jap built with a dock behind it, now overgrown with mangroves.
All the buildings around it as well as the small dock are probably part of the military complex and Japanese concrete.

That's everything I have because there just is not much more to get to as a tourist. I am sure there are big guns, a few tunnels and bunkers in the hills on this island of Weno.

[RangerJoe]

Thank you for sharing all of these pictures and descriptions.

[SuluSea]

Awesome shots, thanks for taking the time to share them and the information on the pictures.

[cirrius06]

Thank you for these beautiful pictures and the stories that go with them.
Enjoy your retirement!

[Bullshark]

4th Fleet Seaplane Base
Weno Island

I found this BW photo and took a picture of it. There is no description and no one can tell me about it. I found an
old timer who gave me some info. This is 'Blue Lagoon Resort' on google maps.

This seaplane base was the first real construction in Truk begun in the fall of '41. You can see a few bomb craters.
The pic faces West so the Mavis would be pulled up from that direction. None of this can be seen today because when they built the resort they covered the runways with 6" of fill. In '43 they extended this runway to the east for fighters.

The trade winds blow steady from the NE so planes would come in from the west and then launch from the near ramp
south into the water and take off into the wind. You can see that this was built for 4 engine sea planes.
The book I mention above is 500 pages but the first 200 are mostly about OP Hailstone. Very detailed down to individual
flights from the different carriers and the ordinance used and how they chose targets.

[btd64]

Thank you for posting all of pictures and information....GP

[Bullshark]

Bunker 2

This bunker sits on the N side of the runway. Apparently these bunkers are sinking into the ground as much as shore erosion damage. Simple concrete construction laid onto steel girders for a roof. Maybe 15' wide. Small slits for an MG.

I guess during the war this would get the Tarawa reinforcement of coconut logs on top and covered by sand.

[Zovs]

Congrats on your retirement!

Thanks for the photo's and details behind them for those of us who may never travel to the pacific world!

Again thanks for sharing very cool to see the colors of the pacific.

[Orm]

Thank you for sharing.

[Bullshark]

Thanks for a dose of reality. Lat year I started collecting my wife's SS (22 years of marriage and she had steady work) and took a trip of a lifetime: Egypt. To see what the Pharoh's built is truly breathtaking. To do it on a river cruise with
an Egyptologist on ship was epic. That's when I said everyone should be this lucky at age 65. Good Health and
a few extra paychecks in the bank. Lots of credit at low interest. Lastly Age and wisdom will then get you anywhere in the world.

Do it LARGE on the right extra's. Egyptologist was priceless. I am only going to Egypt once.


When you can't do it large you stay on the SS Thorfinn )

https://thorfinn.net/

[Bullshark]

SS Thorfinn

All the boilers have been superseded by a diesel and solar electric system. I put those boiler instructions for all the naval techs out there. It's a Steam Reciprocating engine and those are the connecting rods to the propeller shaft below. The piston is above. Again disconnected, this is a stationary boat. Small boats get you to all the dive sites in 20 min.

This ship was built in the 50's in Norway to hunt whales. It weighs 2k tons so very stable. Big watertight doors you have to step over. Lance, the Canadian owner converted it to a tug, when he bought it in the 70s. Worked around Vancouver for a while. Then in the 80's he converted it to a floating dive boat. This has been his house, and business ever since. These pics are from the bottom of the ship that has a 16' draft. Super neat and clean. That's the man, doing it all in his 80's.
Solar meets around 80% of his power. Depending on A/C use of guests.